For those who like horses, or camping, or both, there is a book on its way which details another fun way to spend time with your horse.
Go Horse Camping: A (funny) Illustrated Guide to Camping With Your Horse is a new book by local authors Tania Millen and Julia Nieckarz that provides all the information horseback riders need to take their horses on overnight trips.
It is well-researched and fun to read, with lots of comical illustrations. The book covers how to find campsites, advantages and disadvantages of different trailers, how to hold your horses (corrals, panels, electric fencing, highlines), tricks for feeding and watering, plus camping gear and skills needed by horses and riders.
Author Tania Millen and illustrator Julia Nieckarz decided to create the book while horse camping together last summer in Barkerville, B.C.
“Julia and I were at this great horse campsite and nobody else was there,” says Millen. “It seems everyone is keen to go horse camping but they’re often intimidated by what’s involved. So we started chatting about how to get more riders out, and the book grew from there.”
The book lays out the steps to take to go horse camping and is for everyone.
Here is an example of the text: “Maybe you’re a camping greenhorn and as soon as you start thinking about going horse camping, anxiety puts the brakes on any action. Or maybe you already go horse camping but are looking for information about alternative gear and skills such as living quarter trailers or how to highline.
“Regardless, this book is for all riders – those who have never camped with their horses, those with years of experience, and every rider in between.”
Millen’s been horsing around for 30 years, and has ridden more than 3,000 km of trails in the last five years.
She is also the author of two other books, including Pack ‘em Up, Ride ‘em Out: Classic Horse Pack Trips in British Columbia and Alberta.
Nieckarz has a master’s degree in education and is the principal of a local elementary school. She returned to riding as an adult after buying property with a barn, and has been drawing her whole life.
To publish the book, Millen and Nieckarz are running a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter.
“It’s all-or-nothing,” explains Nieckarz. “We have until April 2 to reach our funding goal otherwise the book will not be published. So anyone who wants the book must order it now.”
To help Go Horse Camping get published, make a donation towards its printing or buy a book go to Kickstarter.com.
Depending on donation amount, a person can receive items such as a paperback and/or digital copy, and/or an illustration, and a few site visitors will get to name a character, skype with the authors and more.