Me and my step daughter took the horseback tour and it was awesome. Meagan was excellent and the…read morehorse i had was so easy to ride. His name was Jimmety crickets. I called him big Jim. my step dayghter had Cholua , she was awesome as well. Highly recommend!!!!

My daughter and I came up from Sarasota-2.5 hrs south- to do the trail ride. The place is very…read moreclean, well run, and so scenic. The horses were beautiful and well behaved. The trail was definitely different and very scenic, with some steep and narrow paths; not your typical flat and boring. The guests loaded up on a golf cart type vehicle to get from check in to the barn. Then we all waited while Sadie (?) actually grilled and ate a hot dog in front of us!! Same girl upon giving her instructions told everyone "to make your horse go, kick it, and if it doesn't go keep kicking it.. harder". I was appalled!!! One the trail ride, the other girl would take a few photos. I did want pictures of my daughter and I together,so I bought the package. Which is everyone in your group, and that day I think there were 12 or so. The photos she took were not good,but what can ya do? I should have let a gentleman in the group who offered to take my phone and take pictures. Also, between waiting to get on a horse and then waiting for everyone to dismount and get back to the main building, the total ride time was just under an hour. It really is pretty though. I think there were just too many people who booked the same day and time leading to a slightly shorter ride.

This place had great reviews on Yelp so I went for it! It was slightly underwhelming for what the…read moreother reviews were saying. It was an experience to be in the rural country area of Florida. Time stops here so don't expect everything to be as the time slot shows. It's a dirt road out to a house with a little old sign that barely appears to be the business. We pulled in and looked around for the owner and eventually found him preparing everything for our ride. It took some time standing around waiting for some of this family to arrive to go on the ride with us. In the mean time we let the goats and chickens and horses. All the horses look well taken care of and all the animals seem happy so that was a good sign. There's a definitely a moment of "what did I get us into" when we pulled up to the barn and saw the behind the scenes and waited around a bit for them to load everything up into the trailer. We followed them to the trailhead in our car and then saddled up and headed out. I've been on better trails before for the ride so it was a bit underwhelming, but the Florida foliage was unique and pretty. Our guide was training a new lead horse so we had a few jumpy moments, but he knows what he's doing and showed us his training skills. All our horses were very well behaved and felt safe to be on. Overall, it's definitely a novice business and nothing special, but the opportunity to interact with some real country folks made it feel authentic and was neat.

Makin' Tracks Trail Rides is a family owned business and you truly feel the love and warmth of the…read morecommunity and love the workers and stable hands give to the rides. I really recommend this ride to anyone! they do a 75$ hour dry trail ride and a 120$ 3 hour ride where you spend one hour riding to the river an hour litterly swimming with the horses and an hour coming back ! We did the dry ride and will def be back for the swimming with the horses. Thank you for showing my mom and i a great time!!

The people there are generous, the environment there is also fantastic. If you're looking for…read morevolunteer work and you love horses this is the place for you

Stirrups n Strides is perhaps one of the most impressive riding stables I have been at. They are…read morea riding program for handicapped people. The barn is professionally run by a horse person who has shown and trainers horses for over 40 years. They request a phone call to make an appointment for a tour.

This is a very large, comprehensive, trail system based on a former railbed. However, as the paved…read morerailbed trail is what is most-known of the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail, I wish to draw attention to the fact that there are a number of smaller, unpaved, trails appropriate for hikers or mountain bikes intersecting with the main trail and located there for access from the main trail. The Susan Wright Trail is one of such and is very nice. There are also various viewing platforms along the way and the integration with Paynes Prairie is very good. It is perfectly possible to drive in a car to one of several trailheads, park, and go biking or running or hiking without doing the entire trail and I think that's what a lot of people use this trail for, especially runners. Bugs can be bad, even in cooler weather as much of the trail abuts swampy areas and for the same reason, the smaller, unpaved trails can be flooded or muddy after even moderate rains. You should also remain on the lookout for snakes as they tend to come to the paved trail to sun themselves. Overall, a nice experience and a great addition to the State Parks offerings in and around Alachua County.

