Some friendly staff: Rob, Erin and Brandon at the ...

Some friendly staff: Rob, Erin and Brandon at the barn were SUPER friendly and great!! However, the majority of the staff looked bored, like they couldn't be bothered. The girl working the fun barn never looked up once from her notebook and couldn't be bothered turning on the vacuum line in the playground or manning the rock wall treadmill, the lifeguards seriously need attitude adjustments and need to enforce the rules in the kiddie water park so all the kids could safely enjoy the water. The activities were scarce and not engaging and the food was sub par... On every ride I went on, there were people surrounding me who were panicking since they were literally given NO guidance on how to ride a horse. You are directed to a mounting block and told to hold the reins with one hand. Then, your horse typically heads for the water trough where you have to figure out what to do next. I will say, the horses were FANTASTIC.. well taken care of and generally happy. There are wranglers who are 250+ lbs who have never learned the basic posting trot and just pound their horses backs... I mean, if you can't master the sitting trot to make your horse comfortable, should you really be allowed in the saddle on one horse for that many hours a day?? I hope there is a chiropractor and massage therapist on staff for some of those willing, lovely horses... I was so disappointed. If you are a horse person, reconsider booking a trip here. The trails were pretty muddy and rocky and it's just a basic loop. I did the advanced ride one day and felt terrible with the amount of cantering we did (totally excessive IMO)... the only trotting was the few steps in the transition... my poor horse was struggling making it up the hills and then I seriously wondered how many rides like this he'd have in one day. It was also pretty comical how the "try out" for the advanced ride was just taking off down a path with ZERO trotting before hand... that was a little unsettling considering I would never ask my horse to do that without a proper warmup. How about asking us to ride for a few seconds in the ring before a ride to determine our level?? I'm sure after about 15 seconds, you'd be able to tell I'm experienced. So, the second day I did the Intermediate ride and enjoyed it much more. I don't need to blast off thru mud and rocks to have fun. My family and I were excited to depart after lunch today. When we were checking out and asked how our stay was..."UM... OK" was a totally acceptable response. haha The customer service was pretty pathetic. We chose this place after three of my friends (who are all "horse people") recommended it... We were highly disappointed. I don't think one part of our stay met or exceeded our expectations.