Memory Lane Stables — Local services in Lyons Township

I had very high hopes for this stable. It was my younger son's first tine on a pony (he's 5) and we were all so excited. When I booked over the phone, I spoke to Cathy who was nice and easy to book with, so I figured it was going to be a good time. It was my family of 4 plus another woman and her son who was probably 5-7 years old. When they gave us the total, it was different than what the website showed. it should have been $110 but instead it was $155. I assume an automatic tip? As soon as we got on our horses and started our ride, we were separated from the ponies that had the kids on them which I didn't like. I asked the guide that was behind us how far back the kids were and she said just a few seconds behind us, yet when it was a long path, they were still no where in sight. I didn't enjoy a second of the ride because I kept looking back for my kid. The mom in front of me started to panic as well and asked the guide in front of her where her son was and she wasn't expecting to be separated. The guide, Mariah, got loud and aggressive and told her its not her fault, she doesn't answer the phones so how is she supposed to tell her that the kids wont be with us, and kept aggressively saying "We're about to turn around, we're turning around, we're turning around" as the woman was getting more upset. On our way back, we saw the kids for a total of 1 min max in passing. Once we got back, the woman began hysterically crying and Mariah's response was "I understand how you feel, I have a kid too but I only see them 3 times a year so just relax".....why is that a response? At the end, as we were sitting there waiting for the ponies to come back, I began worrying more and more. It was 7 mins that passed and the ponies with the kids didn't come back yet. I told Mariah that they should really post something on the website stating that the ponies will be separated from the horses because if I would have known that, I wouldn't have booked. Anything could be happening to our kids at this point. He could have been screaming and crying for me, he could have fallen and gotten hurt, he could have been taken, ANYTHING....my comment sent Mariah into a spiral. She went OFF. She told me its not her fault, she said "oh well" when I told her I couldn't enjoy my time because I was worried about my son, she told me she doesn't know why they would even put that on the website, she said I shouldn't go off of the website anyway because its all wrong, its all outdated, the pricing isn't right, and its in the process of getting new owners.....all of this I care NOTHING about. She cut me off every time I tried to talk until finally I started saying "this conversation is over!" over and over because she was relentless and aggressively yelling. Mariah should not be in customer service if she doesn't know how to talk to people. She had one mom in tears and got into a screaming match with me because I made a suggestion to let people know they wouldn't be with their young children. The girl assisting us off of the horses apologized at least 10 times while we were getting off of the horses even though it was not her fault that Mariah was rude and unprofessional. shortly after, Cathy called me and asked what happened. She was very nice and apologized as well. The ride itself was supposed to be an hour, and it was instead 40 minutes long. We were overcharged and received less time on the trail than we were supposed to have. I will...

This experience was very disappointing. I signed myself and my fiancé up for a horseback ride for his birthday surprise; he’d never gone before and I hadn’t been since I was a kid. The staff was very disorganized and careless, the guide was rushed and assigned me a horse notorious around the barn for being very slow, and assigned my partner a faster more advanced horse, which makes no sense considering he’d never ridden before. I basically had a slow solo saunter with “slow-mo Mojo” always 30-200 feet behind my fiancé and the guide. She chatted him up the whole time, smoked a cigarette on her horse; while I was miserable and lonely barely moving behind them. Most of the 48 minute ride (paid for an hour) was spent with them stopping and waiting for my horse to catch up. I didn’t get to pet or meet my horse, ask questions, my stirrup and reigns weren’t even set up right, no one checked before we left. I couldn’t hear any instructions from the guide, and often lost sight of them entirely- it could have been quite dangerous. I have no idea why they chose to pair the slowest horse (and assign it to me) with horses it just couldn’t keep up with. Overall, I did not enjoy any of this, and my fiancé didn’t enjoy spending his birthday and first time riding with a stranger.

Update: I contacted the owner, who said I couldn’t get a refund because I rode a horse… despite it not being what I paid for- an hour long group ride with my fiancé, (I knew it would be a single file line, but Mariah was able to tell my fiancé all about her personal life and drinking habits, so he and I should definitely have been able to converse rather than being too far away to hear each other at all) it wasn’t professional, or at all what I expected from reading the website and reviews.

I inquired about pricing (website says $25 and $5 riding fee- $30 a piece, I was charged $80 total) it turns out, the extra $20 was a preemptive tip for the guide. A tip that I didn’t agree to, sign for, know about at all, and is not listed on the receipt. What incentive do the guides have to offer a proper and professional experience if they get tipped in advance? The owner agreed to refund the $20 tip, which I shouldn’t have been charged in the first place; there needs to be transparency in pricing, and customers should not be required to automatically tip, especially prior to a service. There’s also a sign as you leave that says “Enjoyed your ride? Tip your guide!” implying if you had fun you should tip after the ride- which if I had a pleasant experience I was absolutely prepared to tip more than 20% in cash, after the ride was over, but it didn’t turn out to be...

Do Not Book A Pony Ride

After reading the many rave reviews this place has, I had high expectations. The guided trail rides are probably great but I would NOT recommend booking a pony ride through this stable. We were given a pony with no directions on how to handle the pony, what to do if we have trouble, and the trail directions we were given were inaccurate. There was a large group there getting ready for a trail ride at the same time so it felt as if the staff were not concerned with us. They gave us the pony and the only direction we received was to go down the trail and make a right at the fork in the trail. Well, we did and ended up in the parking lot then we went back and went further down the original trail and ended up at someone else’s farm who yelled at us for stopping and letting the pony eat his grass because it will make his horses sick. We were so confused and didn’t realize we had wandered into another farm/stable. To top it off, the pony got spooked from other horses on the trail and our 4-year-old son got thrown off of the pony (he was holding onto the saddle the whole time) and is now really banged up. Thank goodness we put one of their helmets on our son so I give them props for having the helmets (which were optional). Our son is now terrified to go riding again. I’m so grateful he had no broken bones and didn’t hurt his spine. The image of him falling off of this bucking pony with the terrified look on his face keeps replaying in my head. Yes, we signed the waiver and realized we were taking a risk of course. While tending to our son, my husband then had to try to handle this pony and get him back to the stable which was also no easy feat.

Bottom line: I do not understand how staff is not provided to lead the pony rides and how they trust guests to know what they are doing with their ponies. If staff is reading this, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE consider having staff accompany those on pony rides. Thank goodness I had my husband with me to hold the pony while I ran to my son to make sure he was ok after landing on the ground. If there is only one adult with their child on this type of ride, they would have no choice but to let go of the pony to check on their child. We were hoping for a fun day and to plan our son’s birthday party there but that no longer is an option we are looking to entertain. Also, some signage on the trail would be really easy and cheap to do (garage sale type signs are cheap and easy to find and make) especially when there is another stable close by with trails...