PC Camp- share your memories :D

L

Lolo

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 August 2008
Messages
10,267
Visit site
As title. I'm getting nice and excited for this year (sarcasm? Nooo... I'm a stable manager so it gets a bit mad at times!) and I was wondering what your top memories were.

Also, what top tips would you give to a camp first timer?
 
That sucks, because you would have fitted right in with the craziness :P My sister was a dedicated camper, and went every year bar one from when she was 6 til when she was 17 :O

When did you start riding?
 
We might have had a major discussion at camp thats given the yellow pony a bit of a reputation :cool::o. We also had a great time though and he came home much less babyish than he went.

Tips for a first timer have fun and have every thing labeled and keep stuff together with the other stuff you need at the same time.
 
I was 11, got J when I was 12, never had transport and didn't livery near a PC or with anyone else my age to get lifts with. Woe is me and all that :p

I'd have loved it with the likes of you and Al, or dafthoss etc, but the kids I knew at school who were in PC were awful and put me right off anyway :o

(speak of the devil, dafthoss appears while I type that :rolleyes:)
 
You have to get the right PC as well. First branch I was in was nowhere near as much fun as the one Al grew up with. The kids in this branch are much more normal!
 
Take twice as much clothing and towels as you are told you will need.

Take more bedding (for yourself) than you think you will need.

Take spares - stirrup leathers, halters, leadlines, reins, girths - if anything is going to break it will break at Camp - Sods Law:)

Label absolutely everything, down to, and including, your knickers.

Batteries, if you are going to be camping, as opposed to having the luxury of electricity, take loads of batteries for torches etc.

Invest in a decent camp bed if you have to bring your own, blow up mattresses suck and always go down, foldy sun bed jobs are just plain uncomfortable, and those foam pads - forget them, no good to man nor beast unless you have about 6 of them on top of each other.

Ladies take all the necessary sanitary products, because, Sods law again, whether you anticipate needing them or not, you always come on at the most inconvenient time possible. Also any painkillers you customarily use too, your DC will have a 'medicine cabinet' but they have to be careful what they dole out to who.

I went to AVH camp from 9 - 17, and then went back for 3 years as an Instructor after I qualified, and then supervised/Instructed again in Wales for several years when my daughter was in PC. Huge fun. Actually being an Instructor was even more fun...

Oh, and lastly, please remember that most of the adults are giving up their time voluntarily and are unpaid, we really DO appreciate a little Thankyou at the end of camp, and despite what you may think, we really DO want you all to enjoy yourselves.

Enjoy :)

Memories?

Most of them involved copious amounts of alcohol.

One year the East Devon were camping at Bicton at the same time as we were, after a Hunting talk someone drove through their camp blowing a horn, apparently caused absolute mayhem. I may have been instructing then ...hmmm.

Our wonderful DC belting across Exmoor, sidesaddle on her beautiful little white arab mare, our DC was brilliant, I loved her. We were sleeping in an old tin roofed cow byre that year, just as we had scared ourselves silly with all the usual ghosty tales the Instructors ran along the shed banging the roof with a stick. Buggers! :D

Oh, and then there was the year that the Scouts and Guides were camping in a field down the lane from us and mysteriously, in the dead of night, all the ropes on the tents came undone! :eek:
That was also the year we all slept in a huge haybarn with half a haystack still in there, the year that Steven Kings "The Rats" was published, I remember some of the girls reading it out aloud and scaring the juniors witless. tut tut. :)
 
Last edited:
Two memories stand out - whether you would call them 'top memories' is another matter. Both with the South Northumberland .

Getting really REALLY bad food poisoning, and being in bed for a fortnight afterwards.

Taking a 16.2 disillusioned showjumper which my father was rehabilitiating for someone to PC camp. We won the jumping (as so we should have). We won the bending race and I was so proud of him as he was quite a long horse.

Then came the game where you gallop to a trestle table, get off, eat a sticky bun and gulp a glass of lemonade, get back on and gallop back to the finish. I knew in the last 3-4 strides that The Rocket wasn't going to stop. He pricked his ears and with consummate ease flew not only the table but went over the shoulder of the DC, who was standing behind said table to ensure fair play! Do you know, we were disqualified. Sooooo mean!
 
Doing grid work chase me charlie - carrying a teddy bear sticks in my mind! The jumps got bigger with each round, but we had to relay the teddy bear... whizz down the jumps, turn quick, gallop back to the start hand over the teddy (if it made it down the jumps!!) wait your go and do it again. I remember laughing with fear at size of the jumps, but petrified I'd drop teddy!! There were about 6 jumps in said grid, the last of which I'm sure wouldn't have been out of place at the Hickstead Derby (may have been a minor exaggeration, but you get the idea!)
I don't think we dropped teddy as I remember instructor praising us as she didn't have to wash him!?

Falling off into a ditch also sticks in my mind!
Doing evening entertainment obstical course... tug of war and swimming in the DISGUSTING pond - having to get hosed off after...not to mention 'treasure hunt', which included having to find a black bra and a condom!!? :eek:
Panicking at inspection - was the tack/horse and yard area clean enough!??
Tent inspection!! OMG :eek:
Above all, I remember how sad I was when it was all over... :(

I loved it so much, I did junior camp 3 times, senior camp 7 times, then went back as stable manager followed by going back as an instructor twice. Still holds fond memories.
 
