My boyfriend and I called Ashoka Riding Club this morning to see if there were any available…read moreappointments to go horseback riding today, and we're promptly answered by Elene on the phone. She is a very sweet woman and asked what time would work best for us and we shortly landed on a time that worked for us both. Keep in mind, this place is Elene and Umberto's residence, and they are clearly hosting visitors because they enjoy what they do and sharing it with others. We arrived and called Elene and were met promptly by Umberto who took us to their stable to sign standard waivers and saddle up our horses for us, as well as giving us helmets to wear. My boyfriend and I were assigned Lila and Peggy to ride (both beautiful horses and unlike other reviewers wrote on here, the horses were definitely not skinny and underfed). Umberto helped us onto the horses one by one and then Elene instructed us how to hold the reigns and gave us the rundown on how riding and directing a horse actually works, which I found very helpful. Elene was stern at first with her instructions as she should be when educating someone how to properly ride an animal that could easily hurt you with its weight accidentally if handled incorrectly. After we understood the logistics we started along the BEAUTIFUL snowy path with Umberto and Elene alongside us on foot giving us more encouraging instructions along the way while also making very pleasant and interesting conversation. To be clear, they walked alongside us but were not holding onto and leading the horses as other reviews have said. Both Elene and Umberto were very sweet, interesting people who very clearly love what they do and love their horses dearly (after all, they moved to this location in order to be able to live somewhere where they were able to have their horses on site). I would highly recommend coming here for a ride if you're in the area, we enjoyed ourselves greatly and will definitely be returning again perhaps for a summertime ride this time!

I don't even know where to start with this review. Let's…read moreput it this way, the second u get there you start to think you may be on Texas chainsaw massacre. Everything is rusty and old and outdated. The owners are super weird. The horses are under fed and under weight. The whole trail consisted of them walking our horses. Not quite sure why I paid $50 for them to walk the horses. I decided to leave my sunglasses behind and tag my group on Facebook with our location in case we all Got killed cuz that's just the vibe we got from the start. Anyways let's fast forward to an awkward 25 min later where we were in the middle of the trail and we see bears. Yes bears. 3 black bears to be exact!! Umberto thinks it's smart to keep going on the trail and I said NO!!! Turn us around or I'm getting off. Also, he's hard of hearing so basically he screams for everything. So he turns around after we make him aware of the bears and screams go a wife "honey there's bears" now the lovely black bear family is looking at us 70 feet away. My horse is starting to get scared and start acting weird to the point I almost fell off. Thankfully his wife is smarter and told him in French to turn the horses around after he kept wanting to keep going on the trail. Thankfully all of us left unharmed. On the way back to the barn, Umberto point to a pile of rocks and tells me his first horse died there. I asked him how and he told me he shot him cuz he was sick. Not quite something I wanted to know. Lie to me next time please. I don't recommend this place. They give you no instruction on how to handle the horse or how to ride. And you don't really get a real experience out of it and it's super scary. Don't waste ur time, safety and money.

So funny tale here... normally on my friend trips up to New Paltz we stop at this one farm and feed…read morethe horses carrots. We go up this time... no horses, new fence, one barn is missing and all I see are sheep. What the frig Ricky?! So I search for other farms and find Lucky C Stables. We randomly drive to this place and just ask out the window if we could feed some horses... to our surprise we were met with smiling faces and even given a tour of the barns!! It was so enjoyable and we met, pet and fed so many cool horse buddies, that I would love to come back and book a trail ride or lesson next time I am around. Such friendly people and they made our day!

Fantastic place! Such a great, friendly and safe environment for kids and adults of all ages!…read moreExcellent lesson horses to learn on, and great riding instructors! Riders have the opportunity to show, lease or purchase their own horse or you can just take fun lessons! If you want to learn horseback riding or you're looking for your next opportunity to advance your show career, this is your place! They also have a phenomenal summer camp program, high/middle school teams and coach SUNY NP team!

I have to agree with the reviewers here!…read more I bought the coupon and I was SUPER excited to go with my boyfriend. I tried calling them for a reservation...for 2 days straight and no one picks up! Finally a lady picks up and told me that shes really busy during the days and mornings and that I should email her. Fine, she gave me her email address. Every time I email her, she/they replies back a week or two later. NO JOKE. Here and there she tells me what she has this available or asking questions about my boyfriend and I (height, weight and etc.) or if I can do this day or that day. Yet when I reply within that second, i won't hear back until 2 weeks later. BY THEN those days that we "settled" on already past!! Days goes by then weeks then I'm looking at months going by!! . I bought this coupon in like Aug-Sept. HOPING that i can enjoy this in the fall with my boyfriend! By November, forget it. I called the place where I bought the vouchers from to get a refund or atleast credits. Thank God!

