Fortunately, we also have some pretty good teachers, but nearly all of you have chosen Longacres summer horse camps for your riding vacation primarily because of how much riding time we offer. Our basic schedule offers five hours of riding opportunity daily, and you often will actually spend all five of those hours in the saddle. We ride from 10 until noon (part of the 11am group until 12:45), again from 3 to 5PM and again after dinner every week day. And we keep about "one and a half to two" horses for each summer horse camps student, so that under normal conditions there will always be a horse for everyone.

But there are times when someone may have to "sit out" a lesson. There are a hundred things that can go wrong and put some of the horses out of action for a few days. Horses pull muscles, throw horse shoes, step on sharp rocks, get saddle sores - you name it, and sometime during the summer, it will happen to one or more of our summer horse camps horses! Normally, we have enough extra horses to cover these losses, but sometimes not.

"A" and "B" Riders:

If we are short of horses for a lesson, we have an organized system for deciding whose turn it is to "sit-out". Every riding hour, half of you are assigned as "A" riders, and the other half as "B" riders. "A" riders always have priority - if someone has to sit out or have last choice on horses, it will be a "B" rider. Almost always, everyone gets to ride. Perhaps once every four or five lessons, someone is required to sit-out. Rarely, more than one person.

Voluntary Sit-Outs:

At least once a day I will see a lesson where one or more summer horse camps students have voluntarily decided not to ride. Five hours of riding a day is A LOT OF RIDING, especially when you first get to Longacres summer horse camps, and it is not uncommon for someone to simply be tired and want to take a break. As long as you are participating most of the time, we respect your decision if you ask to rest for an hour. Also, before an instructor formally asks a "B" rider to sit-out a lesson, they will ask if anyone would like to volunteer to sit-out. We also are doing more training of young horses every year, and some of you will be involved in ground work or other training certain hours.

"Tom, Can We go to the Mall?"

The most common reason for not getting in a full five hours of riding in a day, is when you summer horse camps students as a group ask Tom for permission to take the afternoon off and go to the Mall! We are a summer horse camps, and most of the time I expect you to work on your riding and take advantage of the opportunity that you are paying for here. But it is also your vacation, and we want you to have a good time. Once or twice a week, it is nice to take a break from summer horse camps and go into town. Usually everyone agrees that "it is time for a road trip". About the only time we have some disagreements is during the July 7th to 21st session. By then the full season students are getting a little stir-crazy, and eager to take occasional breaks. But the students here for only that two week session want to get in all the summer horse camps time they can. I try to balance those interests evenly.

I hope this article gives you newcomers a better idea of the time you will spend riding and how we ration that time. Almost never do we have anyone complain that they aren't getting enough riding time at Longacres summer horse camps.

- Tom

I'll tell you today a little about how we assign horses in summer horse camps lessons. Your first few days at Longacres summer horse camps we do a lot of swapping horses during lessons so that you'll get to know a number of suitable horses. We also post a chart on the wall of the barn where you can list your favorite horses. Often you will add to or change that list during the first four or five days of your session.

Horses for your lessons are assigned by one of the staff at the beginning of each day. The person doing the assignments is supposed to consider several things. First, they will check the schedule to see who is an "A" rider and who is a "B" in each lesson. They should also look at the list of favorites that each of you has posted in the summer horse camps barn. They will then do their best to assign one of your favorites or another of the most desirable horses to everyone who is an "A" rider each hour, with next choices going to "B" riders. This may sound a little complicated, and it is for the first few days of each session until the staff get to know you and the kind of horses you prefer.

In practice, the horse assignment process becomes very easy after the first week. We always have a few situations where two or three people have the SAME horse as their favorite, but most of our students find a favorite mount that is special only to them. Once that pattern sets up, my instructors will go out of their way to assign you your favorite horse several times a day. Because all the horses need breaks, you will also ride a variety of other horses during the day.

We also have certain summer horse camps lessons that are designated as "greenie" lessons, where we have everyone ride the least experienced horses and work on training them. Other lessons will be designated as "show horse" lessons where you will be assigned the horse you plan to ride in the next summer horse camps show.

You are ALWAYS welcome to tell the assistant instructors if there is a horse you would like to ride, but haven't yet. Generally I leave horse assignments to my assistants, but if you are never assigned a horse that you think you could safely ride, I am also very open to have you tell me personally. If I agree with you, I will mention it to the girls doing the assignments.

