And now for an atypical (see: non-technical) post, filing this one under the "opinion" tag. This is a review and detailed recount of my family's less-than-ideal horse-riding experience at Mt Princeton Riding Stables in Nathrop, CO in mid-July, 2024.
I am going to post the same content (with 3-stars) to their TripAdvisor page, but cannot post it to other review platforms due to their character limits.
TLDR;
Near the end of our ride, my wife's horse and 7-year-old daughter's horse separated from the group and were galloping/running back to the stables, causing my daughter to slide down the side of the saddle and fall off as it was running. I requested a refund after recounting our experience with the owner. Their response was that because we were able to go almost a full ride without incident, we had received what we paid for.
Overview & Wrangler Impressions
I will try to give a very fair and matter-of-fact (and quite lengthy) recount of our experience, of course from my perspective, for readers to ingest and form their own opinion... providing they're willing to read through the following "novel." I may not use proper terms in many cases because I'm not very well versed in 'stable terminology', or horse riding in general. I invite (not challenge, by any means) the stables' ownership to respond in kind if they see fit.
We booked the 2-hour "Rocky Mountain Sunset Ride" on Saturday (7/13) night for our family of four, two parents and two kids (10 y/o boy, and 7 y/o girl).
First, I'd like to give my anecdotal assessment of our two wranglers. I am going to omit their names and will refer to them as "W1" and "W2". I could be missing the mark here, but this is simply my internal assessment based on our interactions and the ride experience.
Both wranglers were very personable, extremely courteous, and helpful. W1 was the older of the two wranglers and was approximately late teens to early twenties, they seemed experienced and knowledgeable not only as a rider but also as a wrangler. W2 was approximately early to mid-teens, they seemed very comfortable on a horse as a rider but maybe a bit less experienced as a wrangler.
Some Background; Horse Assignment & Group Size
Our family is mostly athletically savvy and capable, but cautious and self-aware of our inexperience and learning curves. I'm a taller rider with a half-dozen leisure rides under my belt (many years ago) and was assigned a larger horse named Feather. My wife who had ridden once before was assigned a horse named Bourbon. My son and daughter having never done more than pony rides, were assigned slightly smaller horses, Dixie and Angel respectively. I feel it worth noting that my wife's horse had pretty short reins, unable to even reach the saddle horn, causing her to ride at a slightly forward angle to allow what she felt was proper slack.
Our group of 4 was combined with another group of 5 or 6 other riders, with our group of 4 in the front. In order: W2 in front, then my daughter, my son, my wife, myself, and then the other group. W1 was primarily in the back but rode alongside the group periodically.
The Meat & Potatoes
Near the end of our otherwise peaceful ride, we were in the treeline just before a curve that opened up to the pasture and a short path back to the stable, roughly a quarter mile. A horse in the back of the group got a bit restless, possibly bit by something, and laid down. The rider understandably jumped off to avoid getting rolled over. The horse got up and started trotting towards the front of the group, once there it opened to a gallop and disappeared around the curve back towards the stable.
W1 hopped off of their horse informing W2 that they would let the horseless rider finish the short ride back to the stable on W1's horse while W1 walked alongside. W1 walked their horse to W2 for them to hold temporarily, both meeting alongside my wife and myself. This left our daughter in front of the whole group by herself, followed by my son and wife, then me. W1 then ran ahead on foot to see if they could get the rider's horse back in line but promptly came back, I assume because the horse ran too far ahead and W1 wanted to get back with the group.
My daughter's and son's horses became restless, seemingly attempting to follow the other horse that ran off. My son was able to pull the reins back enough to stop his horse but my daughter was not... regardless of how hard she pulled back, limited strength as an 7-year-old is what it is. So her horse started a gallop around the curve and out of site. My wife's horse then followed suit, which was scary but a bit of a blessing because she was able to get up next to our daughter to find her hanging off of the side of the horse about to lose grip. Once Mom's horse caught up, their horses both slowed just a bit, enough for Mom to shout to our daughter to let go and try to get off the path (to avoid getting trampled if other horses were running behind). Immediately after that both horses increased speed again in full gallop back to the stables, my wife still on her horse scared and unsure of our daughter's condition.
As this was occurring W1 was back with the group and W2 was attempting to get their horse around my son's horse, presumably to chase down the horses that ran off. However, W2's horse would not go around, seemingly falling in line as a follower horse. While I was calm and 'collected', I was feeling a bit anxious at this point because my daughter and wife had disappeared around the corner on horses they were unable to control. I gave my horse a kick to move around W2 and my son in an effort to move ahead and see around the corner. W2 understandably instructed me to rein back and stay with the group. I did that, but a second or two later I heard screaming from around the corner.
