Last month, they learned another life lesson.
They learned about loss.
"It was something that you looked forward to every Saturday," 11-year-old Colby Prokop of Cutchogue said of the program. "When you're driving up that long drive getting to those horses. There was nothing like it in the world.
"Once you get attached to it, it's basically your life."
The children, about 30 in all, watched tearfully as their lives changed forever a little more than two weeks ago. The horses at the camp were loaded onto trailers and shipped to new homes throughout Long Island, New York State and Canada, marking an end to a program run by the Nassau County Cornell Cooperative Extension on the Nassau-owned land since the mid-1990s.
"It was just devastating," said Emilie Reimer, also 11, of Mattituck. "When all the horses were being loaded into the trailers, to see them drive away and you not being in there. It was like, 'Oh, yeah, we're going to a show.' But we weren't."
Officials at Cornell in Nassau said the move was necessary due to massive budget cuts handed down by Executive Tom Suozzi. The program was established in an effort to provide constant care for the Sound Avenue property and the farm animals that call it home during the summer months, when the camp is used by campers from Nassau 4-H clubs.
"These were very, very difficult decisions that our board of directors was faced with," said Tebbie Clift, the group's interim executive director. "Basically, we sustained a 60 percent cut in funding from Nassau County. So [the board] took a look at all of our programs to see how they were faring in terms of who they were administering to, the expenses, how many people were employed and a variety of things. The horse programs, as you may imagine, are not inexpensive to run and maintain."
Cornell plans to maintain a summer horse program, though arrangements have not yet been made, she said.
The parents, some critical of the organization and bitter over the suddenness of the move -- the program was dissolved just days after kids and parents traveled to Nassau to plea with the organization not to raise fees -- are meanwhile left scrambling to fill the void for their children.
"It was more than a horse program," said Emilie's mother Pam, noting some of the parents can't afford private lessons. Riding lessons at the camp had cost about $30, while caring for the animals and educational opportunities that came with it was considered a service to the camp. "The kids were there just about every Saturday. It was like a family, my daughters say," Ms. Reimer continued. "They were learning how to feed, groom, learning responsibilities in life."
The local kids, who hailed from Orient to Riverhead, would get dropped off at the camp at 8 a.m. and picked up at 4 p.m., with parents stopping by periodically to help bale the hay or bring pizza or cookies, Ms. Reimer said.
"They would sit at picnic tables and just talk horses, not this other stuff kids might talk about," she said. "We just can't believe it. We started riding in another barn, but that doesn't replace the 4-H. You get your horse for an hour and then you leave."
Robin Klopfer of Flanders, one of the more outspoken volunteers, said she dedicated about 20 hours a week to the program.
"It's a shame because the volunteers set the place up so beautifully; What's going to happen to that land now?" Ms. Klopfer said.
She feels the off-season program should have been promoted more in Nassau schools and elsewhere, generating more interest and, most importantly, funds to sustain the program throughout the year.
"It could have been a lot less expensive than just running a summer horse program," she said. "[Promoting] should have been done many years ago," she said. "These kids are heartbroken right now; they've grown up with each other.
Ms. Clift said those in the 4-H clubs, as well as the coordinator of the off-season horse program and the property's caretaker, Denise Ottavio, were not the only victims of the budget cuts.
"We lost not only the horse program, we lost a parenting education program, an HIV/AIDS education program," Ms. Clift said. "Each affected a lot of people. We decided not to replace some staff members who were leaving. It wasn't just one thing that suffered. We did some checking and it would have been just too difficult to have the horse program break even."
Ms. Ottavio was laid off because her position was eliminated. She declined to be interviewed for this story.
Ms. Reimer, who works for a Mattituck florist and in catering, said she's just been assuring her daughter, Emilie, that "everything's going to be OK."
"You don't want it to affect them in other areas, or affect their grades," she said. "Of course, everybody's feelings are hurt, but we just have to think about all the good things we had there.
"We have tons of pictures."
mwhite@timesreview.com