Summary: You will often ride your very favorite horse at Longacres summer horse camps, but not every hour. It is important for you to communicate and let all of us on the staff KNOW who you want to ride. (The line between communicating well and being a pest is a fine one!) Go out of your way to get to know all our horses - you may be pleasantly surprised at how well you get along with some horse that no one else particularly likes - then you will be able to ride him much more.

At Longacres summer horse camps we try to provide you with several things. First is the amount of riding, often five hours a day as explained above. We also offer you the chance to ride a variety of horses, including many that are real show horses, much more interesting than the average school horse you will ride at many stables. We also do our best to make sure that you are supervised by responsible assistant instructors and student-leaders during the day who have good judgement on what they can allow you to do with safety, while giving you an enjoyable time riding and learning.

But there is another very important factor in the equation that makes up the Longacres Summer horse camps program, and that is my personal participation in your instruction and the evaluation of your summer horse camps progress. I have been in the summer horse camps and horse and rider training business for many years, and our horses have been consistent winners at western New York shows during that time. One of the important benefits of coming to a small summer horse camps like Longacres is that in addition to your many hours practicing with assistant instructors, you will have direct personal attention from an experienced professional trainer.

I will get to know some of you very well during your time here. I pledge that I will pay attention to each of you and to be familiar with your riding progress and with what you should be practicing to improve.

Most days I will either teach one of your lessons personally or if I don't, I will either be video taping one of your lessons to discuss with you later or I will observe while one of the other instructors actually teaches the lesson. Either way, I will be very aware of your riding level, your progress, your strengths, and your weaknesses as a rider. I will discuss your riding regularly with the other summer horse camps assistant instructors, to be sure we all are doing the best we can to help you.

I will be happy to answer your questions about your riding during the day between lessons.

The barn manager and other instructors assign you horses in your daily lessons, but if you feel you are qualified to ride a horse that they do not let you ride, you are always welcome to speak with me about your request. I tell my summer horse camps assistants to be conservative and careful in letting you ride horses that are at the limit of your ability. They would not be doing their job if everyone always got to ride every horse in the barn that they requested, so I expect some of you to ask me for special permissions, and sometimes I will say yes. I pledge to hear you out if you have a special horse request.

Perhaps more important than anything else, I pledge to hold you to a high standard of horsemanship WHEN you ride with ME. I hope that some of you care enough about your riding to try to be your best all the time, but we recognize that Longacres is not only a summer horse camps, but your riding vacation, and you come here to have some fun with horses. When you are riding with assistant instructors or on trails, you will have numerous chances to ride more informally. In my lesson, you will pay close attention, both to what I am teaching you and to your horse and your equitation.

To give you an example from my lessons, I expect all my riders to be sitting up straight in the saddle with their legs on the horse and contact through both reins even while you are standing in line waiting your turn to ride a jump course. I am told that I have eyes in the back of my head! When you are lined up at the side of the ring waiting your turn, I want you to have your horse standing straight and square with the rest of the line, his nose even with the two horses on either side of you. Part of this is simply to keep you sharp and ready to perform well, but a big part is teaching you that a serious rider is "riding their horse even when they are standing still". A horse loses interest in and respect for a rider who is slouching and not paying close attention. You will be very aware of that when you ride with me.

High Standards in Return from me:

I expect a lot from you when you ride with me. I try to give you my best in return. I haul jumps all around the fields to set up interesting challenges for you. I don't get lazy very often and simply throw a single rail on a jump for you to go over - I set solid jumps with good ground lines. And I know my course design theory backward and forwards. If I tell you a line of two fences is set carefully for a five stride official horse show distance, you can bet that it will be darn close to 72 feet.

I also care about the appearance of our farm and the jumping arenas. You'll often see me on my trusty old Ford tractor or with a weed trimmer in hand right before an important jumping lesson, trimming around the jumps just so they will look pretty for your lesson that day. A horse and rider doing a fine job over a jump course is a beautiful sight, and that picture deserves to be framed with well painted and maintained jumps and a well trimmed arena. I try to provide you that at Longacres summer horse camps!

We have many thousands of dollars invested in professional video equipment at Longacres summer horse camps, and we take many hours of video of you riding during each session. We frequently meet at the main house after lunch or in the evening to review and comment on those videos. This video work and evaluation is another important personal contribution I make to your riding progress at Longacres.

