The Zombies are out! And so are the kids. It’s officially summer folks. The ranch is crawling with little balls of energy. Luckily we have the perfect horses for these little rascals. Remember my earlier post about the zombies getting out? Since then, I’m pretty sure that they have escaped at least another three times. I once caught Big Sugar with her front feet on top of a gate trying to make her great escape. These old, gentile, slow moving souls are who we pair with the children. Watch out parents, the zombies may infect your kids with the horse bug! This week we had a little girl on a brown and white paint horse named Magic. She called him “Magical.” I would ask her about her horse and she would say, “Oh, I love Magical!” She painted a pottery version of Magical in the pottery barn and she wrote her horse’s name on her bandana that she made during arts and crafts. One morning, a wrangler was catching Magic and noticed that he wasn’t quite sound. He was limping a little bit. We decided that for his sake, we better put her on another horse. We were concerned that she would be upset that she couldn’t ride Magic, so we picked out another paint that looked fairly similar. His name is Wyatt. We saddled him up and put him in line with the other kid horses.
When the little girl came down to the barn she noticed right away, but not in the way that you would think. “Wow,” she said, “Magical’s tail changed color!” The wranglers tried not to laugh as we played along. She came up to Magic #2 and looked at the skin under his white patches of hair. She was being more thorough than I expected. He’s skin changed to brown, it was pink yesterday!”
“Wow, Magical must have magic powers,” I said to her. She was amazed. Absolutely thrilled by this. We do like to have fun around here. During our first week, we had a guest request a horse with spots. She was assigned to a chestnut, so we put dots on her horse with blue non-toxic paint. This is the same paint that we use with the kids when they get to paint a horse! This week it got a little messy as the kids smeared it all over their canvas of a horse as well as themselves. Their parents will find out when they get home and do laundry if the paint is truly water based!
I am happy to report that our first week of having kids on the ranch was a success. They kayaked, shot 22’s, went on horseback rides every morning, and they ate their hearts out. By Friday, they had turned into zombies themselves from all of the excitement of the week. This ranch is truly a place where kids can be kids and enjoy the fresh air. From the challenge course to the slip and slide, I don’t think these kids quit moving until their head touched the pillow. On a jeep ride back to the lodge, I asked the group of kids how much fun they were having on a scale from one to ten. A little four year old exclaimed, “One thousand!” We have some happy campers friends. The Kids Program wranglers are looking forward to a fun summer. We promise to turn your children into zombies before your stay ends.
Happy Trails,
~Briana
(KP Wrangler)