Fiona (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Amazing experience! | I was quite apprehensive when I went as I had not ridden regularly for many years and was not sure if I would participate in some of the activities. However from the very first ride, I felt confident enough to canter on the trail and ended up doing everything that was on offer.....This included Arena games and Barrel racing, Working with Cattle and Wagon driving! Everybody at the Ranch went out of their way to make sure all the guests were happy with their horse and got to do everything that they wanted to.

I really enjoyed the riding and it more than exceeded my expectations.
[Becky from In The Saddle replies: Thank you very much for leaving us your feedback and I'm so pleased to hear that you had a lovely holiday at Rocking Z.]

Sine Orgaard Olsson who has been on 5 In The Saddle rides. A dream that was fulfilled. Good horse, tack and fantastic scenery

Liza who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. The quality of 2 of the horses I rode was perhaps not quite as good. One seemed to be slightly lame and the other had no doubt previously been very good, but coughed a lot, had difficulty keeping up and was affected by his age. But there was no problem in getting another horse.

Susan who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. Everything I'd dreamed of! | We had a fantastic week! I learnt so much; tried cattle cutting, Liberty, barrel racing and driving the heavy horses. I had two fantastic horses, who I felt quite sad to leave at the end of the week.

Charlotte (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) A great week in beautiful Montana made very easy by in the saddle | I think I downplay my riding ability a little bit which did mean it took a few days to find a horse I really loved (my fault). I wasn’t expecting such hard ground which meant quite sedentary paced rides & there were lots of beginners so I would consider experienced rides only for my next trip. The opportunities to have long canters (through a little more than one field) were limited, but the staff did everything they could to suit everyone’s wants and the rides with Maria were particularly fun / all the staff are lovely. Some periods of disorganisation and waiting around in the mornings - i think this is because there is not schedule which is both a pro and con for them from what I could see.

Ruth Georgina who has been on 6 In The Saddle rides. Great time learning to be Cowgirls!! | We were matched up with our horses after a discussion on our ability, and requirements. We did need to switch later, but in the end we got our perfect match.
It was a shame that the rides were not better divided up into riding ability. Experience riders often went out with a group of novice riders.This did effect the pace of the rides sometimes. We would have liked more opportunities for faster "lopping"
Maybe in future requests of what was happening the following day could be discussed the evening before over our meal. There was always a delay with the rides going out, which could have been better organised. I think that the week we were there they were a little overstretched.
The horse were beautifully cared for as was the tack.

Hanne (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) The family Wirtht (Maria and Anna), his daughters, took on every ride into account that I can not ride for long. Each ride was approx. 1 hour, sometimes 11/2 hour, which suited me perfectly. There was always one of the daughters, Anna or Maria who followed me back on the ride when the body began to "squeak". Incredibly considerate. Besides, they had also found a super sweet and loving horse (Nonni) for me. A cute little Paint horse, which I miss very much. The terrain we rode in was taken out of a western movie. Anna or Maria always had a story to tell about the places where we rode. At each ride we always had the company of Maria’s Border collies. Great to see how they work together..

Lars (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Our horses were incredibly well-schooled. We rode in mountains, through rivers, and over vast open countryside. It was a wonderful and amazing experience.
During our stay we were lucky enough to wake up to a landscape completely covered with snow. As with a "magic trick", the landscape had turned into a Christmas card scene. Although there was a lot of snow it was no obstacle to our riding. One day, we rode with Ben, the cowboy of the ranch, to drive a herd of cattle over to another mountain, while the snow fell quietly. The snow, the scenery, and the riding and the experience of driving cattles were overwhelming and unforgettable.

Imogen (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Amazing. | Loved being able to ride and work with all the different horses.

Richard who has been on 6 In The Saddle rides. A wonderful experience and our first exposure to Parelli training | We started the week with a discussion and match-up to horses and then with an afternoon of ground work - at the end of which, we rode our horses bareback. The following morning we went on one of many rides over the surrounding country and hills. Plenty of opportunity for trots and canters. During the week we also tried our hand at rounding up cattle, separating cattle, playing a 'cow game' -in which one rider pretends to be the cow and the other tries to round them up. We also tried barrel racing and had a session of 'liberty' - in which the horse is free in an arena and the rider has to persuade it to follow and turn with non-vocal signals. We were never more than 6 riders to an instructor. Patty and Zac's daughters Maria and Anna are expert horse 'wranglers' and Parelli practitioners and their advice and instruction was superb.
[Becky from In The Saddle replied: It’s lovely to hear how much you enjoyed the riding and natural horsemanship.]

Paula who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. Holiday of a lifetime | Excellent

who has been on In The Saddle rides. Lovely confident horses, nice riding area and super good instruction.
[Becky from In The Saddle replied: Thank you for your lovely feedback and it's great to hear you enjoyed the riding at the ranch!]

Justine who has been on 4 In The Saddle rides. Horses were responsive and well-matched to the riders (of differing ability). What was really great was the relaxed nature of the rides: the horses are so well trained that you can have people off doing a fast canter and the other horses will not race or follow. This allowed the same ride to be enjoyed by different confidence levels (though we could all ride) - so the family aged 10-50 all rode together every day. There was no walking along in a line (unless track demanded it) and indeed diversions were encouraged (logs; ditches; woods....;-)). There was a variety of terrain and activities including day rides; longer hacks; barrel racing and cattle herding. As an experienced rider I loved the opportunity to learn about the natural horsemanship and liberty work and also the very different Western style. I kept the same horse all week (other swapped if needed / they wanted) and we were encouraged to look after them as well which was all part of it. Horses were super fit and well looked after.
[Becky from In The Saddle replied: I'm so pleased to hear how much you all enjoyed the riding. Natural Horsemanship is a big part of ranch life.]

Jon&Alison who has been on 2 In The Saddle rides. Better than last year and I didn't think that was possible! | They made every effort for us both to have the same horse as last year.

SJ (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Absolutely brilliant! | Coming from Norfolk (extremely flat) found the steepness of the hills somewhat of a shock lol but the horses are so surefooted and know the trails so didn’t feel unsafe.
My husband had a slight saddle slipping issue with his horse on the first day but they readily swapped horses and all was good after that.
Loved that we didn’t have to trail ride every day (unless you wanted to) but we wanted to try the other activities on offer. Fulfilled my ambitions of trying barrel racing and cow cutting.
Having said that, the trail rides were amazing - beautiful scenery.
Also loved the parelli and can’t explain how amazing it felt to ride with no reins, just my focus, it was magical.

Marnie who has been on 2 In The Saddle rides. had a great time | would have loved some longer faster paced rides, but season fitness was not great for the horses just coming out of a snowny spring and other riders were not prepared for such riding. It was really good but just not great.

Liz/Aztec (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) A superb holiday that beat all expectations | Varied and different trail every day

Lou (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Enjoyable first experience of a guest ranch | We rode over varied terrain from the flat fields near the creek to the hills above with glorious views of the countryside.

Tori (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Really something special | The riding was spectacular, the guides really friendly and fun. All abilities were able to ride out together and have fun which is really a credit to them and their horses.