Three weeks ago I was biking this trail for the first time. I somehow crashed and was knocked…read moreunconscious. I was taken by ambulance to the ER and sustained a brain bleed. I have absolutely no recollection of my ride that morning or how or why I crashed. I am since in touch with a local bike club and am learning crashes are not uncommon, due to several reasons, one of which is poor trail maintenance. Apparently there is also a bridge where many accidents have occurred. I don't know if my accident happened there. So just putting this out there to be careful if you decide to ride this trail.

Sylvia Zerbini, a 9th generation circus artist, puts on a great show in Williston, FL, a half an…read morehour NW of Ocala and the same distance SW of Gainesville. Beautifully trained horses and aerialists. Part Barnum & Bailey. Part Cirque du Soleil. Which makes sense since she performed with both of them for about 20 years combined. If you get the VIP tickets ($17 extra as of today), you get free wine (several choices) or bottled water, and a large, unlimited high-end charcuterie spread, including spiral sliced ham, salami, Brie, Swiss, pepper jack, camembert, and cheddar cheeses, cornishon pickles, figs, dried mango slices, walnuts, heirloom cherry tomatoes, stuffed olives, grapes, and assorted crackers. And, of course, popcorn just like you'd get at a circus. Go. Don't sleep on this amazing show. Every Saturday and Sunday at 4:30. https://sylviazerbini.com

The performance of the horses and the way the trainer handled them was impressive…read more The dancer and acrobat was elegant as were the violin players.

My girlfriend and I booked a trip with Wild West Horse Tours in Ocala, FL thinking we'd have a nice…read moreday date riding horses on a Saturday and it turned out to be quite a mistake. I'm posting this with the genuine hope that no one else will repeat our error in judgment and will avoid this company at all costs. We got the first red flag when we contacted them through the website to make sure the date and time were available. Two different people from their company called us four times over the course of two hours trying to get our credit card info to book the trip. Initially, I thought, "Perhaps they're just disorganized, but really want the business; times are tough, right?" I should have pulled the plug then. The lady I spoke with to book the trip seemed very friendly and took down our information and confirmed us X weeks in advance for the date and time that we wanted on a Saturday afternoon. However, after the call, we never received a confirmation email or anything stating that the card was being charged or that they were expecting us... red flag number 2. The charges for the trip appeared on the card, so we knew they had at least gotten our information correct. On the Monday before the Saturday of our trip, my girlfriend wanted to make certain that we were confirmed, so she emailed the company checking to make sure we were still confirmed for Saturday. Someone named George responded that we were confirmed for Saturday at 11 and said he was sorry that we didn't receive a confirmation email, that maybe it was in our spam box. There was no email in the spam box from them, though the spam box would have been a fitting place for correspondence from Wild West Horse Tours. Regardless, we felt better having received the email confirmation from George. On the confirmed Saturday morning we drove for 2.5 hours to Foxtrotter Ranch in Ocala, FL. We very excited when we arrived 25 minutes early and saw that there were other riders already on horses, prepared to go on the trail ride. We walked into the stable area and were met by one of the workers who was walking a horse out of a stable towards the other riders. His less than cordial first words were, "We don't have any more horses." I was stunned and said, "Are you serious? We confirmed with you on Monday and we just drove 2.5 hours to get here." He simply responded, "You'll have to talk to George about that. You might go up the road to Cactus Jack's (another horse tour company), he probably has some horses." And then he walked away with no apologies or any semblance of helpfulness to our inconvenience and expense. We returned to the car with our confirmation email in hand and I promptly called the number for Wild West Horse Tours and there was no answer, so I left a voice mail message that I wanted someone to call me as soon as possible. No one returned my call, so I called again a few minutes later. This time I got George on the phone and explained the situation and that I wanted a refund. He didn't even bother to apologize for the inconvenience and expense that his company's incompetence and disorganization had caused, he just said that he would take care of the refund... red flag number 3. At this point, we were greatly concerned that the whole website was perhaps a front for a credit card scam and that we should keep an eye out for fraudulent charges. In the interest of proactively retaining legal paperwork, we emailed him later that same day, informing him of our dissatisfaction with Wild West Horse Tours and that we expected to see the refund posted to the account by the end of the week. He never responded. We received an email from the company that processes their credit card transactions, INRG Marketing in Palm Coast, FL with an email from Gloria who was the first person to offer an apology for Wild West Horse Tours' failure to provide services. She stated that we would receive a refund, gave us a confirmation number and informed us that it should take several days for the credit to appear on the account. In summary, after they get your credit card information, the staff is incompetent, disorganized, rude, unhelpful, unconcerned and fortunately, with these as their company characteristics, probably won't be in business much longer. Do NOT waste your time or money on them; find a reputable company to work with if you are looking to book a trail ride.

