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| - I will start off by saying that before I took my horseback ride I was very concerned to see for myself if the horses were treated well here. I almost did not book a ride here based on reviews that said the horses were mistreated and the owners had been evicted from other properties, etc. However, when I actually went to the Stables and saw the horses, they seemed to be healthy and well-fed. Did not see any visible injuries on any of them. Although, I did think it odd that they were tied up to posts outside all day without any shade at all. I was thinking that especially in the summer time that would be BRUTAL... maybe even cruel.
Anyway, once we got started on the ride it became VERY apparent that my horse did not want to be on the trail. Taffy (the horse) would NOT go faster no matter how many times I kicked her with my heels or how hard I kicked her with my heels. I even took my feet out of the stirrups so I could kick her harder (because the tour guide was yelling at me that I wasn't kicking her hard enough) and that still did not help. The tour guide was yelling that usually they put little kids on Taffy and even the little kids could make her go. I found that hard to believe that a little kids could kick harder than I was. She was just stubborn and did not want to be on the trail that day. She also kept moaning and groaning to show her displeasure. It made for a not very enjoyable experience for me because I was feeling bad that she was so unhappy and I was also feeling stressed by everyone telling me to kick her MORE and kick her HARDER to keep up with the group. I am not even kidding you, I must have kicked her with my heels 100+ times in the span of a 2 hour ride. My muscles were getting tired from kicking her so much.
FINALLY towards the end of the ride I figured out that if I kicked with my heels AND spanked her butt at the same time, she would jog a LITTLE bit... but only for a little bit and not enough to catch up to the group. Also, that was super uncomfortable for me to do.
I've ridden horses before in Sedona and Hawaii, and it was more fun those other times because it wasn't like pulling teeth to get those horses to move.
I think this place should do more work to make trail riding enjoyable for the horses - like reward them with treats after or during the ride. I do the same thing with my dog to make my dog associate things she doesn't like doing with something she DOES like (food)! It's not that difficult and would be easy for them to implement. Otherwise, they need to figure out some other way for their horses to enjoy it more so the riders can enjoy the experience as well.
Lastly, I was sooo far behind the group for most of the time that I don't know whether the trail guide was giving explanations of the history of the land or anything. I only heard him give a few snippets of explanation as to the vegetation. I wish there had been more educational stuff.
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