Golden Vista Equestrian Center

PROPERTY JUST SOLD AND NEW OWNER immediately started cleaning up and renovating the facility, changed the stables name to ScissortailHill Equestrian, hired an experienced horse trainer and barn manager and brought in additional horses.
Check it out. Grand opening is June 1, 2014 but info and prices on summer horse camps, riding lessons and boarding can already be found at their new website:
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I’m no horse person, but I’ve known the new owner for close to 30 years, back when we worked together in Austin and before she fell in love with riding. I was in Austin for a law school reunion last weekend and just happened to be in town when she was finalizing the purchase, getting the keys, painting jumps, etc. I crashed their first «work day» and got a grand tour of the trails with the bluebonnets blooming everywhere. It is acreage and a stables worth rescuing, and it has now found its rescuers. I was so impressed with the spirit and dedication and sense of community of the group (horse and human!).
Remember any old Unilocal reviews from before 4÷14÷2014 apply to the old owner — everything is run differently now. I’m sure once it’s up and running there will be lots of glowing reviews of the new ScissortailHill Equestrian.

NO NO NO. I called at 7 am to make a reservation just for some women to answer the phone and yell and cuss at me. She said I was rude and I need to get some effing manners. No way to treat a potential customer. Please dont go there. They are lazy and money hungry! Oh, and rude!

I’ve had two private hunter jumper lessons with Cheryl, and I’ll be back soon. She’s a knowledgeable, patient teacher, and I love her facility. The barn is clean, the grounds are expansive, and the rings (both indoor and outdoor) are immaculate. Her horses are friendly and gentle — I’ve never once been nipped at. I greatly enjoyed my time there and think Golden Vista is a lovely center for all levels of riders.

Thank you Catherine, we had a great time today. Red and Cinnamon were perfectly behaved horses. We enjoyed the opportunity to ride the trails without a guide and the canter time. We appreciate Catherine, she was upbeat. She was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The areas were clean and organized. The hour and a half ride was ideal. My husband and I will be back. It was a wonderful day off for us both!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Where should I start…?
Ok the staff is friendly… That concludes the positive portion of my review.
Untrained and temperamental thoroughbreds for beginners? Not a good idea… Especially considering that they all look severely underweight. My horse looked more suited for death than lessons — his skeleton was clearly visible. There are lots of retired race horses here.
Run down facility, stable floor with a moon-​like surface (great for breaking one’s ankle). Even if you trust your horse’s balance and your own, watch where you walk and wait ’til you’re told to shovel urine-​soaked feces out of the cratered mud stable floor… Even the owner can’t find anything in the tack room.

There’s a 40,000-volt electric fence they will expect you to unhook (a live wire connected by a little plastic handle) with one hand while holding the lead rope of their ill-​mannered horses with the other. They said it was imperative that once we got inside the fence with the horse, that we turn it back around before removing its lead rope so as not to get kicked in the face when the horse gallops away. My girlfriend’s horse bolted at top speed the second it entered and she nearly fell into the fence while trying to let it go with the lead rope still on. They did, however, offer us a little twig to help keep the live wire loop in place when re-​hooking the live wire door — very thoughtful.
The owner is likely to try to up-​sell you to a «double lesson» at twice the price so that she can teach you how to groom her horses for her for 100 minutes, leaving you with all of about 10 minutes on the horse, and then demand that you shovel the horse manure that had accumulated during the interminable grooming session.
She is also likely to be so distracted with other students (even though they have their OWN instructor) that she will let you make really dangerous mistakes… For instance, after being lectured on how she would be reviewing our grooming techniques, I was inclined to remove a big mud clot from my horses ear, (never a problem with other horses I’ve worked with before). The horse reared up, breaking his lead rope and knocked me into the wall with more force than an NFL linebacker. The owner’s response — «oh, sorry — that is the wrong kind of lead rope, and should never have been there for you to use.» Of course, she was standing about 2 feet away from me the whole time to «observe» me.

Once we finally made it into the arena and actually got onto our horses, she instructed us not to put our feet in the stirrups or hold the reins. Instead, she told us how we could control the horses using nothing but «energy». We went in circles on lunge lines for about ten minutes trying to get the horses to obey our «energy» and that was the end of our «lesson».

The owner did SEEM to have a lot of horse knowledge, but her teaching technique seems insane to me, and her facility is run down and depressing. The horses are untrained and look very unhealthy. The staff is over-​solicitous — the text messages trying to get us to come back started almost immediately afterword (I’ve never had that from other stables).
My advice would be to try a stable where SAFETY is a top priority.

Avoid at all costs had my horse there for 6 months I and my horse were miserable. No matter how it starts there will be no follow through by the owner and you will be taken advantage of. The owner has no horse sense and will work horses that should in no way, shape, or form be fit to carry riders.

Complete wacko! Made special plans for my girlfriends birthday. She once trained for the Olympics but has not ridden in years. Thought I would surprise her with some riding time at Golden Vista. We were surprised by how wacky the owner is. She didn’t have any horses ready for us and lied about leaving us messages stating that she cancelled. Became defensive and through her laziness ruined what would have been a really awesome surprise. We rescheduled with another equestrian center. I recommend you do the same