White Stallion Ranch — Hotel in Marana

Not having visited for 30 years, I was very pleasantly surprised that despite having increased its room numbers the convivial atmosphere and expansion of activities has not dimmed this extraordinary experience in anyway. I found my first visit so memorable I was determined to return whilst I could still walk and talk. I’m glad I did and was still able to enjoy a variety of riding experiences and non riding activities whilst meeting the most delightful fellow guests. The hands on Owners actively engage with the ranch and guests, backed up by the most tremendous staff. With so many dude ranches having fallen by the wayside due to land develop it really is a credit to the True family that they keep the dream alive for those of us who want to experience the Western riding way. ||I deliberately booked the holiday to miss the US Spring Break holiday but was unaware there is a public holiday from the north east of America called Presidents’ Day. The ranch was full but it is so large with so many diverse activities that this did not impede our holiday at all and we had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of fellow guests and families who were extremely sociable and friendly. ||This is an exceptional family friendly, well run, delightful dude ranch. They have won numerous awards and I am not surprised. ||The riding is exceptionally well managed for those who have never written before to the more experienced rider who wants a challenging ride. “I can ride a horse”. Be sure that you really can ride a horse if you embark on a FAST ride, despite the ‘lope test’ which everyone has to do before they do a fast ride. As an experienced rider of numerous years standing I can tell you it is hard and fast and not for the nervous or faint hearted. The ground is very different from the soft green turf we ride over in the UK. The ranch horses are clearly used to their terrain despite it being hard underfoot.||Here are some tips I hope some international travellers, particularly those from the UK, may find useful.||I booked my trip through the UK firm Travel Planners which I’m very glad I did or I would have misjudged the amount of time needed to go through immigration when you first land at your first changeover airport in America. The luggage has to be collected when you first arrive at your first airport but is swiftly redirected by airport staff as you walk out with it. ||Immigration went smoothly but do allow plenty of time, several hours, in between flights if you’re booking your own flights. On the return journey we checked our luggage in at Tucson and it went straight through to London. The ranch included a lift to the airport (with our holiday package) but we only just squeaked our bags on in time with our international luggage. If you’re on an international flight, get the ranch to let you leave at least half an hour earlier than they suggest. The check in of international luggage at Tucson airport closes at least an hour before your time flight. We only made it with minutes to go! ||If you’re flying British Airways checking in online is a pantomime. The ESTA is attached to your passport and there is absolutely no mention of it when you are checking in online and we found which boxes to tick very confusing. Good luck with that one. And of course, make sure you have your ESTA! Easily done online at a small cost which you need to do at least a week before you travel.||Depending on your package, the ranch will pick you up, as they did from our excellent Double Tree hotel in downtown Tucson. We are glad we added in a couple of days to recover from our journey in Tucson and were able to take in the annual rodeo which was fabulous and use the free public transport. We felt safe on the buses in the daytime despite several folk afflicted with various social problems who ‘ride’ the buses all day. The general public don’t seem to use the buses that often but we’re glad we did.||The website for the ranch does not seem to mention the fact it has very useful LAUNDRY. It’s a very small payment to use the washer, dryer, and free use of iron board. This is a very handy addition for international travellers so that you don’t have to pack too much.||As to what to wear, most ride in jeans and short boots. We felt quite comfortable in our UK style riding jodhpurs (and riding helmets due to our insurance, read your insurance small print!). I also purchased a detachable sunbrim for my riding helmet from Australia which was very useful as the sun will beat down on you. Fortunately, there are early morning and early evening rides as well.||We were very lucky with the weather in February with cold nights, chilly mornings and evenings requiring a fleece and sunshine all day.|The temperature averaged about 23c in the daytime and was perfect with blue skies.||It is also worth noting that there is a professional photographer several days of the week who will take action shots of you out on rides which you can then purchase.||There is very well stocked Ranch Shop, so if you forgotten anything from jeans, to riding gloves to gilets, jackets and sunscreen you can buy these items at the ranch. The only thing they don’t seem to sell are riding/Western boots and it may be worth while the ranch stocking a line of those as well. The Boot Barn shops in Tucson will sell every bit of Western riding clothes and stetsons you could possibly wish for.||Personally, I found the pillows on the bed absolutely ghastly - they are Hotel style machine washable ones and some come out nobbly, so I wish I had taken my own pillow. It would’ve been well worth the space in the suitcase! I took one of my nobbly pillows to reception and the night manager, a delightful lady, went straight over to the laundry room to find something a bit more comfortable. I still wish I’d taken my own though! The beds are high with high mattresses and personally I didn’t take to them - but they were reasonably comfortable.||There are some bathroom toiletries provided such as shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser and soap. A good supply of towels, boot cleaning towels, local information, a hairdryer, dressing gowns, with rooms serviced daily. There is a shower in a very low height bath and it worked very well and was not slippery despite there not being a shower mat.||I do hope the ranch can run to buying a new toaster for the dining room as it was very slow and would benefit from being replaced.🤣🤣||The bar runs a self service honesty bar with a great selection of drinks all very reasonably priced. The social hour in the bar at 6 o’clock with canapés was much look forward to before dinner at 7 pm.||Great Hot Tub and lovely pool, so don’t forget your swimsuit.||I tried several new activities such as shooting, which I never thought I would ever do! I thoroughly enjoyed it and found I was quite a good shot (possibly to the surprise of the mainly young lads) as the tuition from the ex military expert was superb.||The food, hospitality, friendly expert wranglers, amazing staff, with host of activities for riders and non-riders of every age, sound horses allocated on riding ability (YOU state your ability, so be realistic), picturesque setting with on-site Owners keeping a steady watch make this a ‘truly’ remarkable Western riding experience. Thank you for another great riding holiday, which despite the overall expense was well worth every single penny. I will aim to come back within...

