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Hello All! This is Jamethiel aka Jame, & I will be your energetic Equestrian HERO for the summer! If you’re curious, my mother named me after a character in a book she read when she was young, called “God Stalk” by PC Hodgell (I definitely recommend this author!). I hail from all over America; I was born in Connecticut, lived in Arizona for awhile (where I was initially infected with my love for horses) then moved to Oregon & grew up there, in Portland. I’m currently a Conservation Education & Leadership major at Sterling College, in Craftsbury Common, Vermont (if you don’t know where that is, it’s okay…hardly anybody knows!) This will be my first full summer at camp, & if it’s a synonym for ‘excited’, it will pretty much describe me!
The horse bug bit me at a very young age. My mother used to put me up on her friends’ horses while said horse just grazed, unconcerned with a grinning 40 pound passenger. In Arizona, I was fortunate that we lived right beside an Arabian training & boarding stable. Most mornings, I would slip out early & wait on the outside of the fence, waiting for Angel (the barn manager) to wake up & call me over, when I would promptly crawl over the fence & help her begin the day, throwing hay to nickering Arabians & making sure each water bucket was clean & full. I followed Angel around like a burr until my family (my mother, grandmother, & aunt) made me go to school! School was fun, certainly, but I always raced home & usually managed to ruin a nice outfit by going straight to the stable after I stepped off the bus. My grandmother finally gave up dressing me in nice clothes after about the third straight week of “ruined” clothing (a little dirt, horse slobber, or sweat never hurt anyone!). Angel wouldn’t let me ride until I was 7 years old, so I received a solid foundation on the ground, grooming, leading, & just watching a variety of hot-blooded horses. When I did get to ride on my own, it was on an old flea-bitten grey Arabian mare, Mandy, who patiently plodded around the bull ring while I sat on her & tried to keep my heels down & head up, without reins & only a bareback pad. Only after I could hold myself on at a trot did I graduate to a saddle & hackamore.
When I was 9 years old, my mother moved up to Oregon, where she met her life partner & settled down, & realized that she had a budding tomboy on her hands. Wanting a break & to get me out of the city, I was gifted with spending an entire summer in Northern California when I was 12, learning how to white water raft, kayak, hike, backpack, rock climb, & cook over an open fire. I was now bitten by the outdoor bug (I also was bitten by a confused mosquito one night on my eyelid). The next summer, as I begged for a horse, a pony, anything called an equine all year, my parents sent me to a peaceful place called Ekone, in Eastern Washington. There, I returned to riding bareback all over the immense canyon lands, helped build a lodge, dressed up & sang, & learned about polar bearing & the benefits of a sauna. The next four summers were spent on youth trail crews, constructing trails, bridges, pulling noxious weeds, drinking Vesper, finding my life’s path, & soaking up summer. I learned the value of hard work, good work ethic, fun, teamwork, communication, & a whole host of others.
Sterling College is an interesting place, with only four degrees offered. The focus of my college is on community & sustainability, & we practice both every day. We are also one of only eight Work Colleges, where each student has a job & works 80 hours per semester, the money going towards tuition. The focus of each job is service learning; you work hard, but you have to learn something from it. My current Work College job is Draft Horse Attending, & I feed, water, exercise, & occasionally train three draft horses. My favorite time of day is early morning, when I feed Pete, a strawberry roan Belgian, Rex, a grey Percheron, & Carson, a bay Thoroughbred/Clydesdale cross their morning hay. I usually stand or lean against Rex, watching them eat as the sun rises over the Vermont hills.
In my limited time “off,” I read everything I can get my hands on, from fantasy author Mercedes Lackey to outspoken history author Howard Zinn. I’m in the middle of the process of reading every book written by or about my favorite American President, Theodore Roosevelt. He really started the American conservation movement, putting thousands of acres of lands under government control, & appointing Gifford Pinchot first Director of the United States Forest Service. I go riding whenever I have a chance, which is fairly awesome because my regular job is at Briar Hill Farm, run by a knowledgeable, talkative woman, Marcy. She breeds, trains, & competes with Norwegian Fjords & Dales Ponies, in combined driving & dressage. She is also a teacher of the Linda Tellington-Jones method of training, TTouch, which I am in the process of learning. I also have a ton of fun with less horsey pursuits, including rock climbing, hiking, & camping.
When you meet me at Camp, I’m going to want to start off my meeting with each new group with a name game; it’s a great way to learn everyone’s names, relax & get goofy too! I seldom want to teach in the “traditional way”, & am always looking for new ways to share my knowledge. I love singing campfire songs, especially the ones where you get up & dance! My favorite song is “I’m goin’ on a Burphel Hunt!”
This will be my first full summer as a camp counselor, so if you’ve any advice, creative ideas, or songs you know, please help me! I’m always open to learning all I can. Now, to pull a line from Katie’s bio…:-)
H is for High Spirited…for you will rarely see me doing anything but grinning ear to ear, singing, laughing, or living life to the fullest!
E is for Ecstatic…I can’t wait for camp to start, & to begin sharing the most majestic, big hearted, & wonderful animal with campers…the horse!
R is for Respect…this is what I will embody all summer…respect for campers, for my fellow staff, for my coworkers the horses, & for all nature
O is for Open…to new ideas, new experiences, new people, new places, & new ways of having fun!
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