I try hard to set a standard of excellence at Longacres summer horse camps, and to praise and reward those who work hard towards achieving that standard. I try to create an atmosphere where people try to do their best in my lessons even if they are a relatively inexperienced rider. And the better you are, the more I will expect of you! At the same time, I am realistic enough to know that this is supposed to be fun for you, and after your lesson with me, you will have many more relaxed riding opportunities. You'll also have some FUN with me! I love to include surprise gymkhana's and mounted games and contests as part of my lessons. And because I have the final responsibility for safety at Longacres, you will often have a chance to jump a little bigger in my lessons than the rest of the day. There are rewards for hard work.

Once last summer I was talking with a group of students about the day's lesson, where someone had been chastised for not paying attention. I said, "Yes, I'm kind of an old meanie."

One of the students responded, "You're strict, but you're not mean!" If you girls who are new to Longacres this year feel that way at the end of your stay with us, I will feel that I have done well.

Let me say first, that Longacres summer horse camps welcomes you either way! But it is important for us (and for you) to know what you really want to achieve in your riding.

I like to classify riders in three groups at our summer horse camps.

First are riders who enjoy being on a horse and riding, but really have no interest in learning technique or going on to any more advanced riding. I am glad to have girls with this attitude attend Longacres and take advantage of the many hours you get to ride here. But I would have to say that you are kind of wasting your money to pay to come to a place like Longacres if that is all you want to get out of horses. Still, if that is your goal, you are welcome here. We will of course teach you and especially make sure that you learn what you need to ride safely and have fun with horses. But we will be less demanding in the way we teach and evaluate you.

Second is the group that includes many students who come to Longacres. Students who love riding and who do want to polish their technique and learn to go on to more advanced riding and do some showing. Riders who are interested in learning, but who want to show mostly for the fun of it. Riders who do not consider themselves highly competitive. Riders who like riding because they love horses and spending time with them. Riders who are interested in much of what we have to teach you, but who want to be able to relax on their horse and not have too much pressure put on them in lessons. This is a fine attitude to have about your riding. I am pleased to have students like this at Longacres summer horse camps. Students in this catagory will get a lot out of Longacres, and will be pushed a little harder in my lessons, but I will go a little "easy" on you!

Finally, we come to the group of students who I will call serious, competitive riders. These are the girls who are competitive by nature and who have ambitions not just to go on to more advanced horse showing opportunities, but to WIN when they do. These are the students who make a point of practicing good equitation even when they are on a casual trail ride. The students who are sitting up straight and in full control of their horse even while they are standing in a line waiting their turn to jump a course. The students who during a "free ride" session on the training field are off in a corner by themselves doing dressage exercises or practicing clean lead changes while many others are riding casually with friends chatting about the day's events.

As I read over the above paragraph, it sounds as though I think every student should be a "serious competitive student". But that's not true at all! Riding is a great recreational activity, and Longacres really does welcome students who are here more for the fun and chance to learn a little more, than to win at all cost. I do, though, want you to know which kind of student you are. If you set the highest standards for yourself, I will have those same highest standards in mind when I teach you, and I will be the most demanding of your performance when you ride.

Favoritism - preferential treatment; these are bad words around summer horse camps programs for children and young people. But preferential treatment exists at most institutions, and it exists in a planned way at Longacres summer horse camps to an extent. By frankly discussing this here, I hope to avoid resentment and jealousy as much as possible when all of you are here riding in the summer.

Longacres is a summer horse camps that tries hard to give all our paying students an equal chance to ride nice horses and to show if they wish.

Longacres is ALSO a competitive show stable, with a long history of fielding very successful horse and rider combinations in western New York jumper competition. We have won every possible show jumper championship in western NY over the years with horses like China Heart, Yorke Springs, Deamyn, Rameses, Tip-Off, Miscellaneous, Peppermint Patti, Leather 'n Lace, and Quantum Leap. And with riders like Julie Murray, Sue Bell, Linda Reading, Sarah Helmstadter, Sarah Pistone, Meghan Duthie, and Tovah Abrams.

Number One Rider

I think it is good for our summer horse camps program to have the excitement of some of our horses bringing home the blue ribbons at a show. I think it is good for our program to have one or two extremely talented riders on our team as examples to us all. Because of this, Longacres summer horse camps almost always has a student who is in the "Number 1 Rider" position, a student who often receives financial help from Longacres based solely on their talent and potential as a show rider.

