Can I just start by saying Lauren has taken me to greater heights not only in the saddle but in life as well? I've achieved goals higher than I ever thought, and I have more in mind that I know can easily be met in this program. With a supportive group of friends and an even more supportive friend/coach/trainer, all our dreams are really coming true. I came to know Lauren through just a simple Facebook message just desperate to be with a barn family and I have not regretted that whatsoever. I just regret not coming sooner. The instructors are extremely knowledgeable and love what they do. My opinion?? This barn really is a gem worth finding. Absolutely ride here if you want to show, have fun or do both!! read more

Vogel Equine - Horseback Riding Near Me - San Juan Capistrano, California

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We love this barn. Upbeat and positive. My daughter has been riding for 10 or so years, but only Western. Vogel Equine and Taryn had my daughter (safely) jumping on the 2nd lesson. My daughter LOVES Taryn and her teaching style. Pricing is very fair/competitive. It's especially great when her lessons are private. Highly recommend Vogel Equine. read more

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The lesson horses are overworked and medicated for pain and rideability. The "care" and "family barn feel" is fake, the trainers are users and frankly are not that knowledgeable when it comes to the finesse of connection between horse and rider. I would rather not ride then be under the leadership of these arena clowns. The barn is part of a larger facility and everyone looks at Vogel Equine as an abusive situation. You would have to be blind to buy a horse from this woman. I guarantee you will overpay. It really is about the bottom line here. read more

First time rider, went with my lady, we had a great fun experience and connection with the horses. Would definitely recommend Vogel Equine to all my friends and family. I look forward for my second Ride and third.... read more

A very unprofessional place to take your kids for lessons. They cancel at the last minute, and are very unresponsive to calls and texts. The owner does not life in California, and has a lady running the business in a very unkind and disrespectful manner. She's uses other 13yo and under kids to give lessos to beginners. After charging for a package, they refused to give the money back when it was them who canceled the lessons. They even used my child picture for marketing purposes, without my concent. We are very glad we found another barn where both parents and kids are feel respected. It really was a nightmare to get to meet these people. There are many other barns in the area which offer a better service. Stay away from this place if you want to keep your child safe! read more

SECOND UPDATE: Referring me as being obese or 300lb doesn't validate your point of view I have not been nor have ever been close to 300lbs. If this was true wouldn't this make the trainer negligent for allowing me to ride in the first place. Which is the exact point behind my review. My mount was switched at the last moment so something not appropriate for my skill level. See Jack's review for another negligent situation. UPDATE: Nothing in this review has been exaggerated. Would like to see a real positive review not one that is a response to a negative review or prompted by the owner. Also note all the new reviews are by people who just signed up for Yelp and seem like rebuttals that essential blame someone for a bad experience "timid", "obese" "doesn't listen". Yelpers if you were really happy with your experience you would have posted a long time ago and not waited for the owner to ask you to do so. My review still stands. Don't ride here. You'll feel like your getting places and having a good time but really your being taken for a big long ride. Ask some people in the industry. They'll tell you the real truth Recommended Reading: Green: The Missing Horseback Rider's Guide for Keeping Your Money, Sanity, and Joy ORIGINAL REVIEW I've been hesitating about writing this review for years because I didn't want the owner to be mad at me but in retrospect why should I care about the opinion of a trainer that cares nothing for her students safety. Just about the money and if your going to buy one of her overpriced feedlot horses. In the 6 months I was a student there I was pushed beyond my ability and given green unsafe horses to ride. If you fell it was your fault. You were mocked if you didn't want to beat your horse into submission. Gossip behind your back was a guaranteed. For the month of my accident I had paid for 1/2 training and a 1/2 lease for a pony. The pony wasn't available one day because she had overbooked lessons and only had 1-2 lesson horses. So I was assigned to ride a horse that she didn't actually own or have permission to use in lessons. A recently off the track racehorse who I had seen freak out several times but I was reassured that she had made progress. I had only been riding for 10 weeks at that point. I fell badly. (Supposedly my fault) I broke my wrist and nose and was taken to the local hospital as an incoming trauma. Cost if I hadn't of had insurance $55,000. I was off work for a month and went back early only because I couldn't eat the lost income of $600 a week the short term disability didn't cover. My husband read the situation at the time better than I did stating when Lauren called him that she sounded more concerned about her liability than my wellbeing. Could I have sued? Of course I never signed a proper liability agreement for that facility though I offered to do so after the fact and she didn't take me up on that offer. But what would I have ended up with a few crappy ponies? She owed money to everyone. Not a very good businesswomen. So hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband because it's just not safe here and I'll probably never ride again and its a real shame. She's a smooth talker but has a bad reputation. read more

