2 visits in a week and 2 totally different experiences for $340 total: I am an absolute novice, quite impressed by horses in general, wanted to please my wife on vacation who is an experienced rider.
The first ride was on a Tuesday morning ride, through a desert canyon, and was delightful Although I thought about quitting as soon as the horse started walking, our guide quickly took control of the situation. He stayed by my side, helped me to adjust my position and my hands, giving me advice in English in order to go up and down hills properly. He was really a good teacher, all about safety. We had a wonderful time, eating wild fruits on the ride, watching birds, plants, laughing, and taking plenty of pictures. It was so good that I could not say no to my wife for another ride a few days later.
The next ride was on Thursday in the late afternoon by the beach and was unfortunately a totally different experience. A true nightmare. I was glad to have the same horse as on Tuesday and I felt reassured, but still not 100% comfortable. I still needed guidance and supervision. A new guide took us to the path to reach the beach which was frankly an unpleasant 15 minutes ride, crossing parking lots, riding along the freeway, taking an underpass to reach the coast. Despite asking the guide to stay close or behind me, he preferred instead leading the way while practicing some elaborate and awkward lasso techniques (no joke). I was alone, behind my wife and the guide, unsupervised. The beach ride was pleasant enough until we stopped by the rocks for the traditional photo. My wife's horse got spooked by a crashing wave but I successfully contained my horse's reaction. The unfortunate event happened on our way back, right after the underpass, in a narrow path bordered on the left with barbed wire and on the right by hilly rocks with cactus. There, out of the blue, our guide pulled out his lasso (don't ask me why), again, his moves provoked my wife's horse to abruptly speed up and overtake the guide's horse, and mine started to do exactly the same in such a risky location. Because I am inexperienced, I absolutely freaked out due to my horse's nervousness and abrupt movements. Since I was the last in line nobody could see what was going on, I heard the guide screaming in Spanish something that I could not understand. At that point, my horse reared (pretty scary) and I was thrown off onto the rocks...not the barbed wire, lucky me. I was absolutely horrified and scared by the fall, pretty upset by the helplessness of our guide whose immediate reaction was to call the owner, not to make sure that I was ok. Luckily, I ended up with only a few scrapes and sore muscles later on. I realized at the time that by not wearing a helmet, the situation could have been much worse and traumatic. The owner sent a car to collect us, but I decided to man up and walk my horse to the ranch. Once there, the owner told me that what happened "was just impossible" while looking at the scratches on my arm, and offered me a fresh beer- a nice gesture, but I would have preferred antiseptic and bandages. The free 30 minute lessons for another day was also a strange reaction. There was no refund offered for this underwhelming experienced.
Lessons learned: bring your helmet for your safety or ask for one, and don't forget that you sign a waiver and there is clearly a reason why! read more