Jesse James Riding Stables & Outlaw Cave — Attraction in Glasgow

On a family vacation to Kentucky in 2010, we stopped by the Jesse James Riding Stable and to say that it was a horrible experience is a gross understatement. Our guide was a rather brash man who clearly was anything but qualified to be trail boss. After trying unsuccessfully to impress us, saying that he "had 30 horses at home that he'd have to ride after work" (yeah, right...), he wandered through a muddy swamp that he liked to call "the pasture" and brought out the horses. There were perhaps 20 or more horses crammed into a tiny little pen and they didn't have much space to move. They were standing in the full sun, sweating and fully saddled and bridled. I could only imagine that they'd been standing that way since 7 AM. Rather than being instructed on how to mount properly, we were ordered to jump from a lousy mounting block into the saddle and then put our feet into the stirrups - wait - what stirrups? Turns out their idea of "stirrups" are collapsible plastic "safety stirrups" that look like a normal stirrup with one side cut off. They were a huge problem, if your foot slipped at any point during the ride the stirrup would just fold in on itself and you'd have to reach down, unfold it, and place your foot back into the stirrup. Also, the stirrups were improperly adjusted and too short for my long legs. What a pain. As for the saddle itself, it was old, cheap, and stiff. It rubbed against my knee for an hour straight. My horse for his part was wonderful, very calm and careful. He was a sweet 20-plus year old gelding named "Blaze" (At least, that's what I'll call him - the guide's exact words about the horse: "This is Blaze - at least, I THINK this is Blaze..."). It made me angry though that Blaze deserved to be peacefully retired but was still being run like crazy at this despicable operation! Now, on to the actual ride. It was nothing but a painfully slow walk around a very long circle trail and certainly not worth the $20 per person that they charged at the time. I've had monumentally better rides for $15 per hour. So if you're looking to support animal cruelty and looking to just mosey along a lame trail in Kentucky, lay down your bucks at Jesse James Riding Stable. If not, stay a hundred miles...

Not based on riding time but the speed you finish the trails!!! Our guide knew what she was doing however, her and the other guide that was helping load us, both had some attitudes, our personal guide less than the other. What really got to me was that while we did walk/trot/gallop during the ride, because of that we ended our 2 hour ride that includes loading and unloading that started at 9:30 at 10:40! Come to find out it's not even the time you pay for, it's just to ride the trail! So if you pay 50$ for 2 hours and you finish an hour early like we did because we went too fast, you WILL NOT get refunded or more riding time! I do not agree with that, it should be 2 hours no matter what! How can you be charged for something that you didn't fully get, but yet paid for! One of my group members even asked about the times as they were pretty upset about it as well, and our guide just brushed it off. Beware, if you go fast, you will NOT get the time you paid for! Also, for the entire duration my horse Zoey kept trying to lead and the guide got snippy when I went ahead of a horse that was pulled over to the side by the rider as I thought she was wanting me to go ahead! The actual lead horse was extremely slow and the guides extremely fast, unless we were trotting/galloping, that horse was like a slug. I do highly recommend Zoey as she's a sweet horse but she's got speed and spunk! I've been here twice and that's who I rode. The first time was chaotic with my husband but totally different experience and different guide who was both knowledgeable and kind. I feel bad that the horses are left fully tacked up all day long! I was always taught to never leave a horse tacked for long periods of time. I get it's to save time on their part, but that's practically animal cruelty, I mean how would you feel having all that equipment on you and in your mouth (the...

Over the course of a few days we did many activities at Jesse James. Day 1 we came a little too late to do the cave tour (last one is at 5pm!) so we did mini golf and played at the arcade. Shockingly you can actually win things from the machines and most of them are $0.50 or even only a quarter!

The next morning a few of us went on the 2 mile horse riding trail and our guide (Will I think was his name) was amazing! He answered all our questions and had lots of little bits of information the kids were enthralled with. The horses were very well trained and responded well to new riders. The pricing was the best I saw in the area as well.

Later on day 2 we decided to go on the outlaw cave tour. The tour guide was fantastic and enthusiastically answered all of my kids 100 questions. You could tell he really cares about the history and preservation of the cave. Inside is beautiful and has some of the best formations in the area. The cave isn't super large but we took our time and the kids had a blast. Definitely a great place to stop as it's gorgeous!

Overall I think the money we spent at Jesse James was probably the best spent money of our trip. For the same price it took our group to go through mammoth caves we were able to do a cave tour, horse back riding, and mini golf! Pictures were taken by my 9yo so I apologize for any...