Our 8 yr old daughter has been riding since she was 4, she's only had 1 other trainer. When we switched her to Vogel she rode more and learned more in the first lesson than she had in the almost 4 years she has been riding! We can't say enough how happy we are with Lauren and Ali. Our daughter is over the moon with how much she's getting out of each lesson. Not to mention the their prices very competitive! If I could give 10 stars I would read more

Vogel Equine - Horseback Riding Near Me - San Juan Capistrano, California

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I would like to begin by sharing my sadness to see that there only negative reviews left on this page after knowing there were many positives. I began my journey by stumbling across Vogel Equine during a routing trip to the neighboring dog park. I had ridden and shown western as a child and young adult, however life got away from me at 18 and riding took a back seat. In September 2012, I had my first lesson with VE. I was amazed at how this entire barn was not just a community but a family. A place where children and adults alike learned the discipline and responsibility of this great sport. My new found journey has had its bumps along the way, that is for sure. Only contributing factors were things caused by myself. However, with Lauren Vogel's dedication and true instruction I have found a way to finally see that I have achieved MY dream. Lauren has guided me to a level I didn't think possible, at least not this late in life for sure! I have witnessed VE guiding so many riders to confidence and levels that riders at other barns never get the opportunity to achieve. Funny part is.......the instruction here is still more competitive price wise than any other in the area. Being a business professional myself, I can definitely understand that you can never please 100% of the people 100% of the time, which is something that rings loud and clear as it is typically those not satisfied that are the ones to post negative reviews. Then, those of us that are, are filtered or unheard. I agree attacking anyone on their physical limitations is not correct, however you do need to be of a certain physical condition to excel at riding. Hopefully, there will be others that do see this and understand the good out weigh the bad by miles. read more

I'm writing this review because it shows the most recent review is 22 months old. A lot can change in a business in 22 months and I was introduced to Vogel Equine within that time, so can't speak to the previous reviews. I do know that some changes have been made and location has been changed in the last two years. My personal experience with Lauren has been excellent. She's a very knowledgeable professional and invests a lot into her clients. She has a slightly more relaxed approach to lessons, which I find helps me. She's not super nitpicky and never gets snippy. She's patient and helpful. She does a bit of all of it and is very transparent with her endeavors. She competes/shows with her clients. I think it's important to watch a coach perform what they're coaching. And she makes it look so easy and fun! read more

I love riding with Lauren and have learned so much riding with her over the last year. She does a great job of encouraging me, and correcting me so I can continue to improve. I appreciate that she has horses available for lessons that are suitable for my level. Lauren is flexible with scheduling and easy to get along with. Everyone at the barn is very supporting of one another and friendly. I love riding at Vogel Equine and would highly recommend Lauren to anyone else looking for a great trainer and barn! read more

Great place to ride and to learn. Love the trainers and good new friends. Would recommend this school.

This was my first time at Vogel Equine, but it won't be my last! Friendly folks especially my trainer, Allie, who was a delight! She was knowledgeable and extremely patient. A great experience! Thanks! read more

Tried for over a year to contact this merchant in order to redeem a Groupon. I emailed several times and left over 20 voicemails. I have never been able to reach someone and have had no calls or emails returned. Either this business is no longer operating, or they do not have the common courtesy to follow up with potential clients. In the end, after 16 months of no contact, I received a refund from Groupon. read more

My daughter, who is 9, has recently started taking lessons at Vogel, and she is enamored. We moved over from another barn (one we had been at for over a year and a half that we genuinely liked) because my daughter was ready to try a barn that focuses more on jumping. Switching is always a gamble, and of course I hoped it would be a good fit personality-wise. I'm happy to say we are thrilled with Vogel. Lauren is fun, energetic, and engaged with all her riders. She is very responsive to my questions and scheduling requests, which is something I genuinely appreciate. The other Vogel trainer, Heather, is someone we've known for a while and absolutely adore; she has years of experience with horses and training, and has such a good way with kids. The horses are well-trained, healthy, and good for young and experienced riders alike. One important factor that we consider as parents is the culture of the barn--are the other riders nice kids? How do the older kids treat the younger ones? Do they work together as a team? I have to say I am SO impressed with the kids at the VE barn; they've welcomed my girl so warmly and are always willing to help. This has been a huge confidence boost for my little rider, and Vogel has been a great fit for my family. read more

