In December our daughter was bit in the face by a pony at a Chamberlin Pony Rides petting zoo. I do not normally write negative reviews but the amount of neglect that led to this incident as well as the lack of compassion and accountability afterward is astonishing. We have never had any intent to take legal action, but we need to share our incident so that another child does not have to go through the same terrible experience. Let me start by saying, we certainly understand that any animal can bite, that is a risk you take interacting with them. However, this incident could have been prevented. An irresponsible animal owner and the lack of proper procedures at Chamberlin is to blame. At the petting zoo, there were three pens of animals with employees in two, no employees at the pony pen. My daughter, who has ridden horses for 3 years, very gently pet one of the ponies. In an instant the pony turned her head and bit my daughter on the cheek. There were teeth marks visible on both the top and bottom and it was bleeding. EMS was called and we were sent to the emergency room where they cleaned the wound and put her on Augmentin. As awful as this was, we were aware the bite could have been much worse - a finger, an ear, an even deeper bite...so we were at least thankful for that. After the incident, I followed up with Chamberlin as we needed to ensure the pony was up to date on its vaccinations. We were told we needed to talk to our Event Manager as they book various farms for their events. According to their FB page, "we do not farm out our parties to our friends or other companies". Later the company told us that the farms are contractors 'doing business as' Chamberlin so they stand behind their statement. I believe the intent of the statement is to instill confidence that Chamberlin knows the animals and that they are healthy. That is inaccurate. Chamberlin assured us their animals have to be up to date on vaccinations. However, I wanted to confirm that with the actual pony owner. The first thing the owner, Melissa, did was reference the Michigan law stating they are not responsible for injuries from the animals. There was no compassion, no inquiry as to how she was doing. Come to find out Melissa doesn't know if the vaccinations are current. Melissa agrees to reach out to the vet and have the horse evaluated. In fact, the pony was overdue on all of her shots, including rabies. So then we have to work with our Pediatrician to determine if our daughter has to have the series of rabies vaccinations, which are awful. We even had to consult with a Pediatric Infectious Disease Doctor who thankfully said rabies was rare, although not impossible, in horses and we should be ok. Furthermore, the vet tells Melissa, which she then texts to me, "Her (the pony's) moody attitude is probably directly connected to her baby being weaned right now". This makes it clear Melissa is an unknowledgeable owner and the pony was not in any condition to be at the petting zoo. There is obviously no procedure in place for Chamberlin to verify the health status of the animals they send to these events. We have a dog and every single time we board her we have to supply updated records. How this is not being done with much larger animals is beyond me. I reached back out to Chamberlin as I have no way of knowing how much information Melissa shared with them. I called three times and never got a call back from anyone, so, I sent a FB message and again the first message was a link to the Michigan law releasing them from blame. I proceeded to explain our experience and the person messaging said "I will pass this information along to the Chamberlin management team". I never received a follow up. I cannot believe this is how they run their business. I just wanted assurance they would evaluate their processes and rectify their failings. We are reasonable people who understand things happen but the numerous neglectful actions by Melissa and Chamberlin are disturbing. We can't in good conscience keep this to yourselves and let another child be harmed. read more

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Rider, Austin and Chase did an amazing job getting everything set up for our party . They also helped educate our guest about the animals. I would have to say they made up for any lost mins on our time for sure. I understand it does take a little bit of time loading and unloading at each party but these 3 guys made sure they made it up with extra animals. read more

Chamberlin Pony Rides - Horseback Riding Near Me

BEWARE...BEWARE... BEWARE I had the most horrific experience with Chamberlain Pony Rides, specifically Desiree. For 3 weeks I expressed how this event was a very important & special event for my 7 year old. Desiree shows up and would not even get out of the truck. I had to walk up to the truck 15 minutes later and said is there something I can do. Are you Desiree? She wouldn't even look up she talked to me looking at her lap. She said "I am here to pick up $375 in cash". I said can I at least see the animals she said "No". Her body language was horrible as if she was doing me a favor. Totally disrepectful & unprofessional & did not care what I thought. I said Desiree your body language is really bad. She clapped her hands and said "That's it I'm out". I did not have a chance to comminicate at all with her. I had a yard full of children that was deeply disappointed. She was just waiting for an opportunity to leave. Very disappointed but so glad I did not give up the money & got this type of service. Terrible... Terrible... Terrible representative of this company. I very briefly talk to Jeff Chamberlain "The owner". There was a phone ringing in the bacground. He said this is her right now let me call you back in 5 minutes. I knew he would not call back & he didn't. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY!!! I requesred 2 ponies & a goat. The animal did not look like a pony and the other so called pony was laying down looked weak like it was sick. read more

