Horseback Wine Country — Local services in Cottonwood

A hospital bill of over $2,000 is what this horseback riding experience cost me. I blame the complete negligence of our trainer Brandon. My experience was a nightmare, halfway through the tour my mothers horse threw her off to lay down and she had to quickly jump off to not be crushed. The trainer completely abandoned his horse and left him unattended to help my mom which caused his horse to start running off. These are line horses so they follow each other and with my horse behind his, my horse took off and began running uncontrollably. The trainer didnt bother to get on a horse and chase after me he just kept screaming “pull back the reins” which I was but nonetheless my horse (Freckles) help running away. I stayed on for as long as I could but I ended up falling off the horse, getting a concussion, severe bruising which I will attach here, and losing my memory temporarily all while having to be taken to the hospital. I never ONCE received a call from the company asking if I was okay let alone offer me a refund for their poor negligence because it was NOT the horses fault, it was the trainer who abandoned his horse causing mine to take off. I will mention that when my moms horse (Buttercup) threw her off he got on the phone with his manager and I quote said “We cant use Buttercup anymore she did it again” meaning they KNEW the horse has thrown people off before yet they still used it to make an extra buck. I have multiple witnesses from that day to justify what Im saying and I wish i wasn't even making this review but what these people are doing is simply not safe from my...

My friends and I signed up for a sunset ride this past week. We arrived early as did all the others on the ride but no official greeter on-site. Another group on the ride called the booking number and we’re told the guides were out on a ride and running a few minutes behind. Guides showed up 15-20 min after the scheduled start time and realized they had more people than they expected. They did the best they could but were obviously upset and hurried. Had to bring in extra horses and wrangle some of the others in the corral to tack up. By they time they finished and got people on the horses it was already dark. Sunset ride was now a twilight ride. The guides started down a trail and then changed their minds because it was too dark. We crossed a river twice in the dark with us all trying to follow each other. Very chaotic. Impossible to see anything and very unsafe. We were told to try to keep horses on the trail to prevent falling off the embankment but couldn’t see where we were going. There were 4 small children on the ride who were extremely nervous and the guides had to manage them as best they could. Guides did the best they could but were unhappy with the circumstances as well. Should have been done by 630 but because we left so late and with all the trail confusion, we got back at 730. I texted the booking service to let them know what had happened and got no response. This was an extremely unsafe ride that should have been cancelled and/ or rescheduled. Horses were nice. Posting to let...

I must say we were a bit disappointed especially for the price paid. Over $500 for three people not including the tip for the guide. Our guide was fantastic and everything that occurred was not his fault. I want to make that clear. He was very helpful and informative the entire trail ride. Friendly and entertaining as well. On the booking site it states the sunset trail ride is 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than the daytime trail rides. Once you pay it’s actually changed to a 60 minute trail ride. It turned out to be only 45 minutes because we couldn’t get into a gate in order to complete the trail so it cut off another 15 minutes. Also upon booking it appears the ride is through wine country. It is not so I felt that was deceptive. In fact the winery closed at 5pm and there is no wine tasting before the ride and certainly not possible after the ride. We didn’t even see the winery or the grounds for the winery since they are connected by a gate we were unable to get through. I was also hoping we would be able to stop and get some photos of the sunset but that didn’t happen either. Perhaps things are different during the summer and fall months. We were there the second week of March.

I do realize it is extremely costly to care for horses and all the costs that are involved with tack. A lot of their horses are rescues and I also think that’s admirable. I wish I could leave a 5 star review however under the circumstances based on our overall experience I can only...