Darkin Riding Stables

Absolutely amazing time, horses are well mannered and taken care of and the staff goes above and beyond to make your visit incredible. Will be back with my kids as well many more times!!! Xoxo

Canceled two weeks of day camps with NO notice or VERY short notice. They are refusing to refund my money - as I don’t feel comfortable due to the lack of communication and professionalism.

We had a great day riding the trails on Elvis and Bear. It was a lot of fun and the staff were all really nice.

Our daughter Rachael had her first horse ride this afternoon. Darlene the owner gave her a very personal and positive experience.We will return again.

I had a trail ride recently at this riding stable and I was greatly disappointed ! The business had double booked themselves and were unprepared for the number of people who arrived. This resulted in an extremely long wait time to get the trail ride started, no pre-ride lesson as paid for and a shorter trail ride than paid for. There was also limited evidence of Covid safety precautions in place.Most significantly, it was dangerous for both the horses and the riders:1) riders were being put on horses that were above their talent / ability2) the trail was extremely muddy and full of swampy water and rocky terrain. This was dangerous for the people on the horses who were being hit by trees and for the horses and their ability to manoeuvre the path3) the horses appear underfed, with no barn and no grass in their pensI do not recommend this stable.

I had to give 1 star because 0 isn’t an option.I booked a 4 person ride here last summer while on vacation in the area. An hour before our ride time (noon hour) Darlene messaged that due to the heat they needed to postpone our ride. We agreed to a much later time of 7 pm but as we had already signed out of the Airbnb we were left with no where to seek reprieve from the heat ourselves. I tried messaging but got no response and headed home with my kids in meltdown around 4pm. I messaged to inform them we couldn’t sit for 7 hours and headed home prior to the rescheduling and asked for a refund. Though most places ask for a deposit, I was required to pay the entire $200 to book this ride via etransfer. I was informed by staff that they don’t give refunds and I asked to speak to Darlene directly. She was arrogant and rude and uncompromising. She refused to refund my money and offered a gift certificate that I never received. I went to the better business bureau but they couldn’t help. This summer I tried to book our entire vacation around headed back to the area (2.5 hours from where we live) to find out she has since moved to another town. I messaged the business and Darlene personally seeking a full or even partial refund and got no response. It’s completely asinine that people can run businesses like this. I’m a single mom and have made several attempts to compromise and receive any refund to no avail. It’s really sad people do this to others. I wouldn’t book with her or support her in any fashion. You’ll lose your money and she’ll use the excuse of the heat and horses as a reason to do so. When they messaged that I was immediately supportive but realize it was just a con to keep my $200 and not provide any service. There’s lots of horse services in the area and I’d recommend literally going anywhere else.

Thoroughly enjoyed riding through the woods. Owner and trail guides are friendly and horses were great to ride.

My visit to Darkin Riding Stables was not an enjoyable one. I was at the stables many months ago, but there was enough that happened during my visit that I feel the need to write this very honest review of what I experienced because none of it has sit well with me.We went in the middle of the COVID pandemic and it was immediately made clear to us that there were no precautions being taken. We showed up wearing masks and were told “oh we don’t wear masks here”. The helmets were incredibly dirty and there was no type of sanitation.I went with a fairly large group, and only one or two of us had previous riding experience. I have no experiencing on horseback, and I made this very clear when we showed up and we were assigned horses. However, after we were put on our horses we were given ZERO instruction on how to control/ride the horse. We immediately started on the trail ride. This, compounded with the factors below, made the ride very difficult. I spent most of the ride getting instructions from my friend on how to control my horse.The riding paths were not maintained and extremely dangerous for both the horses and riders. We went on a very sunny day, but the paths were almost entirely made up of deep mud, and there were often huge fallen trunks and branches in the middle of the trail. This meant that the horses were constantly trying to avoid the mud and obstacles by going off the trails. This also meant that the horses were walking into bushes, branches, and trees in their attempt to avoid the dangerous path. On multiple occasions I was almost completely knocked off the horse by a low hanging branch that I could not avoid (remember when I said we weren’t taught how to direct the horse).There was one part of the trail that was essentially a steep downhill slope followed up a steep upward slope, with about 2-3 feet in between. I was in the middle of the group and watched my friends navigate this portion of the trail, with the horses walking down, and then up. My horse decided to take a RUNNING LEAP to jump between the slopes and I was completely unprepared and almost fell off (again). Afterwards our guide said “oh sometimes they do that”. This was incredibly dangerous and I was terrified. I have no riding experience and there was no warning that any of the horses would do something like that.I only write this review because I am an adult, but I am seriously concerned if any young child gets up on a horse and has the same experience that I did.I did enjoy the length of the trail ride, but as I mentioned above the trails are in need of some serious upkeep. I would have liked to focus more on the ride and less on being railed by a branch.

Fantastic trail ride and very well behaved horses great experience for riders of all ages.