I was prompted by a friend to post this - a few other families bought a package on LIVINGSOCIAL.com, looked like a good deal. We all had the same problem - NO ANSWER,NO MESSAGES RETURNED. Not such a good deal if you cannot use it OR it takes YOUR valuable time just to get them to let your redeem your purchase. It took months to schedule a lesson. When we went looking for answers, we found numerous sites telling of bad experiences in too many different areas. We all thought LIVINGSOCIAL.com did at least one minute of research before promoting businesses to their followers - I mean, that IS what they do, get paid to promote to their followers. Apparently NOT, instead one mom called LIVINGSOCIAL to complain and she finally got a call back from VOGEL, her child had a lesson and it was HORRIBLE. She's posting soon so you can read her experience. I will NOT subject my child to VOGEL, and I wont waste my time with LIVINGSOCIAL anymore. Especially when there are so many others like Groupon. read more

I purchased a groupon for 3 private lessons. At first, it was a bit difficult to schedule my appointments due the the high temperatures in the summer. I started speaking with Tristen and she was gracious enough to get me scheduled, even after the groupon expired. Tristen is also my trainer now and I feel very comfortable with her and the horse that I have been riding . She understands and respects where I am at with my riding experience, which requires a trust between trainer and student. I just want to say a big thank you to Tristen for helping me all the way through my experience and do highly recommend you schedule lessons with her. She is honest, easy to talk with, patient, and very encouraging. If it wasn't for her, I dont think I would have even left a review. Thank you Tristen! read more

My daughter took lessons with Megan on a Groupon deal. We continued lessons beyond the Groupon and enjoyed the barn. Roxy is such a sweet, gentle horse and my daughter (8 years old at the time) loved riding her. Megan was patient, fun and my daughter thought she was cool. We are big fans. Lessons ran about $450 for a package of 10 lessons. I wish they offered a monthly plan (they might now). We left when Megan left and eventually ended up at All About Horses. I recommend both places. read more

I went to redeem my groupon for 1hr lesson. When I was making appointment, the lady told me that me and my bf would be in different session as limited horse/individual session. She put us down 9, 10am. So I made a reservation for brunch at 11:30 accordingly since I thought we would spend 2hrs. When I got there, apparently someone was going to use the horse at 10pm so they put us together without even asking. I didn't mind it but why wouldn't they tell us in advance? :/ Then lesson began with lots of horse brushing.... Our riding didn't start until 9:30. Instructors weren't with us, most of time she'd just tell us to walk, and then later on trot (since I took lesson long time ago) and wasn't really giving us a lesson. She was busy standing in the middle, talking to other people than paying attention to us. Then we returned around 10:10...so I guess you get about 40mins riding time. Honestly, My group lesson long time ago was much better experience. The Instructor from my group lesson was very nice and knowledgeable but not this one. I don't think I'd return again. read more

Lauren and her staff are great! I have ridden at numerous barns over the last 25 years and this is by far the best one yet. The clients are treated like family and the atmosphere is welcoming and fun! I highly recommend Vogel Equine for riders of all levels, if you want to show or are just riding for fun! Doesn't get much better than this!! read more

My daughter began riding here when she was 4. The one star is for my daughter's original trainer. She was very attentive and caring, however a few months after my daughter began she left due to the dynamic at the barn. Vogel does not have adequate horses for young children and my daughter was continuously bumped from the one horse they had that was appropriate for her due to overbooking appointments and my daughter was not a priority because she did not show. The next trainer was not very attentive and was talking on her phone or had a friend in the arena with her during my daughter's lessons. She even pushed the horse my daughter was riding too hard one day and caused my daughter to get bucked off. I come from an equine background and have trained and ridden horses most of my life so I am not some city slicker that knows nothing about horses. Then we went on vacation during the summer so we missed some lesson but we gave notice that we would be missing some lessons scheduled a lesson for when we returned before we left. When we showed up for that lesson there were no trainers at the barn, only a boarder who informed me this trainer had also quit. She called the new trainer for us and we were informed that my daughter's lesson was not put on the calendar and he would not be coming in to give my daughter her lesson. That was the last straw, we ended up leaving the barn with 3 lessons still owed to us. read more

Would not recommend to anyone. Trainers here are completely uneducated, it is just unsafe. All they care about is taking your money. Horses are over worked and medicated to be sound enough to ride. Save your money and invest elsewhere!! read more

