Our Approach

Social-Emotional Support
(Without the Jargon)

You don’t need to know what “CASEL” means; just know that it’s a widely respected framework for helping kids grow into confident, empathetic, and capable humans. We translate that into extremely practical skills your child will feel every day at camp:

• Self-awareness: noticing emotions and understanding personal comfort zones

• Self-management: handling challenges calmly and trying again after frustration

• Social awareness: seeing and respecting others’ needs

• Relationship skills: making friends, resolving conflicts, being a good teammate

• Responsible decision-making: learning to assess risks and choose safely

Our staff are trained to support campers in these skills through simple, natural moments at camp: encouraging a rider who’s nervous, celebrating a brave attempt, helping two campers communicate kindly, or guiding the group to problem-solve together.

Learning by Doing
(The Kolb Approach, in Plain English)

Kids learn best when they try something, talk about it, and then try again with a new insight, like taking a hill twice, or practicing a turn with fresh confidence. Our staff use this cycle intentionally:

1. Do the thing (ride, practice a skill, explore a new trail)

2. Pause and reflect (“How did that feel? What worked? What was tricky?”)

3. Think ahead (“What would you try differently next time?”)

4. Try again with new understanding and a little more courage

It’s simple, it’s empowering, and it builds resilience faster than almost anything else.