Shady Lane Ranch

Holy cow...I mean horse... this place is AWESOME! Took my niece, 13 years old. She gave the experience an 11 on a scale of 1-10. The trails are not just a flat walk. You go up into the hill and they have multiple trails so I think you might be on different trails if you go often enough. The staff was super nice and let us ride abreast which many places only let you go in a line. It was only $20 for an entire hour. A STEAL compared to other trail rides I've experienced. It's western saddle and you call or show up that morning (thought it might be first come, first serve) walk up to the lady outside the barn to fill out your paperwork and pay, in cash, and then go stand by the horses/people working. They ask you about your experience and pick a horse for you. I loved my horse. I'm a fairly experienced rider and they assigned accordingly. If the weather doesn't cooperate there isn't trail riding that day so if you come from out of town or wanted to do a birthday party or something that would be a thing to keep in mind. I asked when the season ends and this year Oct 1 because they do hay rack rides in October. The one thing I didn't love is the stirrups were way too low and couldn't be adjusted up. I'm 5'6" and could just barely keep my feet in them so mostly didn't bother to which was okay. I would totally go again and again.

Note: I think the minimum age is 10.

We had a hayrack ride planned for over a month for a birthday celebration. They told us they would call at noon on the day of to confirm we were good to go. We were told we had the green light at noon. About an hour before our scheduled slot they call us and cancel the entire night after we had bought about $400 worth of snacks/drinks with out of town folks already enroute. What a SHADY business this is!

Beautiful ride. Great horses! Wonderful guide. This was our 2nd time at Shady Lane Ranch and I am glad we came back.

My mother in law booked a hayrack ride in early October and it was a very memorable experience. While we're still in a pandemic, a dozen of us hopped onto a true hayrack, unlike any I've been on before, it's a flat bed, with a literal pile of hay onit.
Pro tip- Bring a blanket.
The ride is 1 full hour going up the trails that horses ride. The color of the trees is stunning, I haven't been to vermont but I've seen enough romance movies to know what it looks like, and this is it.
When we got to the top of the tallest hill we pulled off to Look Out Point and had 10 minutes to take photos, EPIC photos, you may seem them on my christmas card this year.
After the ride was over the staff has set up our campfire and got it going for us.
It was a 5 star experience start to finish, the staff couldn't have been friendlier and helpful. I hope to make this a yearly tradition.

Shady Lane Ranch was exactly what we signed up for; an hour of trail-riding. Horses were great. Trails were great. It was a very easy, seamless drive in.

However, this is a no frills, just ride on the trails hour long ride. They didn't offer any coaching on how to steer, the stirrups are way too low so your legs hang uncomfortably, and very little direction or information on the trails.

I wish it was more of an experience. Introduce you to your horse, whether it's a boy or girl, and what their demeanor may be like. There were also no moments to stop and take a photo to document the ride which was a bummer since it was such a big occasion for our daughter.

Overall, we would absolutely go again. It was $30 per person for an hour long trail ride, which was reasonable based on an "essentials only" experience.

Great place to take the family I will be there as soon as it opens again. Hhjhjzkzkjxhxnx

Told us to call when we were on our way and they didn't set an appointment. Showed up and called 30 mins before we showed up. Front gate locked and no one around . Happy Mothers's day to me

Terrible, went with a large group, five year old daughter was having second thoughts of if she wanted to ride, immediately staff were yelling from the building oh just leave her blah blah blah and had wanted me to go without her....Um no....no refund for the one horse we didn't ride even though we had a large group, most of the staff was professional but the old man completely ruined this experience, made it seem like it was a hassle having our group there, just wanted us in and out although it's not like he was doing any "work" at all but sitting running his mouth from afar. Wouldn't recommend

We wanted to go horseback riding and called earlier in the week to try and make reservations. The guy on the phone said they can't make reservations until the day of. So we called on the day of and they said they're fully booked. Which is amazing since they had been open for about 4 minutes. What kind of business is this? Guess they really don't try too hard to bring in business.

My family just did the hour long trail ride at Shady Lane Ranch. It was such an amazing experience. My youngest (age 9) could have ridden by himself but he was scared so the staff let him ride with me and really went all out to make sure he felt safe and comfortable. My oldest has Aspergers autism and he absolutely LOVED it. The staff was very patient with him! Our tour guide was fun and personable and really made our experience pleasurable. We will definitely be going again. My youngest wants to ride his own horse next time. He said after this experience, he's ready and very excited.