I would not recommend this company at all!!!! Poor communication on everyone's end! I had a party scheduled and it took me 4 days of Phone tag to get in touch with my "party planner". There was suppose to be horrible thunderstorms on the day my party was and I wanted to cancel Due to having to postpone my party to the next day. They were not available to do it the next day so I asked for a refund. Let me explain that on their website it says absolutely no where about not being able to refund any money. It only says they will cancel or transfer to another day. Since this was not possible because they were unavailable I asked for a refund. I tried everything to transfer it to the next day but they seemed very unwilling to do so. The lady (manager) is extremely rude on more then one occasion. After she told me this was canceled. 3 girls who looked like they were teenagers showed up to my home and claimed they had no idea that this was canceled?! It was not their fault but more of the mangers fault for not telling them. They bash other companies on their website and claim that they are the best around. They are horrible and I have never experienced such poor communication and compassion for my kids party before.i am still waiting on my refund of my deposit so we will see. read more

About a week and half before our event I placed a reservation through gig master. I didn't hear anything so I decided to call good thing I did because they didn't see it. As I made my reservations so Saturday the 18th the reservation lady Sally confirmed everything for 3 pm on Saturday the 18th. She said I would need to call the event lady Debbie a few days before the party to go over everything. Which I called Tuesday or Wednesday the week of and Debbie advised me that she don't have my party in here schedule she had to look and see where I was placed at. After she look she said I was with Cindy and she gave me her number. I was not notified at all that I was switched from another party coordinator. On Thursday Cindy called me to go over everything she confirmed my 3-4 and told me what I needed, all was good. Then Friday morning she called me again to go over what we just covered and I replied "didn't we go over this yesterday" she said yes but she want to confirm again. Okay that's fine, she then said so were schedule from 1-2? I replied back No, I am set for 3-4 and we went over this yesterday. I even have it in email. She said she has it for 1-2 things god messed up etc. Then she ask if we can meet in the middle since she has another party from 5-6 and she had to go to Washington. Unfortunately I set 3-4 for a reason. SO I ask for a discount since I would have to change my time and schedule for her to come earlier. She said what kind of discount I wanted, I said I'm asking you what you can give. She said I can get glitter for the kids that don't come off since they will be swimming now and will have the face painting wash off since they are coming early before the party is over. I said no. She then said my party as a hardship on her team because I wasn't supposed to be with her and I was placed with her and I am taking away her animal person and a face painter so she has to scramble to make things work. I immediately said excuse me did you just say my party was basically an inconvenience on your team because they placed my party onto you. She said yes and I was so mortified I said if it best I can cancel. She said is that something you want to do. I'm like no this is a day before the party and you already confirmed everything and now it is a huge problem. I couldn't believe she just said all of those things to me. She has horrible customer service skills and managing her team. The girls were great and did apologize on her behalf and said she is known for doing this to customer. Honestly I shouldn't even have paid. I should have just gave the girls their tips. SO last but no least the ending. I emailed the reservation lady sally and another lady email back (Monica Rupp) wrote me and said I'm very glad you are all set. I'm sure you will be very happy with the event. Again, Cindy has had some personal issues and is under a lot of stress. I'm sure you can understand. We all try to be perfect. However, it sounds like it was a miss communication and is now resolved. ( is this what companies say to its customers?) (RIDICULOUS) Horrible Company and Customer Service/Management!! read more

This is by far the worst company I have dealt with. Their customer service is horrible and what you pay for you do not receive at the time of the party. I had them for a birthday party, first of all I paid for a clown with face painting and balloon twisting. We only had a girl that was super rude to all my guests including the children. Many people at the party complained how rude the whole staff was. She was not dressed up as a clown and she did not do balloon twisting for any of the children. We were also supposed to have a bubble machine but the staff did not provide us that. They claimed they did not have an extension cord for the machine. When I tried calling the company after the event I never received a call back I only received any email apologizing. They didn't offer to give me some of my money back for the services I didn't receive. I would not recommend this company at all!!!! read more