Fearing the worst, I gave my horse a kick and a "haw!" to move ahead, slightly pausing as I passed my son to ensure he still had control of his horse. I continued around the corner, pulling back on the reins a bit to prevent a full gallop since I'd never galloped before. Once around the corner, I saw my daughter standing in the path alone. After checking behind again to make sure none of the other horses were following I continued and saw my wife up ahead at the stables jumping off of her horse.
Having some relief from the knowledge that neither my wife nor daughter were incapacitated, I slowed my horse down and carefully approached my daughter. Once we were close she clung onto my leg terrified and crying. My wife ran the distance back from the stables to us on foot, and the rest of the group was slowly making their way up the path behind us. A third wrangler then came on an ATV to give my wife and daughter a ride back to the stables.
Aftermath, Interactions & Compassion
Once back at the stables, we assessed my daughter's injuries which were remarkably insignificant considering the circumstances and potential for tragedy. Observing the scratches on the back of her helmet and dirt on her back I went through the steps of a concussion test and all seemed well there. Checking her over, I only found superficial scratches on her lower back. My wife was coughing and vomiting quite a bit, unable to speak. It took some time to gather herself as she had inhaled a lot of dust, and I'm sure her nerves contributed to her condition as well.
Once the dust settled, both wranglers were very compassionate and apologetic. W2 even recalled details from the incident as to where they thought things went wrong. I can't recall their exact words, but they were humble and openly admitted some level of responsibility for the incident; again very apologetically with deep concern. This was very impressive to me... to see a younger person able to process the information and form their own logical assessment of the chaotic situation. Both wranglers were quite shaken up and crying, so I took a few moments to express my gratitude for their compassion and suggested we collectively use this as a learning experience to make future rides safer.
In a brief discussion with the owner who was also very apologetic, I sensed (and agreed with) their 'while this was unfortunate, these are wild animals' sentiment. I was still a bit shaken and hadn't had enough time to fully process everything to determine if I was going to request any kind of refund or compensation. Also, I have enough self-awareness to know that without taking time to calm my nerves and consider everything, prompting that conversation at the moment would not have been productive.
Reflection & Considerations
I took Sunday to do just that and determined that I was going to request a refund based on our experience. While I very much appreciate and respect our wranglers, I feel as though some decisions were made that contributed to the incident. These are of course from the perspective of a person with little knowledge of stable operations, so take it with a grain of salt.
First, having 10-11 inexperienced riders together seems a bit much, rather 5-6 seems more feasible.
Second, I don't feel that leaving the younger (potentially less experienced) wrangler alone with the group while the other wrangler ran ahead on foot and out of the line of sight, even for a moment, was the right call.
Third, and most importantly, I don't feel that the youngest and most vulnerable and inexperienced riders should've ever been left alone in front of the group for any amount of time, under any circumstance; especially while we only had a single wrangler in the middle of the pack. Their horses will naturally follow the lead of whatever is in front of them, so this decision leaves the group in a very dangerous situation.
Agree to Disagree
On Monday afternoon I called the booking company that partners with the stables because I thought that was the proper avenue for the request. They took time to listen and said they'd need to talk to the stable owner as they ultimately make the decision. They did that and called me back to inform me that the owner did not feel that a refund was necessary as we got most of our ride without incident.
I wanted to take the time to call the owner at the stables, not with the intent to sway their decision but rather to explain our experience and how everything transpired and provide context for the request. They took the time to let me recount the details and made it clear they were adamantly opposed to any form of refund or compensation... again because we did go most of the ride before the incident and they felt their staff handled the situation adequately.
I get it, they probably have people fighting for refunds for selfish reasons from time to time. Maybe they felt we were just another group trying to get something for free. I thanked them for taking the time to listen to my concerns/complaints, they again expressed their apologies, and we ended the call.
In Closing...
We aren't naive, we're fully aware that these are massive and powerful wild animals at their core. That being said, regardless of liability waivers, I feel that the safety of paying customers should be the top priority. I feel that the first horse that ran off could've been collected from the pasture after everyone else was safely back at the stables. This would have left both wranglers in control of the group, most importantly one of them at the front of the group for the remaining horses to use as a lead. I strongly believe that this very likely would have prevented the chaos that ensued.
Considering the very high potential for tragedy, we're very thankful that things did not devolve into more chaos and we're all relatively unscathed. I feel it fair to give a mid (3-star) review because of the compassion of the wranglers and the ride up until the incident, but ultimately we would not choose this stable for future rides, unfortunately.