Being "Number One Rider" at Longacres is pretty nice. And any one of you reading this article might be recruited to this position. I am always on the lookout for girls with exceptional talent and ambition who might grow into this role in our program.

Whoever is our current top rider does get some very nice benefits. They will ride our best jumper in the biggest horse shows. They will get special private training sessions from me, and may ride the top show horses extra hours in training. But heavy responsibilities come along with the rewards. If I am giving extra attention and benefits to a very fine rider, I expect a lot of them in return. I expect them to help other students in any way they can. I expect them to ride any horse that might need training or be giving someone trouble. I expect them to be always working to do the best for our horses and to assist the barn management. And I expect them to be NICE to the rest of our students and a good example as a person. Ah, that last sentence! By her very nature, a teenage girl who is a successful show jumper rider is likely to be an intense, competitive type "A" personality.

I think that some of our most recent successful top show riders have done very well at being supportive and good for the rest of our summer horse camps students while riding to win for Longacres. Sarah Pistone was the "it girl" in 1997 and 1998. She was one of the best riders I have ever coached. Meghan Duthie came to us for just two weeks in 1999 as an unpolished, but very gutsy and determined young rider. I was so impressed that I invited her to return for the big Hamburg Fair horse show at the end of that season, where she fell off once - - - and then WON a big class! Meghan returned in 2000 as my primary jumper rider, and was with me the following two years again as both a student and an instructor. She was a great help to me and to Longacres. Tovah Abrams moved smoothly into the #1 rider role and our head trainer position in 2003 and 2004.

Summary:

We try hard at Longacres to give each student an equal opportunity to learn, to ride nice horses, and to try new things. It's just that one rider is going to get just a little bit "more equal" opportunity!

I want all of you coming to Longacres as students this year to know that those special "top rider" benefits are not given as personal favoritism because someone is a good brown-nose or suck-up. They are earned benefits and a planned part of our program. I hope that each of our students will benefit from being part of a summer horse camps program where excellence and success are nurtured and rewarded. And as I teach all of you this summer, I will be wondering which one of you might be a candidate to step up to that "top rider" position when Tovah Abrams outgrows Longacres and goes on to other things.

Hope this article helps you understand more about Longacres.

- Tom

Let's All Get Along - June 20^th, 2005

As I get ready to open the regular 2005 season, I am remembering that we are coming off one of the best years ever at Longacres summer horse camps last summer. We had a great group of girls who were in high spirits all summer and worked together wonderfully. Many of them are returning. I have high hopes for another great year, but anytime we have a success as great as we did last summer at Longacres I am a little nervous that we can't possibly quite measure up again. It will take effort and some accommodation from everyone if we are to have the same spirit as last year.

We have the tools in place for the same kind of year. Wonderful horses, a great show schedule, and a good core of returning riders from last summer.

Just about half our students most years are returning from last year, and half are new to us. That's a good combination for creating a good summer horse camps group. But our returning students must go out of their way to make all the new people feel welcome right away. There are a couple of things I do to help make that happen.

1) I try to put two girls who come together in the same bunk. But I also make sure that new students are evenly divided between our two bunks. If four of our students are here for the full eight weeks - to some of their slight displeasure, I will insist that only two of them be in the same bunk so we do not have a "clique" of full season riders at our summer horse camps.

2) Often when you get here, you will meet someone in "the other bunk" who you buddy up with and you might ask to change bunks the first day or two. My answer will be "no". Part of going to a summer horse camps is meeting new people and fitting into a group. I rarely allow a bunk switch during a session. If I do it will be later in the session, not during the first day or two.

3) We will have lots of "bonding" activities during the first week besides our regular riding program. It is a tradition at Longacres summer horse camps that someone will ask for a "scoonies ice cream stand" trip after a day or two!

• Tom

An important part of the riding instruction plan at Longacres has always been the promise that I will directly teach or personally watch every one of you ride every day. I have high standards, and part of what you are all paying for is being exposed to those standards. We split our riders between two groups who have their most formal lesson of the day at either 11 to 11:45 or 11:45 to 12:30.

With only half of you mounted at a time, you will all have a good choice of horses for this most important lesson of the day. You will spend less time waiting your turn. I will have more time to give personal attention to each of you.

- Tom