green horse ranch

My husband and I had a great half day ride with Green Horse Ranch! The horses were well cared for and responsive, and the guide really made sure everyone had a wonderful time! We did the Pululuhua crater hike which was lush and green, with ample opportunities to trot and canter. My husband I not a very experienced rider and he felt terrific on his horse, very calm and sure footed, I am an intermediate rider and really enjoyed my ride (perhaps I was a bit rusty on the canter, but that was me!) our guide and the two other guests were all interesting and it was a terrific way to spend the day!

What everyone said before is true!!Great horses, great staff, amazing landscape! Everything well organized (difficult to find in Ecuador). We are a young couple with NO experience and we had such a wonderful day. The 2 Guides were all the time very attentive, helping us and being very patient explainig us everything we wanted and needed to know. The result was that even though we were so worried about our abilities, we were soon able to trot and galop with those wonderful animals.The route we took was unbelievable. Through the valley, up and down, over wide fields and through narrow paths. We loved it and are looking forward to a next trip (when all of our muscles stop hurting...).A beautiful choice, close to Quito - and adventurous! I recommend it 100%!

1. Amazing scenery - particularly when the clouds roll in through the gap in the crater.2. Responsive to last minute request - Astrid arranged a tour at 5.30pm for the next day. We were grateful. 3. Lovely tour riders - our riders / tour guides were expert horse people and made the ride a joy. We even got a privileged opportunity to meet the baby horses in their environment. Something to experience that can't be easily explained.4. Excellent value - hard to walk past given you get lunch, travel to from Quito, great company and a full day in the saddle. 5. A little way from Quito (1.5 hr) - but the Volcanic crater is something worth seeing for yourself. Push yourself a little for what is a long day.

Dear Wiebke,Thank you so very much for your kind comment on your riding experience with us, for taking all this time for your long and explainative description! Receiving wonderful guests like yourself motivates us every day to do our best to make anybody's ride most enjoyable.Wishing you, and all of our visitors, the best of luck for the future and still many splendid holidays,Astrid

Dear Gary,Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a complete and informative review on your ride with us! This way, interested riders can really get an idea of what to expect, - including the bumpy road :-) It was our pleasure to share the day with your family!I highly appreaciate the efforts our guests are making when sending a review and totally understand that most of them don't do it, because it can be hard work to sit down and evaluate your holiday experiences once you're back home. Thanks again for doing this big favor to the community and of course to us outfitters, who we will always try to do our best to please different demands.

The Green Horse Ranch is situated in the middle of the Pululahuacrater, a very special place. Even more special to explore this area while horsebackriding! True freedom.. The horses were really fantastic and relaxed, we had a wonderful time riding with Astrid as the perfect guide. Learned some interesting facts about the area and had a great picknick lunch! An experience never to forget.

My friend and I were looking to do some good riding while in Ecuador, and we found it! There weren't other people riding that day, so Becks picked us up at our hotel for a ride past Mitad del Mundo then on a dirt road that went up the side of a volcano, then down into the crater. Beautiful view!We were both perfectly paired with our horses. I'm an advanced rider, and my friend right about medium. Her horse was bitless, which is awesome to see. The day ride is pretty nice, along a couple roads, then onto an old trade route trail. Got some great gallops in, followed by a lovely picnic. Really, I couldn't be more happy with the whole experience!One of my favorite moments was coming back to the farm, where all the horses were waiting and greeted us enthusiastically!

We did a 1-day tour in the crater of the Pululahua volcano with Green Horse Ranch and we loved this experience. Astrid had prepared us two nice horses as we were beginners and we haven't had any problems with them. Both Astrid and Rebecca (our guide) were very nice, helpful and knowledgeable about our surroundings. We found the quality/price ratio very fair and we really enjoyed riding Galadriel and Frodo!

Wonderful horses, beautiful scenery and helpful guides! Can not say enough good about Astrid and her outfit. So happy we were able to book despite waiting till the last minute. Pick-up in Quito was perfect, drive was scenic and the crater itself is other worldly. My boyfriend and I enjoyed every minute of our trip. He is a intermediate rider and LOVED Aquarella (sorry for spelling?), she was such a steady good girl. As an advanced rider, I loved Smeagol. He is a little guy with a big heart, always leading the charge on the canters. We had 5 guests total with 2 guides the first two days and a third guide joined the last day for the challenging part, so very personal and professional as well as safe. The lovely home stay we had for two nights was a highlight of our 3-weeks in Ecuador. We were treated to the best homemade food, organic coffee grown on property and delightful company from Soledad and her family.

Great day with spectacular views from the crater floor. Horses were well trained and a very good lunch included. Staff were great!

My first try to thank all of our commentators! Am certainly not as good in computers as in horse-back riding!Thank you all who have taken the time and the effort to sit down after the holiday and write notes and recommendations, and of course the helpful critiques. This is not evident at all and helps us small and "remote" operators enormously. Most of all, it makes all of us, who we are working at the ranch, happy to hear you enjoyed your ride with us! In this case, special thanks to you, Carole, and of course we hope to see you again soon at the ranch!

Thank you so much, Susan, great you enjoyed your ride with us! Sunny Equator-greetings to Canada! Astrid

Dear Liz, now that I finally found out how to reply to comments on Tripadvisor, I want to complement my e-mail by saying "thank you" in this place as well. - Reading your description makes me realize again, how lucky I am to do what I'm doing. Enjoying these admireable horses and amazing scenery all the time. And most of all meeting such great, interesting, inspiring people like yourself from all over world. Really greatful! Thanks again.

My wife and I took a full-day trip today with Astrid, a volunteer, and another tourist. Amazing day. Astrid gave great care to giving us the horses appropriate for our levels, and she also showed us all the basics of riding -- how to trot, how to canter, how to sit normally. Meanwhile, we were descending through some of the most breathtaking, verdant landscape I've ever seen, passing through the clouds along mountain ridges, down through the farmlands on dirt roads and narrow paths. Excellent lunches, attention to the flora and fauna around us, even a glimpse of pre-Columbian civilization. We realized too late that they also do multi-day trips, and if we had time we definitely would do more than a daytrip.

My boyfriend and I traveled to Ecuador in September; our trip included excursions to the Galápagos, the rain forest, Otavalo, and a brief stay in Quito. I try to incorporate horseback rides into our vacations, and while he is not particularly fond of horses and riding, my boyfriend partakes in these excursions for me. I have more riding experience than he does, but he is very confident and unafraid. He agreed to a 1-day crater ride at Green Horse Ranch, and I was thrilled. We had an excellent day, and I would have loved to spend several days riding with Astrid. She picked us up in town and it ended up just being the two of us paying customers, as another party rescheduled. She selected horses appropriate for us; I rode Atrellu and he rode Galadriel. Atrellu was perfect for me; sure footed, a smooth ride, and just the right amount of sassy. (Astrid had tacked up a more beginner-suitable Horse in case she felt one of us needed him. Once she talked with us and had an idea of our riding abilities she felt the other 2 horses were ok and she was right. They were still very gentle and quiet.) Atrellu was very willing and a joy to ride through the crater. We were allowed to speed up for stretches and I really enjoyed that. Lunch was great, we got some amazing photos, and had refreshments upon our return to the ranch. Astrid delivered us back to Quito and recommended a restaurant in town that we went to that evening (and enjoyed as well). This overall was a very pleasant and memorable day for us in Quito. It was fantastic to see such a unique geographical feature and take in the beauty of the crater on horseback. Photos from our ride made both our annual photo album and our Christmas card!