Hunter Valley Horses / @ the farm / HVH FARMS — Local services in Pokolbin

I made a booking on 04/03/2021 for 8 people for the 1-hour Horse Ride Vineyard Trail for Easter Sunday on 04/04/2021 at 5pm. On the day of the ride at 2:27pm, I received a missed call from Hunter Valley Horses. At 2:50pm, 2 hours and 10 minutes before our scheduled ride, I received a text message from Hunter Valley Horses stating the following: “Please be advise you’re (sic) booked horse ride for one hour this afternoon at 5pm will now change to a half an hour ride due to the change in time with end of daylight savings. Please advise if this suits you? Hunter Valley Horses”. Upon receiving this message we immediately contacted Hunter Valley Horses to enquire about the last minute change to our booking. The lady who answered the phone told us that we can either ride for half an hour or cancel the booking and told us that we had no other option. We then enquired whether we could arrive earlier and begin our 1 hour horse riding tour at 4:30pm. She said it is not possible because there was another group riding at that time and there was also another group riding after us. We then asked her the pricing of the half an hour ride and whether we would be taken on the same scenic vineyard trail that we booked the lady began raising her voice at us for no reason at all and giving us passive aggressive responses. It was absolutely unnecessary and unprofessional, especially when they had doubled booked us. No apologies were offered to us given the mishandling of our booking. We had specifically planned a one-hour horse riding tour to complete our Easter Sunday celebrations. We did not want to only ride a horse for half an hour as we would have had to miss out on the scenic trail and by the time we would have got used to riding the horses we would have to get off and not be able to enjoy the experience. Additionally, after witnessing unreasonably rude and arrogant attitude towards us on the telephone, we were really shocked and did not wish to ruin our day dealing with an obnoxious person and an incompetent business. When we asked whether there will be cancellation charges, the lady was disrespectful and refused to provide her name to us. I could not believe how unreasonably rude Hunter Valley Horses was especially when they had double booked us. I do not understand why having booked 1 month in advance that Hunter Valley Horses could not foresee that there was day-light savings on the day especially as they are running a business they should have been aware and prepared beforehand and not informing their guests two hours before a scheduled ride. I absolutely do not recommend booking horse riding with Hunter Valley Horses especially if you do not wish to...

We were extremely unhappy with the overall experience. There were three women in our group who continuously screamed, yelled, and spoke loudly throughout the entire 75 minutes. One of them was also kicking and pulling her horse simultaneously to make it go faster, which gives the horse mixed signals. The group was not supervised properly, and we were unfairly blamed when one of these women couldn’t control her horse.

These women repeatedly complained about not being positioned together in the line and kept trying to overtake me. At one point, one of their horses kicked the horse I was riding. During the commotion, another horse backed into my leg, causing me to get injured.

The male staff member supervising at the back clearly saw what was happening but still allowed them to switch positions, saying, “give it a shot.” When my friend’s and my horses resisted their horse overtaking, we were inexplicably blamed for overtaking instead.

We knew that this session was a slow session with the horses, and we were fine with that. We just wanted to enjoy the experience of the sunset session.

We take frequent riding lessons, so this was not our first time with horses. However, this experience was incredibly disappointing. The establishment also does not appear to enforce weight requirements for riders, which many other horse riding centres implement to ensure the wellbeing of their horses.

Furthermore, we were assigned horses that had just returned from a previous session, with no visible opportunities for them to rest, eat, or drink. This lack of care for the animals was deeply concerning and further contributed to our...

We booked a 90min trail ride today (7 January 2023). Our first impression of the farm was good: the horses as well as the other animals are healthy and seem to have a lot of space in their paddocks. I‘m an experienced horse rider and was excited to share my passion withbmy boyfriend (it was his first time riding a horse). However, as we got settled to start our ride, everything turned out to be very disappointing. Horses are animals, not machines! We weren’t introduced to our horses, just called out after each other to mount the assigned horse. They didn’t even leave some time to pet them before getting on the horse. Apart from that, the instructors gave very wrong instructions (which I can tell as I learnt how to ride and act around horses). „Just pull right and left and both reins if you want to stop. If it’s too slow or tries to eat grass, just kick it with your heels“! Seriously????

No one said anything during the ride… The scenery along the vinyards was beautiful but we were hoping to learn some background information about the Hunter Valley or the Farm but we didn’t…. As we got back to the Farm, I asked if we could take a picture before dismounting. They would leave us for a couple seconds and then ask us to leave the paddock. I barely said goodbye to my horse! When I asked if we could help with unsaddeling, they said no, they‘re gonna go on their next ride soon so they‘ll leave the saddles on. It‘s not bad but still, we felt no warmth, no connection or appreciation for the horses. Finally, all the instructors left right away… no reflection on the ride, how we felt, how we liked it. They were just gone! Very...