Summer Camp USA

Vicky, 21, from Exeter spent a summer working as a horseriding instructor on Summer Camp USA. She enjoyed it so much that she's heading back next summer. This is why:

I wanted to work on a summer camp after I finished my A levels, but I looked too late, and then ended up going to South Africa instead on my gap year. So in my first year of university I decided I was definitely going this summer, and applied through BUNAC's Summer Camp USA programme. I wanted to teach horse riding, as I have ridden since I was three, and have two horses.
I was a bit worried as I didn't have any qualifications for teaching riding, just experience. I had worked at a stud, come riding school, handling stallions and show ponies, and have looked after my own horses and ponies for years. As it turned out, experience was all I needed. Although a teaching qualification may have helped, I didn't actually need it. I also had experience with children, as I had au paired for two families in my gap year, one of which owned a Shetland Stud - perfect!
I got placed very late, on a horsemanship camp in New Hampshire, and accepted straight away. I was off to America!
My visa granted, I arrived in New York, and stayed in a hostel with other BUNACers who had been on my flight. The next day I braved the underground (with my rucksack, which seemed to be the same size and weight as me) and ended up getting stuck on a few turn stalls trying to get in and out! I also had my riding hat attached to my bag, so I must have looked so odd! I eventually arrived at camp on the Sunday evening, a week or so after most of the other counsellors. That evening my co-counsellor showed me some of the horses, nearly all of which went over my head as they have about 75 horses, a lot of which are Morgans and are related, so are difficult to tell apart in the day, let alone at night! Most of the counsellors had arrived the week before, whilst ‘mini camp' was going on. I arrived the day ‘big camp' had started, and to make things worse my co-counsellor had Monday as her day off, so I was completely thrown in at the deep end!
I was up bright and early at 6.20am the next day, woke the kids up, and hayed the horses. We fed the horses at 7am, and had breakfast ourselves at 8am. Our first riding period was at 9am, and the second at 11.30am. During riding periods the counsellors could be teaching in one of the four rings, which ranged from complete beginners who had never even sat on a horse, up to advanced riders. The teaching was quite varied so there was no chance of us getting bored easily. You could end up teaching beginners first period and then advanced the second period, so you had to be flexible and be able to switch between the level of skills and the ages of the children. We didn't do jumping, so all the lessons were flat work, but in my lessons there were quite a lot of musical buckets (the music provided by me singing...) and pony games.
The counsellors also took out trails, either leading or backing, which meant we got a lot of riding in, normally at least once a day. My favourite thing was leading a trail, as it meant you got to explore the beautiful New Hampshire woodland surrounding the camp. I went on so many trails where I let the horse I was riding decide which way to turn, the children called them my "exploring trails" after one of them asked me where we were once, to which I replied "I have no idea!" After that whenever I asked where they wanted to go on trail the answer was inevitably "can we go on one of your exploring trails please!?" The only other activity for first and second period was work duty, this consisted of mucking out the stalls in the barn, cleaning the shower house, outhouse, or bathrooms, or something else that needed doing that day.
Lunch was at 1pm, by which point it seemed like a long time since breakfast! After lunch we had a rest period for 45 minutes(ish). At 1.45 the girls had swimming lessons, and then free swim and activities in the afternoon, which meant the counsellors could be teaching swim lessons, life guarding, shuttling the girls up and down to the lake, or running activities (such as arts and crafts, drama games, or camp songs) back at camp. The horses were fed again at 5pm, and then we had our own dinner at 6pm, evening activities were from 7pm to 8pm, (normally a camp-wide game, of predators and prey, or ships and sailors) then canteen for snacks, and lights out around 9.30pm. I am not entirely sure how many nights the lights went out at 9.30pm, but it was not many and, believe me, you want as much sleep as you can get!
A session was two weeks at my camp, but a lot of children stayed longer than that. Every two weeks, we would have a canoe trip down the Connecticut River, climb the local mountain Mt Manadnock, and either go to the cinema or bowling.
Working at camp is not a holiday, it was the most tiring, stressful, amazing experience I have ever had. I would have a laughing fit at least once a day on camp, and frequently cried with laughter. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the summer....and I cannot wait to do it all over again!
After camp finished there was no time for rest, I went straight into travelling with three other girls from camp. We made our way down the east coast, and managed to do seven states in two and a half weeks, so it was hardly relaxing, but was such fun, and a really nice to end such an amazing summer with some of the people I had shared it with.
I don't know if I could pick one favourite thing from camp, its more of a general camp feeling, because my camp was quite small you become part of a huge family really quickly. I now find it odd to sleep in a room that is quiet, without there being ten girls, and other counsellors there with me. There is an endless list of things I miss; Bella, (my favourite horse at camp), Friday night being ice-cream sundae night, (meaning sugar-high wide awake girls who were meant to be going to bed!) talent shows, and waking up early and seeing ten sleepy, but excited faces who want to see the horses before anything else (which generally meant in their pyjamas!). Most of all I miss having my huge camp family around me all the time. I cannot wait until this summer to do it all over again!

Find out more about Summer Camp USA with BUNAC