My name is Dorothy Bazacas and I started riding with Lauren when I was 56 and I am currently 57 almost 58. I have had some riding experience in the past but not much English or Jumping. Lauren has handled me with kid gloves! I don't know of a Jack, but I do now of___________________ I was there when she fell off the horse. She was not jumping but hacking, there was only one other horse in the arena at time (with trainer), and when she fell off she was simply stopping and lost her balance. Both Lauren and the other trainer ran over to see if she was ok and if she needed help. She lay on the ground screaming, no one could do anything, she didn't want help or a hand, nor the paramedics or anything. After a period of time (almost 10 min) I offered for her to come and sit on my deck which was across from the arena where she fell off. She and Lauren both agreed. She came over and sat down and was very appreciative. I offered to walk her back to the tack room to pick up her personal belongings (she agreed) I also offered to drive her home or to the hospital, she declined and said NO that she was fine so I walked her to her car. And that was that until I read this review. Leaning to ride and riding comes with its challenges and that is part of the sport. I have fallen off many times. It doesn't mean my trainer is reckless, careless or thoughtless...it means that I have fallen off in the process of becoming a better rider. Heck, I fell off the other day at a trot because my horse spooked...no fault of my trainer. When Jack (______) fell off, it was not Lauren's fault, she just lost her balanace and fell off. I think Lauren Vogel is a very talented trainer and a great person!!!! I have been with her over a year and she is not reckless, careless or thoughtless. I also think that she has a great staff!! Not only are they gifted at what they do, but they are nice people. I LOVE my barn family and I wouldn't want to be with anyone else!! It is such a joy to be a part of Vogel Equine...I wish everyone could experience the fun and love of our barn. Oh, and learning how to ride!!!!! Dorothy Bazacas read more

Some of these negative reviews are pretty old. I'm going to talk about my experience working with Vogel Equine for about the last year. My daughter was 6 when she started and is 7 now. We are being trained by the wonderful Kelsie who works for Lauren. I've always felt as if my daughters safety and learning has been at the forefront of the experience at Vogel. I feel like working with the Vogel team and horses has been a very enriching experience for my daughter and that it pays dividends outside of the horse arena in terms of self confidence, poise and responsibility. Having the right kind of horse is important as well - for my daughter we ride "Roxy" who is a smaller, very calm horse so she is perfect for my daughter to learn on. I should mention, the class is very hands on with lots of responsibility thrown in like brushing the horse, picking its hooves, putting on the saddles, etc. In short, its a great experience and one that i'd recommend to young and old. read more

Lauren is a reckless, careless, thoughtless trainer. My trainer was on vacation and I thought I would be safe continuing my lessons with Lauren, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung, broken rib etc..(the ring was too crowded, Lauren wasn't paying attention because if you aren't jumping and performing beyond your ability she's bored with you) After being tossed from the horse I struggled to get up, unable to breath and Lauren was standing over me saying stop making that noise and get up. She didn't even give me her hand to help me up, she didn't call for help and I ended up driving myself to the hospital, sadly because I was still in shock and disoriented. Ride here if you want to push the limits and do NOT value your life. I would never let anyone I love or care for ride with Lauren. I later found out I'm not the only (preventable) accident that's happened with Lauren. Get this, she also wouldn't return the rest of my money for lessons or let me schedule them for a later date with my trainer after I recovered because I didn't heal within the month!!! and I had spent thousands riding with her barn and purchasing tack before the accident. read more

Definately a place for you if you arent looking for a professional who loves what they do. All Lauren cares about is the money that comes in. I leased two different horses in a span of two years from this barn. Lauren started out great and would work with my scheduling(school & other practices), I mean after all I did pay for half of her horse's board and shoes ($500 a month). Once she started over booking clients and her assistant trainer Kelsey left, everything went down hill. I paid $500 a month to half lease a horse, not $60 a day to get the horse for an hour. A half lease from what I know is you get the horse for 3-4 days of the week for the FULL day, but according to Lauren, a half lease is 3 days a week for ONE hour only. During my first half lease, she sold the horse without telling my mom, my trainer, or myself, I found out when I took the horse back and saw a sign hanging on his stall saying, "congrats." She then had another horse for me to half lease, but also ended up selling him from under my feet without informing me until the day he got a vet check. During the second half lease I was blamed of giving the horse rubs from spurs when I didn't even ride the horse in spurs, her own student did! Even after all the trouble of dealing with her, she stole $500 from us. We gave her a check to renew the lease for August, but the day after we gave it to her my mom got a text asking if I could ride a different horse as the horse I was leasing, Skye, was getting a vet check to be sold. Now planning to buy a horse, asking the owner, and setting up a vet check does not all happen in one day. She knew that someone was looking into buying her horse and she stole money from us anyway. For the cherry on top, her horsemanship skills suck. If the horse isnt worth 6 digits, its not worth her time and is at the bottom of the totum pole. She overworks her lesson horses and gives them no care whatsoever. At one point Skye had 3 half leases on him along with having her own lesson kids ride him. She never allowed time for the horses to have a break, but would schedule back to back to back lessons. I would have a jump lesson from 8-9, then she'd schedule a jump lesson from 9-10, and then another lesson from 10-11. The horses never got a break, they did this 7 days a week. Honestly my eyes have really opened up to see how horrible Lauren is as a horse owner, trainer, and just as a person in general. By far one of THE WORST people to do business with. If you or your kid is actually interested in riding, I'd save your money and go somewhere else, even if it costs a little more or is a farther drive. Just know that the minute someone offers more money to Lauren, she'll snatch it and youll be bumped down to the bottom. If you want to actually learn and have a good time do NOT even think about this place as an option. read more

