ALERT: Please use the bathroom before coming here. When arriving to the farm I asked to use the restroom and she offered me a roll of toilet paper and directed me to a literal barn stall where there were horses and cows in there (not toilet seat, not even a porta-potty) . Personally I was not comfortable exposing my lady parts to a pile of hay/dirt/mud with animals looking at me . I held it for an hour.
Yesterday my good friend and I went horseback riding with who I'm assuming to be Louisa Rice. We did the Ice cream trail at 03:30pm today and let me just humbly share, unfortunately the 3 stars are for the 3 horses and not Louisa. Firstly, I'm only assuming the horse riding instructor's name was Louisa because she didn't introduce herself as the instructor upon my friend and I's arrival .
I'm assuming it was her name because, that was the name listed in the booking confirmation via email. Upon our arrival she was clearly very annoyed and didn't want to be there. I am assuming this because she didn't introduce herself, she gave us little to no instruction before getting on the horses, she never asked if we had any prior experience with horseback riding and remained with a passive aggressive/rude disposition for the majority of the session.
The instructor today had us immediately hop on the horses without a demonstration first even though we quite literally have no experience with horseback riding lol . I know super safe ... Once we actually got on the horses with some help and guidance, she gave us what I would describe as a 60 second crash course... This was not enough time for us to properly learn how to steer/guide the horses in different directions or know what to do in case of an emergency.
The three horses she chose was Juno (normal/mild) temperament, Duck (Very sensitive to touch and hyperactive) and Oden. She made us aware that Oden was old (20 years old), had a history of abuse and that he had an attitude today. Just the fact that she mentioned he had an attitude and had to pop the his butt with her hand to get him to move closer to me....Immediately, why would she give me that horse to ride??? Oden should have been specifically Louisa's horse to ride for the session today in my opinion. Given that I have no experience with horses, let alone experience with horses who have attitudes, are stubborn and in an elderly state, to me, this was already neglectful on Louisa's part.
As we rode the trail, there were multiple times that I remained 6 + feet behind Louisa, my friend and their horses while riding Oden. At this point Louisa was doing what I believe to be yelling instructions, but how was I supposed to hear any of what she was saying being 6+feet behind??I did my best to keep Oden safe given her poor instructions or lack thereof.
The most terrifying portion is when we had to make a sharp right turn at the cross walk. At this time, Oden was not as receptive to the pulling of the reigns and ended up scratching his leg on the pillar . It was very scary and he was bleeding . Louisa's response during this time was to ask me "why do you have your hands up to you boobs?" And to "look where I'm going" I don't know if she was trying to guide me, but I am not sure what she was talking about at this time. She also asked me to "fix myself" when getting off of Oden referring to my breasts again . This was very strange . I am not sure why she kept making references to my breasts ???
At the point where I was off the horse we made it to the ice cream stop (By the way, the Ice cream is not included in the $165 you pay, you have to buy the ice cream yourself). Louisa remained with the horses while she let my friend and I purchase ice cream and then shortly after, left me and my friend Shakila unsupervised with all 3 horses at least 3 times.
She left us with the horses while she left to gather napkins and water to clean Oden. Her instruction was to hold the rubber rope while she left, that's it. Oden looked to be actively in distress, walking in circles, moving around constantly and even tried to back away from me a couple of times while I held the rubber rope as instructed. I was very afraid and I expressed this concern to Louisa several times. Unfortunately she was very dismissive and communicated with me that she would let me know if there was something to be worried about. How could she do this if she had been walking away multiple times for minutes while oden was in distress?? We also did not get to brush the horses as per the ice cream trail package .
Overall the horses were not to blame for Louisa's unsafe conduct . One good thing is that there is a very sweet farm dog here ! read more