We didn't have PC camp in America, but the 4-H clubs ran a horse camp that I attended three years. The first year I took a Belgian draft cross mare which I had been riding a very long time, but had never really left her own home apart from the occasional hack out up the road to my house. She was fine in the stable, but in the first lesson she took off and threw me. The next day it was getting rather warm, and she decided to roll. I had no idea what was going on with her until those front legs went down, and then she had my leg under her. Not fun! The woman who got her up said she was worried the horse would finish her roll and break the saddle... I was more worried about her breaking my leg, honestly! She did manage to settle down for the rest of the camp, though. I decided right quick that she would not be my first choice for the following year, however!

The second time I took an American Saddlebred who I had also known a long time, but that year was the first he had been back in work for some time, and he wasn't thrilled with horse camp. He managed to let himself out of his stall, which I did not notice until I heard people shouting as I was fetching him some water. I turned around and there he was, staring at me. I told him he was being very clingy, and politely requested he remain in his stall! Three stalls had to be secured better, not just his, so that made me feel a little better! During the county fair the stalls were used for much shorter livestock who couldn't reach the latch as well as the horses could. He also decided I would NOT be participating in lessons, and tried to cow kick me several times when I tried to mount up. He was good in the ring after he got it into his head that I was riding him, and that was that! At the show at the end of camp, he went a bit peculiar, though. I had gotten up on him to get ready to go into our class, and he spun around on the spot and ran for it! He made it up the path toward the barn and was heading for a playing field when I finally got his head turned enough to force him into circles, which I made smaller and smaller until he had no choice but to stop. Again, decided he would not be returning with me the following year pretty quickly!

The third time I took a wonderful Paint/Appaloosa cross who was an absolute gem the entire time, so third time lucky I guess! Though there were several people who were keen to find out what 'entertainment' I would be providing that year... hmm. Not that time!

Not the best of memories to pick from, I guess, but those were definitely the memories that stand out! :rolleyes:

As far as what to take... I would have to agree with those who said more than you think you will need, and labels, labels, labels.
 
I belonged to the Mid Surrey Drag PC and for several years we camped at Hickstead - until we ran riot (on foot) one night over the Derby course - jumping in the water and sliding down the bank. We were not invited back, unsurprisingly. We were total hooligans I'm afraid, and the older we got, the worse we were. We got a telling off from Douglas Bunn, which was really embarrassing at the time, especially for our DC!
Other camps I can remember were at Folkestone racecourse and Tweseldown.
Happy days.
 
vickyb said:
I belonged to the Mid Surrey Drag PC and for several years we camped at Hickstead - until we ran riot (on foot) one night over the Derby course - jumping in the water and sliding down the bank. We were not invited back, unsurprisingly. We were total hooligans I'm afraid, and the older we got, the worse we were. We got a telling off from Douglas Bunn, which was really embarrassing at the time, especially for our DC!
Other camps I can remember were at Folkestone racecourse and Tweseldown.
Happy days.
Click to expand...

That made me giggle- definitely not the stereotypical PC children then!
 
Never stayed at camp as wasn't done by my PC at the time but my memories particularly of junior camp are Extra Tail fly spray, lovely buns and orange juice brought at in the breaks - this was in the late 60s!

Have taught PC camp since - memory of that is a loose pony galloping off across Tweaseldown with me as instructor thinking "doh, what do I do now!"

Enjoy.
 
Never did PC as a kid, but have err 'Helped' at PC camp, and also helped organise our branches's senior PC camp very recently, which was 4 days of hard work, long days and fun! I dont dare print anything on here as for all I know our DC (very strict, old school - think hacking jackets and PC ties for rallies) may well be on here for all I know.

Of course Mini TX has done camp, both with me there and without and um, yes, there are some very interesting and funny memories there.
 
During games being told that we must walk one way, trot back and then CANTER the last bit... three of us passing the instructor at full pelt and crossing the entire field to end up joining somebody else's ride. Cue severe boll*cking on how we should've known better!

Moving a trailer friends were sleeping in across the field during the night, undoing tent pegs, hunting horn at 5am in the morning and all the usual banter...

Oh and then there was the year one girl really, really annoyed me so I threw her bean bag on top of her lorry. Only it wasn't her beanbag... and it wasn't her lorry either!
 
what was it if not a bean bag??

These are great, I got to go to a Pony Club Camp one year, borrowed a pony from a well know local dealer.
Not the greatest pony haha, jumped everything like a stag, so on the first day in the afternoon we went xc schooling and I scared the pants out of the instructors so much as this pony jumped everything 3ft higher ahahaha!!

Also remember a massive food/water fight.

And making a steps dance routine for the talent show.

and

Getting kicked by this pony in the stable, the instructor had to run in and scoop me off the floor thinking I was kicked in the head, it wasnt truely correct..... Dead leg! hahaha!!!

It was great fun, we also had a tour round the stud on the back of the tractor, and i remember this grey horse with a huge, and i mean huge tumour on the side of its head poor thing.

Oh and failing my ride and road safety, seems that pony is no good on the roads hahaha!!!
 
Picking the stable managers up and dunking them in a water trough.. they got us the next night in a 'nightlining' where we all had to be blindfolded, they led us into the yard and got us with the fire hoses! Buggers.

Ordering a pizza but having them come 100yds down the road, then having to be legged up onto the stable roof, shimmy over and down the other side to meet him.. try doing that with 10 pizzas! Eventually had decoy in place of 'OMG my horse is gone!' to which DC went running and we were able to get pizzas in...

Then last night all kids ran to the top of the hill. We barricaded them out and threw water bombs over the top, such fun!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top