Garrod Farms — Local services in Saratoga

I do not recommend visiting Garrod Farms. During my time both visiting and working there, I witnessed several concerning issues that suggest a lack of proper care for their horses, their clients, and their clients’ horses.

I visited for a trail ride with my boyfriend and strongly believe that he was given a horse that had been severely overworked. While standing still on even ground, the horse’s back legs suddenly gave out, causing it to fall backward and throw my boyfriend to the ground. As a result of the impact, he dislocated his shoulder, bruised several ribs, and tore muscles in his arm. He was hospitalized and has been out of work for over a month due to the injury, with more recovery time still needed.

A horse’s legs do not simply give out while standing still unless something is seriously wrong. The stable staff reportedly keep a log of each horse’s workload, but Garrod Farms has been completely uncooperative in providing this information. They dismissed the incident as a “freak accident,” but given the horse’s clear physical weakness and their refusal to release the work log, I strongly believe the horse was overworked and that my boyfriend’s injury was the result of blatant negligence.

I want to mention as well a seperate issue that I believe is important...

Garrod Farms also feeds their horses extremely poor-quality food consisting entirely of alfalfa and molasses. This food is unsafe for horses and to my knowledge has directly contributed to the deaths of several horses, as they cannot properly digest such a diet.

In addition, the hay used in their feed (that is also given to privately boarded horses) is suspected to be moldy. While livestock such as cows and sheep can tolerate moldy feed,...

I made reservations for the Pony ride for three kids and then at the winery for a tasting. We ended up having a really scary/unsafe experience. We had three ponies total- 2 were guided by teenagers. One we were asked to guide ourselves. This really should have been our red flag. First of all the trail was steep and extremely muddy. The website says running shoes are ok but that is not true. Our feet were sinking into the ground. Also I am quite pregnant so the decent and responsible thing to do is too warn me of the steep and muddy trail. There was no warning. However the most upsetting and scary aspect of our experience is the the teenage girl guiding the pony my 4 year old daughter was sitting on was not able to handle the pony. I don’t know what caused the pony to get upset but when it did it couldn’t be controlled and I was very worried for my daughter’s safety. I ended up running after the horse and grabbing my daughter before she was thrown off. I think every parent can imagine how scary this is. Not only was this unsafe for my daughter but also for me as I’m pregnant. Thankfully no one got hurt. This could have ended much worse. My advice to the farm is to hire experienced adults to work at the stables and not children. Especially for $50/pony ride. Also when I explained the whole situation to the stable manager I wasn’t even offered an apology. The manager is obviously not trained on how to handle situations like these and interact with customers. The entire experience was just terrible. I asked to speak to the manager/owners and no one was available. No one has even called me. I would obviously encourage people to...

I went to Garrod Farms on a trail ride with a friend, and unfortunately neither the handling or the safety lived up to its stellar reputation.

There were seven people on that particular day, including one younger kid and two young teens. Garrod has an incredibly efficient saddling process, but after the saddling was complete, the riders, including the children, were left unsupervised. The younger kid was saddled first, and while waiting for others to be saddled, yanked on the reins too hard, causing her horse to back up into another horse and a chain reaction with multiples horses. The instructors went over to supervise afterwards, but this should've never happened with children and inexperienced riders in the group.

Additionally, one of the horses in the trail group, Thor, was known to be a biter. The rider on him was not notified of this fact until after the trail ride, and as I was behind this horse on the ride, I experienced multiple instances where Thor attempted to bite the horse in front of him. This would cause the horse in front to back up or try to turn around during the ride, and then cause the rest of the line to shuffle to avoid the two horses.

Finally, despite having seven people including children and problematic horses, there was only one guide leading the group. Normally with larger groups, even four to five people, there should be at least one more instructor bringing up the rear.

In short, Garrod Farms has been the most unsafe and disorganized trail ride I've been on. Please limit your group sizes or increase supervision or perhaps consider removing horses prone to biting...