Overall, the staff was great and tried to stay in good spirits despite the freezing weather.
The wranglers that guided us were patient and talkative, minus one who somehow came off very snappish and short mid way thru the ride. Perhaps given the fact that the weather was so awful, I can understand why one would feel that way.
However, we were all first time riders. Barking out instructions in a very short tempered manner, when we have no basis of realizing our reins were too long or how hard is considered hard enough to kick our horses was difficult.
In all honesty, given how bad and cold and wet the conditions were, we should have received a courtesy call to cancel/reschedule this ride. We found out that other groups received such a call. Or if not allowing us to cancel since we were such a large group, at least tell us to dress for winter(aka hats and especially GLOVES) and to wear boots. We dressed for rain, which was considerably less than substantial given how cold and freezing it actually got from the wet snow.
Most of us were in sneakers, which our feet were soaked within 5min of getting out the car and trekking to the main office. The entire ground was like coveted with 3inch thick of wet snow and water. Then, no offer of change of shoes/boots were given until one of our friends asked if there were boots to rent or what not. Only then, did one male employee point out there's a section of old rainboots/cowboy boots we can borrow. My saddle was completely drenched, which in turn made everything I was wearing, including underwear, completely soaking wet and cold. A good majority of us had completely wet bottoms and nether regions to endure for 2 hours.
We were, super grateful/thankful for the slickers they had for us, at least with that layered overtop what we wore underneath helped partially. At this point, it was better than nothing.
Most of the horses were ok, with one outstandingly tired/old/sluggish one, Dusty is its name. Which sadly, was the horse my husband was on. The horse did not want to move at all. The wrangler at the back basically told my husband to kick the horse to move. And eventually, the wrangler had to whip the horse to make it move. My husband felt so bad for the horse, the fact that he and the horse were both uncomfortable, cold, tired and had to endure kicking the entire 2 hours. To add insult to injury, the stirrups weren't on properly, so my husband's legs were twerked at a bad angle. So he was uncomfortable with that which add that positioning with constant need to 'kick' the horse, he endured a muscle injury from that action. Then, probably because the horse was dang tired and annoyed at being whipped and kicked for 2 hours, it walked too close to a tree stump, which rammed into my husband's shin as his leg was pinned by the stirrup so it was unavoidable. So now he has a major welt/bruise. Luckily it didn't break skin.
My poor husband had the worse 2 hours compared to the rest of us.
If not for the uninformed freezing and wet conditions, it could've been...
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