Wild Western Horseback Adventures L.L.C. — Local services in Camp Verde

We thought this would be the highlight of our visit to the Sedona area but it was not a good experience. Originally we had booked the sunset ride at the vineyard but due to poor weather they rescheduled us for the next day at the Wild West ride. They assured me it was a great ride and we would see about 20 calf’s and African animals at the nearby African animal park.

We arrived to our scheduled time only to discover they had no record of our reservation and there was another family there who also had been rescheduled from the day before but also no record of their reservation. They had 19 horses ready but were 6 horses short. We waited about 25 minutes not sure if we would get to ride, after driving over an hour to the location. They ended up rescheduling the other family a third time, but were able to prepare three more horses for us so we could ride then.

I did appreciate their effort but then the horse my 13 year old daughter got looked very sickly, was difficult for her to handle, and she shared later she was terrified the whole time (she is a first time rider). I also noticed that her horse had diarrhea unlike the other horses that had healthy looking droppings.

Since they didn’t have enough horses they gave me a little pregnant pony and the makeshift rope reins they had prepared were too short for me to reach, and my daughter had the same issue. I told the ranch hand and he said sorry that’s all we have left. This meant I couldn’t really steer the horse without leaning over and straining my back. It also contributed to my daughter struggling to handle her horse. Several times her horse left the line of horses and a ranch hand had to rush over to take control of the animal.

In the middle of the ride a ranch hand rode by us and declared to his companion with delight -“I love the horse I got this time he’s so responsive.” Really rubbed salt in our wounds that an employee got a beautiful horse with nice long leather reins that he could really enjoy.

Halfway through the ride one of the horses ahead of us tripped and landed on its front knees. Fortunately the child riding that horse was not thrown but as inexperienced riders it was scary to see.

Also, we saw some cows but never did see the calves or any African animals at the neighboring wildlife park.

I can see by the reviews this is not typical for this establishment but we definitely did not have an enjoyable experience. The one highlight was that my son got to ride a very fine looking horse with long enough reins he could comfortably hold.

Add: I did get a very nice apology letter from the owner which really helped a lot. Especially given their normally stellar reviews I would consider trying this...

So we did two rides with this place. We did a group ride with the kids and then a private tour just me and the husband.

First the group ride. This is the ride for the beginners and the little kids. You're placed with a well trained, gentle, experienced horse. You're in a group of other riders, probably 15 or so people. The youngest in our group was only 6 years old. This is a slow, uneventful ride through the desert. You get a glimpse of the giraffes at the Wildlife Park in the distance, you get some decent views. You're not in the red rocks of Sedona, this place is in Camp Verde so the landscape is brown and sparce but we enjoyed it. You ride through a cow enclosure and see baby cows and back at the ranch they have a petting zoo that I didn't know about which was soooo fun! They had a one week old calf and we got to pet it! They had baby pigs and chickens and ponies. It was a nice perk. Overall a super fun day and perfect for our versatile group of inexperienced riders. You'll feel safe, everyone will have fun. There's a lot of cowboys that work the ride so there's always someone close to your horse to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Jacob led that trip and he was polite and friendly. We love that it's a family run business.

On that ride my husband was chatting with Thomas about a private ride. My husband and I are intermediate riders and we like a little more excitement. We picked the mellower option for the kids—which was great. But Thomas suggested that we do the Vinyard ride if we want a more off trail experience, so we booked it. This was SO FUN!!!!! Our guides were Thomas, Gary, and Eduardo. This ride was tailored more to our skill level. They made sure we were comfortable with how fast we rode etc. We rode along the river, through some gorgeous scenery. Much prettier than the first location. We got to cross the river on horseback and rode up to a scenic overlook. This was 100% the most fun we had on this whole trip! The guides made us feel super safe. They are extremely experienced and very nice. They were the biggest highlight (besides the horses of course). If you're an experienced rider, I recommend the private vinyard tour. It's a little more expensive but so worth it. I recommend wearing long sleeves no matter how hot it is outside. You'll scratch your arms on brush. Your shoes might get a little wet in the river, and bring water! This was one of those experiences we won't ever forget. We felt like cowboys in...

We did the one hour ride with my kids (7 and 9), and it was just the right amount. My 7 year old got overwhelmed with the amount of instructions needed to control the horse and started to cry before we got going (it didn’t help that my horse nipped his horse in the leg while we were waiting to leave the corral area). Kevin was super great with my youngest, reassuring him that he would be fine, and he ended up just leading my youngest’s horse behind his as he led the group. This relaxed my youngest and allowed him to enjoy the ride and have fun. My oldest didn’t realize what it would be like to ride a horse, and he really enjoyed the ride.

Both guides were great and the one that wasn’t Kevin (sorry, I forgot his name) was super informative and gave us a lot of interesting information while we rode about the surrounding areas and made conversation with us. They said that many of the horses are rescues here, and they don’t seem poorly cared for. They have treats that you can buy to feed the horses, goats, chickens and turkeys.

This was a nice operation - they have a whole staging area that is higher up which makes it easy to mount and dismount. They do give you a lot of instructions for riding, but these all seem to be calm trail horses, so they really just follow each other with little need for control. Some of the horses liked to eat on the way, so those folks needed to pull up their horse’s heads. The trail went through varied terrain (mostly in the sun) and included going up and down through ravines which was nice. We went at 8am at the end of May and it was still pretty warm!

We were in a pretty big group of 11 horses (4 different groups of people), and there were 2 guides and a helper that came with us. They made sure we were safe and doing well the entire time. They noticed my youngest was starting to lean a little to the left on his saddle and helped him out. They also stopped in the middle to help take pictures of all of us with our...