CornerStone Acres Stables

Your camper(s) do a lot of riding through their week at CornerStone Acres! Like all activities, participants only get better with more time and practice!

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We are an all-riding, small group horse camp! We do not run shifts of large numbers of riders across the same horse while others wait turns or complete craft activities. The average riding is 3 to 3 1/2 hours each day! We match up each camper by personality and ability to "their own horse" for the camp week and are generally "spot on." We want each rider to become a partner with their horse as the camp week progresses! A smaller group camp means each camper gets more attention and more concentrated instruction. Every rider and all staff have and ride their own horse and we all ride together for the entire camp time. Because we do not ride in shifts we are limited by the number of horses we have for the number of campers we can accommodate; therefore, we encourage you to reserve your camp week and register your rider(s) early!!

 

Background information on the camp staff and horses:
 

The camp programs are put together and led by me, Gerry Eaton. My background is in child development, with an Elementary Education Teaching Degree and Certification from Eastern Michigan University in 1996. I have owned, ridden, bred, raised, trained, driven, and shown eight different breeds of horses over fifty years of my life. I ride hunt seat, dressage, western, trail, gymkhana (barrel racing, etc.,) bareback, and have jumped. I am an adult volunteer for the Michigan Interscholastic Horse Association: currently Head Coach for Washtenaw Technical Middle College (WTMC) Equestrian Team since 2013; assisted with the Dundee Equestrian team 2010-2011; Assistant Coach with the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Equestrian Team, 2002-2010 and the Saline Equestrian Team, Head Coach from 1996-2002; police background checked, CPR and First Aid certified. I have been a member of Spur of The Moment Horse club 1990-2012: Treasurer and open horse show organizer 1995-2007; a 4-H horse club leader 1990-2001, and 2011-2016. I have never outgrown my passion for horses and I love teaching! Riding lessons and summer camps are a way for me to combine both enthusiasms in the same activity, and it shows in the affection and devotion I receive from my horses and my riders.

Others in the pool of instructors have also been riding most of their lives in different disciplines and affiliated with the same horse organizations as we are or have been. We personally know and select instructors based on having watched their riding, social interaction, and horse handling for years. ~~We can accommodate all abilities and all ages all weeks because each instructor is assigned two to three riders of similar riding ability to monitor and instruct. No camp rider receives minimal attention or gets overlooked because they are in a crowd of riders with minimal supervision.~~

Our camp horses are multiple breeds and horses we regularly teach riding lessons on. Our familiarity with multiple riding disciplines, breeds, and the horses we use, allows us to evaluate the best horse, for the best seat, for each child’s ability or limitations. Our horses are push-button horses only if the rider knows the right buttons to push and how to push them! Therefore, we truly teach our riders how to ride and not just how to sit on the seat of a moving horse. We make riding fun, interesting, and challenging because no one does a good job at anything they are made miserable doing! At our camps riders learn to ride, ride safely, and ride to their full potential! There is no better motivator than fun!

 

 

Camp Schedule and Objectives:

Focus on safety, our camp experience includes:
•    Safety around and with horses: what to do and not to do
•    Correct body and arm position to safely lead a horse from the pasture or stall
•    Learning your horse’s name, breed, and color
•    Proper brushing and grooming; breeds of horses, colors, and markings
•    Tacking up a horse: what saddle and bridle we use for which discipline: checking equipment for safe use

       condition
•    Properly mounting and dismounting a horse safely
•    Proper equitation: sit straight, heels down, and elbows in
•    Cueing the horse: squeezing versus kicking (what you get from how you ask)
•    Riding in the indoor arena, the outdoor arena, around the track, the trail around the property (loping up short and long hills,) riding down the road as a group and through or along the edge of unplanted fields to 85 acres of wooded trails, and more!
•    There is a brief mid-camp time snack; then MORE ride, ride, riding!
•    When and if it gets hot enough, we enjoy squirt gun fights and riding horses through the sprinklers!
•    Lots of horse experience stories and laughter shared by the camp staff as we ride along every day!


The camp schedule is provided as a guideline only for learning objectives and is subject to change depending on each rider’s overall prior experience, knowledge, learning interest, and ability. Ride time, depending on the weather as well as riders’ prior experience and ability will include (if appropriate) traveling at all three gaits (walking, trot/jog, and canter/loping;) riding in the indoor arena (learning to practice proper etiquette in the show arena,) riding at a walk or trot both ways of the arena, group riding on our mowed nature trail or road riding experience (discuss and learn safe riding outside of an enclosed arena and why it is important to be aware of your surroundings whether you are on a horse, on a bike, in a car, or walking!) and  completing an arranged trail pattern with obstacles, and riding in the outdoor arena.

The first or second day of camp we take pictures of each rider on or with their horse for them to put in a handcrafted frame at the end of the week. That is our only craft activity since all of our campers just want to ride and ride a lot (so our focus is on wearing out the seat of their pants on horseback.) Therefore, any horse activities when not on horseback are limited or non-existent (maybe in case of rain... but maybe not...!) Learning activity opportunities include discussing, handling, and learning about grain, hay, bedding, basic horse health care, and maybe hands-on stall cleaning and maintenance.

Water and a light, mid-camp time snack of Cheez-Its and lemonade is provided by the stables. If your child chooses to bring their own snack or additional food, please avoid snacks with high sugar content, red dye, peanuts, or other foodstuffs known to be common allergens.

Riders may arrive no earlier than 20 minutes prior to camp start and should be picked up promptly at the end of camp time unless prior arrangements have been made. Additional time will be charged. Riders are not released to any person who the stables has not been given express permission in writing from a custodial parent to do so. 

 

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…//..>>  giddy-UP!!