canyon creek riding stable

We were vacationing and decided to take the trail ride. June 2014 my mom was bucked off a horse for no reason and received a left brain bleed, broken nose, broken bones around her eye, and a left wrist fracture. She was ambulanced to the nearest hospital and then life flighted to Madison where she stayed in ICU for a couple days. My mom at 62 had been working full time and physically fit. She is still unable to go back to work and still has ongoing issues caused by this accidant. Very unhappy with how the whole situation was dealt with, and never heard anything from Canyon Creek since we left. All in all the crappiest vacation ever!

This is a nice Riding Stable. If you want to get off the beaten path of water parks & duck boats this is a nice change for all ages. There is some cute and corny stuff along the trail that makes it kinda fun and interesting. You will see a lot of deer and fawns. My kids still talk about it today.

After researching all stables in the Dells, we chose Canyon Creek and were very pleased. Very calm, sturdy, well mannered horses. Trails were wide, clean and beautiful. Saw 6 deer, several waterfowl, and rode along the top of the "lost" canyon. Will definitely go back.

For the cost of this trail ride - we were very disappointed. They claimed that the trail had animated characters along the trail and the guide would give us facts and figures. The animated characters were mostly broken and not very interesting. They guide could not be heard if you were in the back and all he said was a couple of jokes.

I never write poor reviews, and this was our only poor experience at the Dells all weekend. We were very excited for our very first time on a horse, and we were celebrating our 10 yr anniversary. We approached the counter to pay and encountered a fairly unfriendly lady. We tried to strike up some quick conversation, and the best we got was if its thunder and lightning you will be told to get off the horse and walk back, no refunds. (it was a gray, drizzly day that was clearing up). So we get our tickets and go over to the stable where we were directed. We encountered probably 4 more people that made eye contact with us and didn't even speak to us unless we spoke to them, no smiles, no hi, nothing. A gentleman walked away as we approached the gate, and a couple minutes later came back as we stood at the gate. He directed us onto a platform, another put us each on a horse, and then our trail guide brought us out of the stable. No conversations, no explanations, no instructions. Our trail guide was a nice young lady, she made some conversation along the way. If it wasn't for her this would've gotten a "terrible" score. None the less this was the only activity in the Dells I didn't tip a tour/trail guide, and we did a lot of "guided" tours that gratuity is standard if it was a good experience. This was the only part of our vacation I wish I had my $46 back. It was difficult to recover from this poor experience as we moved on, its such a shame, a few smiles and hellos would've gone a long way.

I had a similar experience to K A whose comment is titled "Not a Good Experience". I have owned, ridden, trained horses horses for 23 years. Not to mention being a trail guide myself at two different ranches over that time. Thought it would be fun to go for a ride with my young kids on our vacation. The handler who had me get on my horse was very nice and pleasant. When he let go of my horse to help the next rider my horse walked off on its own. As a horse person, you don't let your horse walk off. You stop them and make them stand until you are ready to go. As we were just standing waiting for the rest of the riders to be mounted another handler came up to me and started yelling at me over and over again to lengthen my reins, he grabbed them from me and yanked them down so they were longer. He then continued to rudely say "there's a metal bar in its mouth you know". All this while my three year old child was sitting with me in the saddle. Pretty much the first half of my ride I was steaming mad at how I was treated. On the other hand, our trail guide was awesome and super friendly and my kids had a blast. The trail was beautiful! But my suggestion would be if you actually know how to ride a horse don't go there or else pretend that you don't know what you're doing. There is one handler there who doesn't seem to like working with the public.

We ended up going three times in 5 days as the kids really loved the ride. This isn't a high thrills adventure ride so if you're looking for some sort of high tech shoot 'em up in the "wild west town" you'll probably be disappointed but if you're looking to get out on some very mild-mannered horses, see some deer and take in a little bit of nature, you'll likely be well-satisfied. During our three trips, we had two different guides, both of whom were very friendly and on all three rides there was sufficient care taken to make sure saddles fit and we were comfortable. We didn't go to the petting zoo so I can't comment on that but in our visits we were well-satisfied with the riding.

I will say the health of the horses were great, happy to see that. The workers were nice but our saddlels were not adjusted to fit any of us. Myself and 3 others we could not put our feet in and struggled to sit properly let alone keep our body's upright for a safe ride. We had 5 children in our group they all were very disappointed on the whole ride. Very boring. They were looking forward to going thought the ghost town which was nothing but a couple buildings not to mention every other attraction we went by was a joke. Then we visited the petting zoo, not pleased. We felt sorry for the animals. A couple of them had open wounds. All the children had saved up money all summer to go and they all wanted a return in the end. They felt like they were ripped off. Will not visit again nor recommend it.

We decided to try Canyon Creek after reading poor reviews of other riding stables in the area even though the price was more expensive. We arrived around 1pm and ended up waiting around 45 minutes to ride. The horses were well mannered and seemed to be well taken care of. The staff were minimally interactive as we were getting our horses. The guide we had was friendly, but didn't talk very much. The first part of the ride the scenery was beautiful. We saw deer a few times along the way. The second part of the ride was basically a ride with forestry on one side and the parking lot of the wilderness resort on the other. Overall a good experience and would recommend to others.

I have been around horses for over two decades, and I wanted a chance for my non-horsey relatives to ride so we went to Canyon Creek. On arrival at the corral, I was pleased to note that the horses appeared calm, well-fed and their feet were trimmed. I mounted my horse and was led over to the gate. When the handler left to tend to another, my horse charged toward the gate so I stopped him with the reins and backed him off the gate. The handler then yelled at me to get off the reins. I told him that if the horse was moving off, I was sure as heck going to stop him. He then told me he was not going to let me abuse his horse. The equipment on the majority of the horses was ill-fitting, and during the trail ride I heard other riders complaining that their saddles twere slipping. I was informed that the horses occasionally get saddle sores. This does not happen with well fit saddles. Unlike the handler, the guide was very pleasant and knowledgable. She seemed to love her job and care a great deal about the horses. Trail string horses have a tough but important job. They carry mostly very green riders calmly and quietly on the same trail, 7 days a week. For some people, the only time they get ride a horse is at on one of these establishment. I would suggest to the owners of this business that they get quality fitting tack, let the horses have a day off during the week, and have some arena time during the week with an experienced rider/trainer to do some riding that involves more than walking in a straight line. Also, move the handler to another task that does not involve dealing with the public as he does not seem to enjoy it!

We had a group of five ranging in age from 2 to 62, everyone had a great time. The staff was friendly and our guide, Kris, was very interactive. It started to rain half way through our ride, so we rode faster in the open areas, slower under the tunnel and tree canopy to try to stay dry. We saw fawns and other wildlife on the ride.

Some reviews I read complained of long wait times. We were there by 11 and waited no more than 30 minutes, including our wait time to buy tickets. The ride was around an hour with pretty scenery and natural wildlife. We have our own horses but it is always fun to go somewhere unique. Horses were typical trail horses- follow the leader.

The kids had fun but it cost us over $100 for about a 30 min ride. Our guide was nice the horses were really nice. The trail was cool we even saw a fawn.

I have never been horse back riding before and what a wonderful place to go to for my first time! The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, the staff was very friendly, and the horses were very calm. It's about an hour long ride so be ready to relax and enjoy!

great place for horse back riding, beautiful scenery!! horses are so well mannered and staff is very friendly