Happy Thursday! It’s once again time for the Terrific Tollgate Tour! I’m your host, Coltrane Turtle, and I can’t wait to show you the Thursday adventures that went down in today in Animal Camp and Horse Camp.
Reminder: Please send your camper(s) with their swimsuit and towel tomorrow! It’s water slide day!Â
Today’s tour will be done on horseback
By now, I bet you can guess what we’ll see first: animal chores! Today, the peppers are doing a thorough cleaning of the barn– and feeding the goats and chickens, of course! The campers are really starting to know exactly what needs to be done and how to best care for each animal.
The chickens and the campers have become fast friends
Chilling with some goats
Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere
Next up, let’s see what is being harvested in the garden. Oh! It looks like green beans. I wonder if we’ll see those in the kitchen later. . .
Nothing like frolicking in the garden!
Check this bean out!
Garden fresh
Then, if you’ll direct your attention over to the horse pasture, you’ll see that Horse Camp and Animal Camp have come together again for another camper favorite: pony rides! The animal campers had a blast getting to circle the pasture on either Scout or Zoey, and the horse campers did a fantastic job leading the ponies while keeping everyone safe.
Giddy-up!
Just trotting along 🙂
Smiles with Scout
And after a yummy lunch, we are ready to move right along to “Where’s My Apple?” which is a game where campers each get an apple that they have to draw. Then, the apples are scrambled, and peppers have to identify which apple was theirs based only on their drawings! Taking bites is not allowed!
A trio of awesome apple artists!
There’s her apple
While we were watching the apple game, something really special happened, thanks to one of our master gardeners. A pepper group was walking through the garden and discovered a bird that had passed away. The gardener asked the camper who found it to find a nice spot to bury it. As they were digging, another pepper spotted a few eggs as well, so the gardener showed them to all the campers. While peppers were sad for the bird, it was a sweet moment among all the people here at Tollgate.
Creating a final resting place for our lost bird friend
Campers get a glimpse of the egg
Now we’ll continue the tour. For the next 40 minutes, we will be walking through the forest with the peppers. But someone else will be joining us…some goats! The campers seem to really be enjoying hanging out with their animal pals in situations other than just animal chores, so a goat hike is the perfect activity!
Walk with two goats for twice the fun!
Are goats the new dogs?
Goat hikes are the Greatest Of All Time
For more photos of Animal Camp Activities, click here! Also, scroll to the end of the horse camp section for a link to the advanced horse camp photo album, which contains more pictures of the combined-camp pony rides!
It is time for my tour of Horse Camp. I am excited to show you how much fun they are having today! Here in the arena, they are trotting and cantering.
Friday is trotting
Jade is cantering
Go Tulsa Go!
I’m thinking that horse camp can’t get much better….and then I see the campers driving Max around the arena! He is wearing a harness that would connect to a wagon. They are practicing good safety and trying it on the ground.
Max is wearing a very large bridle with blinders
Max knows voice commands
Whoa. Time for the brakes
It’s time to clean Max’s harness
Under the tent, campers are staying dry. They are writing in their journals. The question today: what is your favorite part of horse camp? Campers are shouting “RIDING!” That must be the favorite!
Writing about riding
They love trotting and cantering
As you can see, campers love horses! I cannot wait to see them again tomorrow. If you would like to see additional photos of horse camp and animal camp pony rides, you can find them HERE!
Before we part for the day, let’s see what those campers have cooking in Garden Kitchen. I think I smell…garlic?
Ready for a snack!
The best kale around
Nothing beats that kale crunch
Green bean eating machine!
Fancy green beans! The source of that great garlic smell 
Today’s adventures
I can’t believe the Tollgate Tour ends tomorrow. I’m having such a good time guiding you through the adventures that the campers get up to– adventures that are sure to end with a bang tomorrow. See you then!