TL;DR:

Terrible, unsafe experience for horseback riding, with actual injury as a result

Very unfriendly management and wranglers

Nice enough for families with children, but other places probably offer better value for money.

Long:

This was sold as a horseback holiday - but the horseback riding was terrible.

The slow rides were mind-numbingly boring: head-to-tail riding, no changing of the order, with 1 unfriendly wrangler in front who couldn't be caught dead having a simple conversation with the riders in his group.

The fast rides were downright dangerous. People who had never ridden a horse could join if they passed a "test" - which resembled rodeo riding more than actual loping (the instructions were clear: lean back and hold the horn - much like rodeo). One elderly guest had blisters on his hand from holding the horn so hard - as he had never ridden before.

Since there were so many inexperienced riders, they endangered us. During an almost-gallop, the rider in front of us couldn't get her horse going, and the one behind us couldn't keep him back, so we were sandwiched in between. A fall of either of them would have meant an accident for us. When we asked for a slower lope, we were ignored. During the mountain part of the ride, the inexperienced riders were often out of sight, so the wrangler could not keep an eye on them.

The next day we went on a full day ride. During this frantic lope, someone’s stirrup in our group just came clean off, luckily without accident. Afterwards, we had a nice trek, however, during lunch, we overheard some wranglers and a guest talk. The guest wanted to keep the horse he was riding - the horse I rode the day before, but didn’t like the gait of. The wranglers then commented that the horse was actually scheduled “for another guest” (i.e. me), but that he did not like him. Although not inappropriate, the way they spoke was clearly derogatory.

Back on the trail, we discovered that our wrangler was about 19 years old and that she had (almost) never ridden a horse before joining WSR as a volunteer a mere 7 months ago. Sending such young, inexperienced people out, is just irresponsible.

On the way back, my girlfriend's horse started acting up, constantly trotting, even though my girlfriend held him back. At some point, he was just trotting in place. We know how to deal with that, but didn't have the time: the wrangler ignored the issue, until I rode up to her and spoke out, about an hour after the annoying behavior started.

We quickly came to understand, however, why he acted all barn sour: once on ranch property, after 6 hours of riding without food for the horses, they started loping - fast, and long, in essence just teaching the horses to be barn sour.

Back in the room, we discovered that, due to the poorly behaved horse and ill-fitting saddle, my girlfriend had a significant friction burn on the back side of her leg - which she never had prior in years of riding.

