Western Plains Riding Centre

Emma is an exceptionally knowledgeable and delightful person to deal with and offers a great service of lessons and trail rides with safe horses to cater for every level of rider to learn on or just enjoy a relaxing ride. Cannot recommend highly enough.

We booked a trail ride that lasted about an hour. 5 people, 3 of them quite good farm riders but not "equestrian trained." About 5 teenagers from the center were sent along with us. Most of that time they spent telling us to get our horses back on the narrow path through the flat paddock, to point our toes up more, to hold the reins a certain way, to close up the spacing or open it up, to let them drink, not let them drink, to criticize our riding styles and general power tripping that i guess made them feel superior. "Felt like we were soldiers under training" was the comment that summed it up. Really not an enjoyable experience other than for me as it was quite funny seeing everyone get yelled out as we just wanted a nice ride. But generally boring as mostly walking along a narrow path, a couple of brief trots of maybe 20 seconds, and the background noise of voices of being told what style to ride in constantly. I dont think the owner was there but maybe should me. Definitely not going again.

Fantastic locally owned and run business, I cannot recommend Western Plains Riding Centre enough! Emma is an amazing instructor who is incredibly patient, understanding, knowledgeable and passionate in what she does. She has never let me down the countless times I have attended the centre, and I always have a wonderful time riding- be it a trail ride or a lesson. All of the staff know each of the horses and take time to consider which horse you are suited to. If you are looking to learn to ride, or even just a relaxing trail ride through the country side, you should definitely visit this centre.

I find myself forced to give 1 star when I dont think they deserve any. Made a booking for a trail ride a week ago for my wife as a birthday present and left my details with them over the phone. I drive 2 hours and arrive at the rising centre to be told they have cancelled today activities because there has been rain. Wouldnt have minded so much if they had bothered to call me to let me know instead of waiting til I got there to tell me. Thanks western plains riding centre for letting me spend all that time driving to do nothing.