mountain view ranch

I chose to ride at Mt. View Ranch because we were visiting in Manchester, VT, and it's a short distance away. I spoke with John several times, and even emailed him that I was an experienced rider and wanted a private, longer trail ride with places to canter. I arrived to find one other lady waiting, and John nowhere around. In fact, no one was around. I called him on my phone, and he said he was only two minutes away - that he had been called to catch a runaway horse. He soon appeared with the horse trailer, left the horse in the trailer, and went to tack up our mounts. When I asked who was taking the second lady, he said we would all ride together. Well, since she had not been on a horse in 35 years, I asked how that would work when we were cantering. Quickly, he called his 8th grade daughter out to be my guide. Our horses were quiet, well mannered, but not groomed. I enjoyed my mare, Leo, who had comfortable, consistent gates and was content to follow the guide's horse without trying to overtake. But I probably won't go back. John was disorganized, clearly didn't "recall" our previous conversations of a private ride, and would have placed me on a beginner's ride for his own convenience if I hadn't objected. Also, he could have left a note for us on his office door indicating that he would soon return so that we knew he expected us. Another also, the ride was expensive for two cicrcles around his pasture.

We looked at the website and found a few horses for sale that we thought we might be interested in. My daughter and I made the long trip to the farm after a phone call with John the owner that assured me the horse he had there would be just perfect for my daughter who barrel races. We arrived at the farm and the horse we wanted to look at was all tacked up and ready to go. After some conversation re-enforcing all the great things he told me over the phone we watched the horse being ridden and then my daughter rode. The horse was quiet and seemed to be what we had been promised. We went back the next day with my husband so he could see the horse and pick him up if we decided to move forward with the sale. Again, the horse seemed quiet and ok so we proceeded with the sale. I asked if there was any guarantee in case the horse didn't work out once we got him home and away from his ranch for a couple of weeks. He assured me there would be no problem and that he doesn't take animals back. Well after a couple of days at our farm with our other two horses we found his story about this great horse started falling apart. He was rough with our other horses, he wouldn't get back on the horse trailer, he didn't go out on trails alone as promised, he seemed confused when running the barrel pattern and other gymkhana games that we had been told he had been doing every week and winning. After that last couple of months my daughter has made progress with the horse by starting over basically, but this is not what we paid for. We would have bought a green horse and broke it ourselves if that is what we had time for and paid much less. Everything he told us was a lie and I feel very strongly that the horse was probably drugged while we were trying him out which is why he behaved so well the first couple of times we were around him.I would not recommend anyone trust this person and the fact that most of his "staff" are underage and should not be held accountable for supervising adults or other children is just another reason to avoid this place all together.

I went to this place the day after I got engaged for a horseback ride. We were visiting Manchester and this is only a short drive away. The people there were very friendly, and the horse ride was great. To to it off, the scenery was spectacular and really unbeatable. We had a great time and would definitely go back again.

We took the hour trail ride.The horses are gentle & very well cared for. The trails are the best I have ever been on. It was stunning to see the gorgeous fall foliage. Our guide, Rachel, was very knowledgable about the area & about horsemanship. We would return to this lovely ranch again.

we were recommended to Mountain View by horse people as far away as Woodstock and we're glad we went. We did an hour and a half ride with the lovely Jessica and loved the trails and seeing the Fall up close. The horses were of exceptional quality - we are horse owners - and we loved the farms approach to the way they buy horses in, work and understand them before fitting them to the right buyers. Can't comment on the adverse reviews except to say we had none of their experiences. This is not a flash commercial operation but a working property run by local people and should enjoyed for that

Very disappointing. This ranch is poorly managed and unreliable. I would avoid it. Vermont is beautiful and you don't need an unprofessional business ruining your experience. I'd reserved a private 'Cowboy Up' ride to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday weeks in advance: $100 for 3 hours of private lessons. Confirmed on the phone and via email. When we got to the ranch, we arrived to a long line of customers that were at 1.30pm for their noon ride. Immediately, we knew this didn't look good... The staff were clearly overwhelmed and had little clue about customer service. We had arrived 15 min in advance for our ride as requested but couldn't get any service. When we finally checked in, we were quickly handed off to a trail guide. It wasn't until a good 30 min into the ride that we realized this was nothing like what we'd signed up for. Instead of private lessons, we were getting a basic trail ride (took us a while to realize this because we'd assumed we were riding to the ring). When we told the trail guide about the mix up, all the owner said was to add a 30 min trail loop to our session, which meant bushwhacking just to add time. Ultimately, we ended up paying $70 for a private trail ride that was less than the 90 min specified for that $70 and NOTHING LIKE WHAT WE'D RESERVED! Not how I had planned to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday. To top it off, when we finally got back to the ranch, the owner was barely apologetic and just said the next time we were up here, he'd treat us to something special. (1) this is what he'd said in the original phone call when i made the reservation and said it was my boyfriend's birthday and (2) why on earth would we come back to such an unprofessional ranch?!

