5 Party Fouls to Avoid on Your Next Trail Ride

Preparing for Horseback Riding in the Poconos

Avoid these common mistakes on your horseback riding adventure and you’ll have yourself a good time.

Horseback riding is all sunshine, rainbows, and horse poop until someone breaks a safety rule. Our horseback riding rules exist for a reason and it’s to make sure you have the best experience possible while staying safe! That being said, be warned: if you break our rules, the barn girls are WAY tougher than that one mean hall monitor back in high-school that everyone thought probably ate children. So read our horseback riding rules carefully.

The Most Common Mistakes to Avoid while Horseback Riding :

• Wearing the wrong thing
• Not showing up on time (or 15 minutes before) your ride time
• Ignoring your guide’s directions
• Trying to pass someone while riding horseback
• Texting and riding!

No, I’m not kidding.

1) SAFETY IS THE FIRST RULE OF HORSEBACK RIDING

The #1 rule is to be safe! It’s even our first rule! It’s the main thing we hope to achieve every day!

#1) Wearing the Wrong Thing

We talked about this in our What To Wear Horseback Riding blog post so I’ll make this a quick reminder: be careful what you wear. From things that fall off (flip-flops and hats) to billowy gowns, there are lots of clothing items you can go wrong with. Want to ensure you skip this mistake? Pants, a t-shirt, and shoes are all you need!

ONE WARNING: shorts sound great ’till you leave with lobster-thighs. Chaffing is a no-go, so stick to pants!

#2) Showing Up Late

Our ride times are very strict, so we advise everyone to be 15-30 minutes early for their ride. Why so much time? Well, because getting up on a horse takes time. So does filling out paperwork, and so does running back to the car four times because the rest of your party keeps handing you things they don’t want to bring with them and you drove so you have the keys. Point is, this buffer time is absolutely vital to ensure everyone can get the full ride we promise.

When we say a ride leaves at 1:00 PM, we mean it, and like a plane pulling away from the gate, if you miss it, you miss it. Though we don’t have federal agents to arrest you if you still try to run after our ride.

#3) Ignoring Your Guide

So, going back to the hall monitor, remember when you’d get caught walking around in the middle of classes and the hall monitor would catch you and you would get lippy and snarky and wind up in the principal’s office for all that sass? No? That was just me? Really!? Well REGARDLESS, make sure to listen to your guides, they are there for your safety and to make sure everyone has a great time. If you are posing a danger to yourself, our customers, or our horses they can and will take you off of your horse and make you walk back to the main office.

This is the last resort that we try our best to avoid, but what’s our first rule? Did you already forget? SAFETY! Scroll back up if you don’t believe me.

#4) Absolutely No Passing

This is very, very important, so no jokes here (okay, maybe one.) Do not make/allow your horse to walk next to or pass another horse. While all our boys are very good, horses are herd animals and they are very accustomed to their routine: follow the butt in front. If this routine is disrupted it opens up numerous possibilities for things to go wrong. And we don’t want wrong, we want right.

#5) Being Distracted on the Ride

I know it seems obvious, but when you’re out and your phone goes off because you actually are playing hooky from work and they want to know how your flu is going…you’re going to try and pull out your phone. At that moment you are utterly absorbed with both hands off the saddle and this is when the ride becomes much more dangerous than it needs to be. It’s not just phones that do it, we’ve seen it all: hats blow off, some people stare at the deer, people attempt yoga on horseback… the list is endless. (No, but seriously, yoga on horseback exists, I’ll show you next time I write one of these.)

If you have more questions about our horse riding rules and regulations, visit our FAQ page to learn more! If you’ve read the above, be sure to browse our horseback trail ride options and book your horseback ride in the Poconos today!