WAILUA — Forty campers were immersed in the world of horses Monday during the first day of the Healing Horses Kaua‘i Summer Horsemanship Class, held at the HHK facility located in the shadow of The Sleeping Giant at the base of the Kapa‘a bypass road.
“We can make room,” said Karin Stoll, the Healing Horses of Kaua‘i director and one of the teachers at the summer camp. “We try to accommodate as many young people as we can, and we have three more camps scheduled for this summer.”
The week-long camp runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Friday. There are camps scheduled from July 6 through 10, and July 20 to 24, with registrations being accepted through the HHK website at healinghorseskauai.org.
Camp is open to children ages 4 through 18, and there is a break for families with two or more
siblings. Camp is also available for
single days.
Horses are the overall theme of camp with campers being treated to hands-on experiences with the facility’s horse family.
“We have everything broken down so the campers are social distancing and have face masks through four different stations,” said Samantha Henriques, one of the HHK volunteer instructors. “The students rotate through Art, then Goats, the Arena, and Minis. They go through two stations, and then we have a lunch break — the horses need to lunch and rest, and so do the humans.”
Breaking down the stations, Stoll said the theme for opening day is how soap and COVID don’t get along with the campers getting hands-on in washing down a horse.
“Today’s theme is ‘Horse words,’” Henriques said. “Campers come up with all the words they know that relate to horses, and get to know what they mean. By Friday, they will be full-on with horses.”
Stoll said campers in Art are working on screening bandanas, and other projects.
“They’ll be spending time painting horseshoes, and will have silk-screened the bandanas by Friday,” Stoll said. “We want them to have things to take home — treasures from summer camp.”
Stoll said she is so glad summer camp is here.
“When I got permission to do camp from Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami, I jumped on it right away,” Stoll said. “We were shut down by the COVID pandemic, we lost our funding from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, and camp is the only thing saving us. Camp puts us back in the race.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