My daughter takes lessons and boards her pony She loves…read moreeveryone there The people are great Elana, Luciano, Ana All very caring and dedicated to the students and the horses Every time we go there we see them busy at work with the horses It's more then a job to them. You see the love they have for all the horses on their ranch. It's a joy to watch. We are very happy to have found Cavalia Stables It's a perfect match for us.

From the owner: Cavalia Stables is a premier equestrian facility in Southwest Ranches, Florida that offers an…read moreIntegrative Equine Mentoring & Sport program including Equestrian Sports Education - horseback riding lessons for beginners intermediate and advance competitive riders and Equine Assisted Activities - therapeutic riding lessons kids and adults with special needs. In both of our IEMS programs, the main goal is to achieve our riders expectations through the power of horses.

Took the whole family riding on Wednesday (03/23) and had an amazing time. The entire ranch crew…read morewere so patient and awesome with my kids taking the time to teach them so much including feeding, watering and brushing the horses in addition to riding them. My wife and two older kids went on a trail ride while my two younger kids rode in the arena and were given instructions to know how to control the horses and give them commands. Special thanks to Beth, Brenda and Cathy for a memorable experience that has my kids already planning our next trip to the area and a stop at the Blue Moon Ranch.

I've known the owners for a long time. If you're looking to ride or learn how to ride this is the…read moreplace for you. Trail rides, lessons, parties, you name it they do it. They also take trips to go scalloping.

Coon Hollo Farm is a family run farm. It has been in the same family for 5 generations. This is the…read morefirst year that they opened their farm to the public and created a corn maze, had hayrides, a "farmyard" playground, and small pumpkin patch. I took my 2 year old son on Halloween. It was surprisingly not very busy that day but, apparently, that was not the norm. My son was too tired to explore much and just wanted to be held. So I decided to take him on the hayride. It was a nice ride out to a pasture where a herd of cows were grazing. The driver took us right into the middle of the herd and they swarmed us, knowing it meant food. Alex was scared by the cows, but I was impressed and enjoyed feeding the cows the feed they provided. I would say we were out there for at least 10 min before they took us back. Again I tried to get Alex to play, unsuccessfully. But we did take a short walk through the corn maze which he seemed to like because it was an easy path to follow. After that, he explored some tractors they had set up in the play area. I tried to get him interested in romping around in the hay play fort, but he wasn't very interested. The farm offered another little ride which we got on and I think he liked it. I know I did. I'm such a kid at heart. We didn't hang out long after that because Alex was just exhausted and so was I. I feel like it was a nice time shared with my son. It had potential to be much better if he had taken a nap that day and was well rested. I thought the pumpkin patch was small. The play area was really nice. They did offer a concession stand. One of my coworkers said the burgers were great and a good price. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to taste them myself. Since this was their first year, I definitely see room for improvement. It definitely has potential to become something really great. It was definitely worth the $8 spent.

What a great place to spend an afternoon outdoors enjoying fall in Florida. The $10 admission…read morecovers the maze, putt putt golf, a corn pit, hay ride, and several other entertainment activities. My kid had a blast playing for hours. The food is good (they have a barn/cafe) and plan on spending $10-15 on drinks, ice cream etc.