We were lured into this by the website. We booked weeks in advance and emailed ahead of time. Here is what we found when we got there: a line of upset clients who had been waiting for over an hour and underage trail guides that were upset with being there. And upset at the owner (John) who does not seem to know how to organize the place. They then took us for a 1 and 1/2 hour ride, which was not what we had signed up and paid for. Bizarre. The cowboy up promised in the website and arranged in advance was NOT available and we only learned about it when we were already on top of the horses!!!! Oh well, we tried to enjoy it. Now here is the cherry on top of it: at the end of the ride we met John who had the nerves to make a sexist joke about blondes when we gratefully praised our trail guide. Really? An offensive joke to our guide?

My daughter and I took an hour trail ride while visiting this area for vacation in June 2014. We had an enjoyable time. They had unexpected guests arrive, so we had to wait for about 30 minutes before heading out. It was only the trail guide and the two of us and the views of the mountains were spectacular! The trail guide was very friendly.

Pros: Views, price, trail, willingness to negotiate based on our situationCons: our own fault for being lateWe started out our visit to Mountain View ranch on a rocky note (spent too much time at Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site - See my review!!) and arrived late. After explaining to a grumpy owner the fact that we were travelling out of country (coming from Nova Scotia) and that we hit a lot of construction on route 100 (which we legitimately did) he was pleased to offer us another time in the morning to reschedule our trail ride.I'm glad we did. This was one of the best trail rides I've been on. The farm was large, the horses were out and within a few minutes were ready to ride. There was just the two of us going, so we had a guide to ourselves. The guide was great. Easy to talk to, engaging and paced well. Neither my gf or I have extensive experience riding horses, but felt comfortable on all parts of the trail. We opted for the hour long trail ride (which I felt was a good length). The trail was a nice mix of open fields (with the gorgeous green mountains just on the outskirts) and wooded trails. There were well groomed and I didn't feel like I was constantly moving branches out of the way. We had the option of using a helmet or not. We took the helmets, but I'm glad they gave us the option of whether we wanted them or not.I would highly recommend this ranch. It will certainly meet your needs for a trail ride experience, and you'll experience some great views!! I know many of my friends and family don't realize the beauty that VT has to offer, or what you can do there, but after looking at my pictures from the trail ride many have been interested in visiting the area themselves.

Our group (6 adults) had an experience very similar to that of a previous reviewer. Made the reservation for the sleigh ride weeks ahead, had several nice phone calls about details, arrived with all our picnic fixings a half hour ahead as requested; no one there to greet us in the barely-heated office, and no means of contacting the owner. Finally the man with whom we arranged it came back from an AM trail ride, almost indifferent to our presence, and now a half hour beyond when the ride was to begin. Finally he said he could not do it, as the other person who works on the sleigh rides was in the emergency room and he had not found anyone else to help. He had our phone numbers and did not even try to call us in the morning. We were rendezvousing in Danby just for this event, coming from hours away--from Montpelier and from western MA. He of course didn't charge our credit card and offered a free ride in the future, but (a) that simply won't be possible and (b) we would have little confidence that it would actually happen. Perhaps there is some recent problem with this business, as we'd relied on mostly excellent reviews?

My wife & I have been coming to Manchester Center, VT for several years. We come up in the winter and on multiple occasions have taken a private trail ride into the fields and woods on the property at Mountain View Ranch. The staff have always been excellent, and the views from the property are splendid. Not bad for rates either!

Spent some time at the farm, saw horses not feed or watered on a regular basis. One horse they were are selling kept stalled to the point of muscle loss. Saw children put on horses that were not safe nor suitable for novice rider. In short the place is badly managede

My daughter, nine year old granddaughter and myself did two private one hour trail rides this past weekend at Mountain View Ranch. It was a wonderful experience all around. The ranch was beautiful. The horses were very gentle and well kept. We are all experienced riders, though this was my granddaughters first experience trail riding. As I said we took two separate rides. Our trail guides were Lori and Kristen. They were very friendly, and both paid special attention to my grandaughter helping her feel comfortable out on the trails. The scenery was spectacular, we even did some trotting. I would highly recommend Mountain View Ranch. We are looking forward to some more riding in the spring!

My daughter wanted to take a trail ride while in Vermont. She is quite experienced with horses. We found this ranch through its website and gave them a call in the morning. Got an appt for 11. All went great ! Good location for trail ride on their property and the neighboring national forest. Staff were great and very pleasant. Recommended.

My boyfriend and I stopped here to do one of their trail rides. We had made reservations in advance.. but on our drive down hit a lot of construction and showed up late but the owner allowed us to come the next morning, which was very nice. The owner was great and talked to us for a while and then one of the other workers helped us on our horses and led us around the trails. The guide was great, really talkative and knowledgeable. The views of the mountains are unbelievable, just gorgeous. I would definitely recommend this place for anyone, and any level of rider. The ranch is well kept and seems to be a family business. It was really great and we both enjoyed it!