At Rochester’s Sterling Pointe Farm’s summer camp, manure rather than crafts is on the schedule.

“We’re different than a lot of the others,” said professional horse trainer Bill Ritchie. “In our camp, we start kids off doing the types of chores they’d do if they owned their own horses.”

Ritchie keeps the camp size down to a handful of kids between the ages of seven and 14, including those who already train at Sterling Point and others who are new to horse riding.

The veterans help show newer students the ropes, said Ritchie.

“The kids are wonderful when new kids come.”

During the one-week camp, Ritchie teaches the kids essential skills.

“They learn how to clean a horse stall, how to put the bedding in, those types of things that we do everyday.”

It’s not easy work and it takes the better part of the morning, but it leads up to the best part -  riding the horses.

After lunch, the kids give the horses a brush down, clean out their shoes and saddle them up for the ride.

During their afternoon lesson, the kids practice their posture and wait for Ritchie and fellow trainer Roger Flood to give them the OK to canter (i.e. go faster).

While kids have to wait until the end of the day to ride, Ritchie said he always includes games and at least one excursion during the week to mix up the activities.

From competitions to see who can reassemble a saddle the fastest to horse rides through the woods and visits to local farms, he said, “We always do something that is memorable, and they all talk about when they come back the following year.”

After 24 years of organizing camps, Ritchie knows that challenging kids to use their elbow grease helps their horsemanship.

“The kids absolutely love it. What we do with them is different,” he said. “It’s all horse related, and they’re around other horse people.”

Kelly Hall, whose daughter Elizabeth joined the camp, said her daughter lives and breathes horses.

“It’s her thing. She wants to do everything from soup to nuts and be like the big kids.”

Sterling Pointe Farm will offer another camp in August.

For more information, visit www.sterlingpointefarm.com.