Read these reviews before purchasing!! I wish I did :/ This was a horrible experience. I purchased a one hour riding lesson on the Internet and then it began. I called right after I purchased it to set up a day to go riding, nobody answered, left a message, never heard back. A week goes by, still nothing, I call again, same thing. This keeps going on for over a month straight!! I called the "Barn" phone, the other number on the website (the owners cell), and emailed over and over. Finally got a response. Lauren the owner contacted me with all appologies but they started getting too many phone calls than they could handle so they let the messages pile up so the mailbox would be full, which is true. They leave the mailbox full on purpose so you can't get a hold of them. Anyways she tells me her instructor would be contacting me, never did until I sent her another email. Finally.. An instructor contacts me, we set up a day to go. Finally. All I wanted to do was go riding. I take my mom with me to do something fun together, we show up at the right time but got lost in the stables for about 10-13 minutes. (We wouldn't have been lost if anyone there would pick up the phone or call back). We finally see the Vogel Equine stable. No one to be found. This girl approaches us and tells us the instructor is out in the arena. Me and my mom go out there saying her name since we have no idea what she looks like. I went back asked the girl if she could show us where this Megan girl is, with a big sigh, she follows me out there. I guess Megan took off, shell be back in about 15 minutes. We wait. Still no Megan. I call Lauren because after all of this, and with it already being paid for, this is totally unprofessional. This whole business is completely unprofessional, I guess that's why they have 1 star which I wish I would've seen. She gives me Megan's cell number and appologizes again. I call Megan, she hangs up on me. Me and my mom wait an hour until Megan got back from "lunch" cuz we ran a couple minutes late. This girl was completely unprofessional and was really rude to my mom and I. She tells me she hung up on me because she was driving but yet didn't have time to get back to me in the hour we were waiting. The hour we were supposed to be riding, on horses. The whole time she's talking to me she's just so rude. I reschedule with a different instructor. We show up and he/she is nowhere to be found. There are 2 girls, including Megan, sitting on the couch on their cell phones talking about their weekend. Megan was just once again rude and unprofessional. The owner is not much more helpful. Or Professional, at all. I have no idea how these people are still in business. No clue. I called and left a message with her after the first incident, then she just started ignoring me. She said herself she wouldn't blame me if I never came back or got a refund, which I did. Way to have confidence in your business. I signed up with Yelp right now to write this review. I can't believe I was treated like this. Do not waste your money here. Seriously. There is so many better places with better instructors that don't act like high school children. Horse riding is serious, you need a good instructor and here, you can't even find one to save your life. You can't get a hold of anyone through phone, Internet, not even when you go there because nobody is there and nobody there wants to help. The entire staff including the owner are not business people, customer service orientated, they just don't care. It's one of the worst businesses I have ever dealt with. I'm so happy I got my refund, I never want to go back there.. Ever. read more

My daughter who has been riding for over 20 yrs. came over to Vogel barn last year because of the amazing teaching skills Lauren has. There are lot of trainers that do not know how to teach jumpers nor know the basic skills of riding. After reading some of these reviews I find it very hard to believe as I see the staff checking voice mail thru out the day and returning calls. The horse business has a number of people who are very unfriendly and will be nice when you are at their barn but are rude when you leave. I went right to the barn of Vogel and spoke to a large number of her clients that all said the same thing " Lauren is a amazing trainer and they all love her. So if I was looking to ride, go talk to the clients first to know the truth- That's what I did and my daughter couldn't be happier. As in any sport you need to learn the correct way to ride for your safety and the safety of the horse. That is why you want a trainer that knows what she/he is doing. read more