Riding high FAMILYFUN
Horseriders Campground a get-away for equestrians Story and photos by Bill Livick
T
he weather cooperated with sunny skies and warm temperatures for the Southern Kettle Moraine Horse Trail Association’s annual campground cleanup the last Saturday of April. About 40 club members volunteered to prepare the grounds and 56 campsites at Horseriders Campground for another season by clearing brush, cleaning out fire pits and installing new horse corrals. The campground, on Little Prairie Road a mile south of the Village of Palmyra, exists solely for equestrian campers, who stampede to the park from April through October to take advantage of the campground’s access to more than 53 miles of horse trail in the Kettle Moraine State ForestSouthern Unit. The campground is busiest May through June and September through October, when mosquitos aren’t so intense. It features 29 sites with electrical hookups, a shower facility with flush toilets and also horse wash and manure stations. Other features include a pavilion with electricity, a campground kiosk, a Little Free Library, and mounting blocks and hitching posts. And the horse trail association is in the process of installing new corrals at eight sites in the campground. The last weekend of April marked the opening of the campground for the 2018 season.
First outing
Jake and Kelsey Jungblough of Loganville brought seven friends – and their horses – along for their first outing of the year. “We get here two or three times a year to camp and ride the trails,”
30 YOUR FAMILY SUMMER 2018
fort while they ride,” she said. “I’ll meet them at the bar for lunch.”
Trail Association support
Jake Jungblough and his horse are ready to embark on a four-hour ride through the Kettle Moraine State Forest.
Jake said, taking a break from helping friends prepare for a four-hour ride through the forest. He and his group came with horse trailers, a big RV camper and tents to spend the weekend. Jungblough and his party planned to ride about eight miles from outside Palmyra to Eagle, where they would have lunch before remounting for the trip back to the campground. When Your Family came upon the group preparing to hit the trails, Jungblough was helping his friend and first-time rider Jason Proud get set up on a horse. Proud’s wife, Morgan, watched and said she wasn’t riding with the group because she’s “slightly terrified” of horses. “I came to camp and hold down the
The Kettle Moraine State ForestSouthern Unit extends about 30 miles between the Village of Dousman and the City of Whitewater. The Horseriders Campground, established in the mid-1960s, is located midway between the two communities and run by the state Department of Natural Resources. It’s supported by the Horse Trail Association, which formed in 2002 to improve the trails and the campground. It has about 100 households as members. The club holds an annual fundraiser each September, and that paid to bring electricity to the campground shelter and 29 campsites, build the campground kiosk and Little Free Library and provide mounting blocks and hitching posts. The association also helped fund the shower building, constructed in 2011-12. Its latest project involves purchasing and installing the horse corrals. “A lot of people came out today to help because of the corrals,” said Bob Michaels, trail coordinator for the Horse Trail Association. “People are really excited about them.” “The corrals are a big thing,” agreed trail association president Tara LeRoy, adding that Horseriders Campground is “one of the premier horse campgrounds in the state.” She said the club has been working to secure funding for the corrals “for a long time.” LeRoy became involved with the Horse Trail Association three years ago, she said, not long after returning to Wisconsin from Idaho, where she