Spoiler alert: the horse got the next day off. (We came back the next day to check on the horse.)
At the beginning of the tour when they were shortening the stirrups to fit me, they realize that my legs were too short. They kept saying, ‘I don’t know maybe we should get kids stirrups. I don’t know what to do.’ I had my legs are straight completely straight and toes pointed just get my toes on the stirrups. I said, ‘ How important is it? My feet kind of reach..’ they were like well it’s a pretty easy trail. It should be OK. Keep in mind I do not ride horses at all. If I did, this wouldn’t be the kind of tour I would take since you really have no control over your horse. The first time the horse cantered, I was flopping all over. Everybody else their legs were fairly bent so they could stand up in them and have a little bit more control. It’s amazing to me that I didn’t fall off the horse. Again, I’m relying on their experience to guide me correctly since I have no experience. Looking back they should’ve gotten shorter stirrups for me.
About 15 minutes into the 1.5 hour ride my husbands horse fell. This is probably because the horses are literally nose to tail. We aren’t sure if my horse got annoyed and kicked back (my horse repeatedly kept shying away) or if his horse just couldn’t see where it was going and stumbled..
Fortunately there was a nurse taking the trip with his daughter, because the people running the tour had NO IDEA what to do. They just kinda looked at him on the ground in pain and asked if he was ok. He said no, the horse fell on my knee and it really hurts. I had to ask them to get me off my horse so I could go to him. He is not a complainer and he was clearly in pain. The nurse advised that they bring a backboard and a neck brace just to make sure his back was OK. About 15 minutes later they showed up with a horse trailer for the horse. It took another 15 minutes for one of the owners to show up on an ATV to check him out. No backboard, no neck brace. Fortunately, he was able to get up and climb Into the truck. But there was really no way for them to know this until he was checked out by a paramedic, and they were advised by a medical professional to bring stabilizing equipment. It’s unbelievable to me that they got a horse trailer there in half the time it took to get somebody to help the human. I know we sign a waiver, but seriously? This is a nose-to-taul tour. You don’t have to have any skill at all. Clearly, the people who take you on the tour don’t expect anything happen because they are completely unequipped to deal with it. I don’t think the even new basic first aid.
We had to drive 25 min to the hospital to get x-rays and make sure his knee was ok.
Although they apologize profusely, we weren’t offered a different tour, or even a discount. I guess they don’t really care that our experience sucked.