The horseback riding experience itself was fun for us, total beginners!!! Horses were tamed and…read morethankfully, no one fell off or got injured. 1 - Reservation - Bought my voucher from Groupon. Reserving the date on the website was a breeze; however, cancelling and rebooking another date was a nightmare!!!! No one would answer the phone or email in a timely matter. We emailed them to change from Sat 10am to Sun 10am; a few days would go by before someone wrote back to say "Sun 10am is booked, what about 2pm?" I replied "OK" immediately. Then a week goes by and finally someone replied, "Sorry Sun 2pm is booked, how about another day?" By the time they replied, the slots were already booked. It was ridiculous! 2 - Day of Ride - Helen, the owner?, called us at 7am and told us that the trails were closed, because of the heavy rain the night before. I was offered to either to reschedule or ride the arena. There is no way I am going to reschedule, so we went. We arrived 45 min early just to check out the farm. There were 4-5 staff there; all young college-like ladies, plus 1-2 older women. The farm was open, with cats and chickens roaming freely around. We signed the waiver form, grabbed our helmets (gross, small and dirty!), and mounted our horses. 3 - Horseback Riding - Our horses name were Aurora, Jupiter, Levi, and Lakota. The 4 horses trotted in a line; 2 staff were walking and leading the first 2 smaller horses my daughters rode. For an hour, we rode around the outdoor arena, and up and down the driveway path twice. My 10 year old daughter said "We were not really controlling the horse that much. It was boring, because part of fun was to learn and control your own horse the way you want, but that did not happened." They did not offer any riding lessons or stories of the horses or rescue facility. No hot cocoa either.

My daughter has been at Gardnertown farm for 8 years and has never been made to feel like she is…read moreinept or belittled by anyone there. Gardnertown is a family owned establishment and they treat their clients like family. My child has learned how to respect horses and their boundaries and how to truly take care of them.

I have been coming here to Gardnertown Farms for the past 4 years I got to say it was the best…read morething I did, the Trainers and the School horses are fabulous they taught me so much, now I am showing its is so much fun and your trainers support you so much. The facility is beautiful 2 indoor rings 2 outdoor rings stalls are beautiful they have a beautiful big grooming stall and wash stall with hot water I ride all year round. The horses are taken well care of the owners are so nice they will bend over backwards to accommodate you and they have camp for the kids in the summer and the kids love it I love coming in to the facility and seeing all the kids with smiles on there face while they are riding .

Just came back from a family vacation at the ranch. First time there (since I was a little kid) and…read morewe had an amazing time! Loved the all-inclusive aspect and the fact that we could do a little at a time and hang out in the room whenever we wanted. Sports and games all over the property makes it easy to have fun, plus lots of places to relax. The food was delicious and the staff was super helpful and friendly.

If you were to choose between Rocking Horse Ranch and Great Wolf Lodge, it's an easy choice. Yes,…read moreRocking Horse Ranch is more expensive but there is an endless amount of activities for the kids to do. We came on the coldest weekend of the year but my kids had a blast skiing, snow tubing, horseback riding, pony rides, arcade, game room, playing laser tag, swimming in the pool, the outdoor hot tub, and the nightly shows. Food is included in the price and it is buffet style for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is not but you are more than welcome to order more and take things to go. There's snacks available between lunch and dinner but there's also hot chocolate/coffee available all day long with some pastries. The only downside were the rooms. They are connected so if you have loud neighbors, you won't be getting good sleep. Overall, my kids loved the place and want to go back soon. I guess we'll have to wait for another Black Friday deal.

Our brunch with donkeys (and frankly all the animals there on the farm) was such a delight! We had…read morethe best time, every small detail for our comfort was realized by Kaity. The brunch was absolutely delicious, we had everything from fresh hard boiled eggs, salad, quiche, pastries, fresh fruit and more. I'll definitely be going back, to see Ellie their gorgeous horse, and do some glamping in the cozy, comfy tent. Such a wonderful experience!!