The next day, we went to the reception to ask for sterile bandages, so we could at least go swimming. The reception did not have any, and did not seem eager at all to go look for any. We then asked to talk to someone in charge, to voice our concerns about the lack of safety on rides. The female owner came at us with an incredibly arrogant, hostile demeanor.

When we explained our gripes, such as only 1 wrangler for fast rides, which is not the standard on other horseback holidays, she, in essence, said: “if I have to send 2 wranglers, it’s too expensive.” Yes, safety costs something. After that, she simply said that “our trust in WSR was broken”, and that it was best that we left with reimbursement - and then she simply left. For many reasons, simply leaving or rebooking was no option, so a frantic afternoon of packing and scrambling for an earlier flight home followed. Fortunately, we were able to find a flight the next day. On the way to the airport hotel, however, we learned that someone else on a mountain ride had had an accident...

My family just returned from spring break (Mom 45, Dad 43, big brother 12, little brother 10) and we had an absolute BLAST! I'll be honest, with all the amazing reviews, I was worried that I would get my hopes up about how great it would be and then the reality would let me down in some way, but that was absolutely not the case! This place is 100% what you read in the reviews. We stayed in a Family Suite and it was adorable, western themed, with plenty of space, a nice bathroom, closet for hanging clothes. The patio ended up being my favorite place in the mornings and during what little down time we had. I kept hearing the staff (which are all so nice and helpful) mention they were almost at capacity- I kept looking around trying to figure out where all the people were! Even though it was spring break and they were almost fully booked, it did not feel that way at all. I learned that their "fully booked" is about 150 people, which is not crowded at all. There were families with kids, extended family groups with grandparents to kids down to ages 3-4, couples of all ages (saw some in their 20's and some in their 80's) and a group of ladies on a "cowgirl" trip. So there is no "appropriate" age for this place. There is something for everyone! Food- my husband and I were skeptical about how good the food would be at an all-inclusive, and we were pleasantly surprised! The food was great!! Lots of variety (for my picky 12 year old). We ate breakfast and dinner outside on the pretty patio, but had lunch inside to have some AC for a bit. There is water, tea, lemonade any time you want it and the beer, wine, sodas are in the bar area. It is not included in the price, but you just go get what you want and write basically an "IOU" and put it in the box. They add it to your bill at the end. Neat system and super easy. Activities- We did almost everything and had a ball!! Never bored. If we had an hour between activities, it is easy enough to hit the pool for 45 minutes or the kids would run to the activity room to play pool or ping pong. Our family ended up LOVING the e-bikes! My 10-year-old was just a tad too short, but they have smaller/older bikes and once he showed that he could handle the bike by himself (start/stop/not fall over), he was fine to do the rides. Super, super fun! Rock climbing was another favorite. Wade was awesome! We all had fun pushing ourselves and cheering each other on Obviously horseback riding was fun! We did one slow ride, but then were ready to pick it up a bit and the fast rides were more our speed. The team penning was really fun and even though we sucked at it (ha!) we had fun working together as a family Archery was great (take water, it gets hot out there with no shade). Shooting was so fun too! The nightly shows/activities were great! The kids held snakes and a tarantula one night, then the next we were all painting pictures of a cactus at an art class. The variety is great! Loop Rawlins show was SO good and entertaining!! The pool/hot tub was great and never crowded. It was nice to go cool off in between activities Weather- we went in April-perfect! 65-70 in the morning then 90's during the day, but with no humidity, it honestly didn't feel super hot, except maybe the 2-4 pm timeframe. The shade was amazing-always a breeze. Night would cool off as soon as the sun went down, but dinners on the patio were perfect, maybe a jacket Suggestions- Be on time for meals. Not that the line gets that long, but just so that you have enough time to eat and digest some before your next activity Use the paper copy of the activities at night before bed (take a highlighter) and plan what you want to sign up for the night before. There is enough variety and options that you will end up doing everything you want to do, but some did book up quickly Take Advil- we don't have much experience riding horses so we were a little sore from using muscles that we don't...