Pony and Horse Camp for Ages 7-10 at Domaine de Chevillon

Up to four and a half hours a day are equestrian, and two of those are ridden. Arena lessons to progress technically, hacks through the Burgundy countryside, vaulting, pony games with slaloms and relays, long-reining on foot in the arena, carriage driving behind the horses, grooming, hoof care and grooming competitions, and stable science - the parts of the horse, feeding, coat colours. Instructors are state-qualified and children work at their own pace. Sitting a Galop level at the end of the stay is optional, and those who do take home the level and a progression booklet.

The school offers a special discount - ask us for details. The published price is a full-board package: activities, accommodation with all meals, supervision by state-qualified riding instructors and qualified activity leaders, and insurance. Cancellation cover is sold separately as a percentage of the booking value. Travel to and from the estate is not part of the package.

Children sleep on the equestrian estate itself, in Burgundy in the Yonne near Auxerre, and the stay is sold as full board. The estate runs separate units, each with its own activity room for one age band, so groups stay together by age. The team is on hand at every point of the day.

Full board. Breakfast, lunch at a quarter past twelve, an afternoon snack at five and dinner are all included. Cooking is part of the programme, as are theme meals and theme days, and the children make their own jam and bake bread the old way at the farm.

Mornings are ponies and a turn at the teaching farm; afternoons and evenings are everything else. On the farm the children feed and care for the hens, rabbits, goats and pigs, change the bedding and watch the eggs hatch. The rest of the day: a heated outdoor pool with a lifeguard when the season allows, table tennis, a trampoline, large outdoor games, fishing, cooking, painting and craft work, theme days and theme meals, theatre and building an end-of-stay show, a trapper evening with campfires and a bivouac out with the ponies and horses, a cinema evening and a party. Children leave with a certificate.

A family-run equestrian estate in Burgundy, in the Yonne near Auxerre, with its own pony club, riding arena, carriages, a teaching farm with hens, rabbits, goats and pigs, a heated outdoor swimming pool with a lifeguard on duty in season, table tennis and a trampoline, fishing water, open countryside for hacking and for bivouacs, and separate activity rooms by age band.

The estate is run as a family business and says so in how the week is shaped: a child is valued, encouraged to progress at their own speed, and goes home with something to show for it - a certificate, and for those who want it a Galop level and a progression booklet. One leader for every seven children at this age. The week builds towards a show the children put on themselves, and the night everyone remembers is the trapper evening, out in the countryside around a fire with the ponies and horses.