My grandson (a toddler) and I had a wonderful visit to Hemlock Hill Farm today. Kaity and her son…read morewere warm and welcoming. We were introduced to all the horses and donkeys, the goats and the chickens. Kaity was wonderful with my grandson who became more comfortable with the animals and the barn over the visit. All the animals are so well cared for and it was a great experience all around. We hope to come back another time. It was a lovely way for my grandson to meet larger animals and start to be comfortable with them.

This park is absolutely beautiful. Great views! It is a must see if in the Hudson valley area. New…read moreYork does have some pretty spectacular mountains. It's a nice clean park. Lots of picnic tables. It's nice to go somewhere and people actually adhere to the no smoking/vaping signs.

I made my Gunks debut yesterday and was pretty impressed despite the very meh weather situation…read more This is about 90 minutes from my HQ so probably right at the limit of a convenient day hike, and somehow I've never really been in this area before beyond travelling past it going up and down the NY Thruway. Definitely returning when the sun is actually out. I did the 8.7-mile Castle Point hike (my gut says it wasn't QUITE that long, but I don't want to argue with my book) from the Awosting parking lot down the Mossy Glen Trail (yellow blazes), making a left onto and up Blueberry Run (blue) to Castle Point itself, and then went basically straight down the cliff on the Scenic Trail (lavenderish and formerly light blue), down the Rainbow Falls Trail (orange) and finally making a right on the Lower Awosting Carriageway back to the parking lot. Wasn't crazy about the $10 fee to park - nature shouldn't cost anything - but it is what it is. It's really a shame the weather was crappy because I could tell that viewpoint at Castle Point is legit - it's sprawling and you can see for miles in almost every direction. That's a very cool spot and easily the highlight of the hike. There are some interesting viewpoints throughout the rest of the adventure, but I'd say they're primarily of rock formations and water features, which have their selling points but nothing beats a view at the top. I'm in decent hiking shape right now, and this was just not particularly challenging for me. The only part where I was even a little out of breath (and it was humid, so grain of salt in that regard) was on Blueberry Run, which was a pretty steady incline up, but really not hardcore at all from my perspective. The drop down from Castle Point on the Scenic Trail IS a little tricky and you really want to spend some time there figuring out where your foot is going to go next. Compared to other parks in the tristate area, this one definitely has more hazards, cliffs you could potentially fall down, etc. But same token, it has a ton of these completely flat carriageways as well. It rained while I was on the Rainbow Falls trail and I DID slip/fall on some of the rocks at one point, but that's on me since I willingly came over here knowing what the forecast was. Wasn't impressed by the Rainbow Falls themselves, and neither were the other hikers who were there at the time. Maybe it was just not an ideal situation for them, but it's been rainy the last few days so unclear when you should take advantage of the optics there. The trail blazes were EXCELLENT, easily some of the best I've ever encountered. Each official trail had an accompanying sign that not only gave you the name of the trail, but a map of the nearby area, the grade profile so you can see what types of inclines/declines you'll experience on that trail and tons of basic facts. Really well done stuff. The bathroom situation was pretty good as well, with ample restroom options in the parking lot albeit without plumbing. You get what you get, but I'll take a clean bathroom situation in a heartbeat, regardless. Okay wildlife sightings. The rain I'm sure kept some of the good quality shizzle away, but I got a cool shot of a black vulture and saw an edgy newt. Worth the trek and will return for further investigation shortly.

It's an enjoyable day to share with family. We noticed a few day camp trippers there…read more There's plenty of rides, for all ages and for those in search for adventure, and Midway games of skill (?). There is an assortment of demonstrations during the day fireworks in the evening and live music, also in the evening. Bring cash. However, they do take credit cards, but you will be charged a service fee. The grounds are well-maintained and easy to navigate.

I happen to come here many years back when I was younger, and have to say, a lot has changed for…read moresure in terms of vendors, and also the disappearance of many of them. There are many reasons for it, but you can decide on that. Getting in was not so bad, but it did take a long time to get in and was a hassle. The lines were very long considering it was the first day when we visited. There was a lot of food and drink vendors to choose from, and some of them had a lot of cool and unique stuff. There are enough rides for a lot to enjoy, with it being gentle and intense. Games also is a plus for youngsters. There are also many events that go on in the fair for everyone's entertainment, such as concerts, pig races, to name a few. For animal lovers, there are plenty of animals to look at. A lot to provide, but the money will burn through, especially at the high prices. Can be annoying in ways, but make sure to bring enough. Bring on the fun!