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About Sarah Hothman

Name: Sarah Hothman Location: , AL Profession: Student Age: About Me: I've been riding for 17 years and enjoy working at summer camps in horseback riding, crafts, and photography. I LOVE working with kids!

Reviews Written by Sarah Hothman  

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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Unsafe! Mar 13, 2012

reviewer: Sarah Hothman from Charlotte, NC

Circle R was trying to get ACA accreditation in summer 2010, but was not going about it in a healthy way. The upper-barn deck has a massive hole in it, that drops about 15ft to the ground and is rotting away. The "camp-out" location uses sheds that are not well-grounded (up on stilts) for the campers to sleep in, and LET's the horses run around at night; they tend to rub against the sheds, causing the buildings to shake and groan. The horses have also been known to stamp and charge the fire pit, where the oldest campers sleep at night. The dorms are fairly clean, but there are nasty ant and spider problems; I woke up more than once with painful bites. The bunk beds are rusty and some are frail or very bent. The Staff basically run the camp and the owner has little involvement. Some of the horses have violent streaks and are dangerous (eg: one threw a staff member twice in a row and she fractured her spine the second time he threw her). Very little supplies are available, especially for arts & crafts and instructors end buying supplies with their own money. The "in- field" where the horses are caught for the campers is full of mud most of the time, and the barn where some horses are caught has almost a foot of muck in it. Most of the riding helmets are worn down and/or cracked and there are very little medical supplies for the horses. Some of the horses assigned to campers had major problems, especially the horse that broke a staff member's spine. During the winter, the horses are barely cared for and often left to fend for themselves. The owner is not against simply shooting the horses if he feels they are no longer of use to him or anyone else. The tap water smells strongly like sulfur-- even the bath water (the pipes are rusty)! The toilets flood a lot and the camp in general is not well maintenanced, although the maintenance guy does try hard to keep it up and running. The food is cooked by staff members, not by someone with a lot of cooking experience. The staff will try to tell you that all this is normal because "it's a rustic camp setting" but what's normal about crazed horses that are malnourished and huge holes in the barn deck where kids are supposed to go for dances at night?

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