Scheduled a private trail ride over the phone. Upon arrival, I was provided instructions on safety…read morewith the horse. My guide, Liz was very helpful and informative during the ride. I felt safe and became much more confident on the horse by the end. Appy Orse Acres has been around for a long time and I can see why. Bernadette and her staff take great care of their horses and customers.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! I never leave reviews, but I don't want someone else's kid to…read moreexperience this so I'm hoping I persuade someone to find another stable for their equestrian needs. I don't know who is writing all these positive, glowing reviews about Bernadette, but our experience was absolutely terrible and left my daughter and her friend in tears. Since then, everyone I talk to has had a similar awful experience with her. She's an old crabby woman who's tired and has no patience for kids (the last person that should be running a summer camp). My 11 yr old daughter (an experienced rider who leases her own horse and takes private riding lessons twice a week, shows and has many awards and ribbons) signed up for a week-long, overnight riding camp last summer at Appy Orse Acres. She was soooo excited! But Bernadette's demeanor, approach to teaching the kids, and treatment of the horses left her begging and pleading to come home the first night. -- First of all the kids are left in old RVs on one end of the property, out in the middle of nowhere, without any adult supervision overnight. And they are not allowed to lock them. WHAT? -- They are not allowed to have any technology, no cells phones, tablets, anything. No one is allowed to call home. What if something happened overnight? Thankfully I deliberately broke this rule and allowed my daughter to have her phone in the RV. -- In a tour provided for the kids after arriving at the camp (I was the only parent that stayed for the tour), one of the staff said to the kids "I promise you, there will be tears tomorrow". Seriously, isn't summer camp supposed to be happy and carefree? -- During the first riding lesson of day 1, my daughter and her friend were riding together, and again remember they are experienced riders, Bernadette said on her microphone to her staff (she didn't know the girls could hear her), "these girls are terrible, who taught them to ride, they're just awful." During the entire lesson, she was yelling and criticizing them. In my opinion, who cares if they're doing things wrong or not to her liking... camp is supposed to be fun. We weren't paying Bernadette to "fix" anything she saw wrong. The intent was to go and have fun with the horses and friends... we quickly learned that this was not the intent of her camp. -- Also during the lessons if the horses weren't responding to the commands of the rider, she made the rider put on spurs so they could kick the horse. Anyone that knows anything about how to properly train and work with horses, knows that if you're doing it the right way, there is never a need for spurs. This was animal abuse. -- All the kids did the entire first day was have one riding lesson and then do manual farm labor the rest of the day with Bernadette and her staff barking orders at them, with very few breaks or time for fun. Both of our families confronted her about this, but of course she denied everything, and refused to refund us our $750 for the camp. What a joke. PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO HER SUMMER CAMP but if you do, please make sure they have a way to contact you if they want to come home!