Orona's Ranch

Gloria is great with the kids. She is very hands on with my 5 year old and the horses are just wonderful.

My family and I had a wonderful experience at Orona's Ranch! My mom wanted to go horseback riding for her birthday, as well as be able to feed/brush, take care of horse. Before I found Orona's I tried contacting other places which either repeatedly didn't answer or were rude. Gloria Orona answered quickly and was easy to set up an appointment with. She was very kind and fun, making the experience enjoyable for my mom. Gloria is very knowledgeable about horses and has a beautiful little ranch to ride on. Not to mention affordable and excellent customer service. We will definitely be back, and recommend this place to anyone looking for equine activities in the Albuquerque area!

I had a horse here for almost a year - I thought it would be great because it is 5 min from my home. That turned out to be the only advantage, and I regret staying as long as I did. Moved to another facility due to repeated injuries to my horse that Orona's did not report to me (or act concerned about when I mentioned them). Boarder facilities are rudimentary at best - no bathroom available, no tack storage. They "let me" put my saddle in an old grain bin - initially they wanted me to keep it in my truck and bring it with me every time which would have involved lugging it about 600 yards in soft sand. But then they kept piling garbage and tools on top of the grain bin so I had to move everything to get to my stuff. Proudly told me all about rearranging and expanding their tack storage and how great it was...but I still had the grain bin with the pile of rusty machetes on top. No wash rack, heck not even a safe hitching post/saddling area, all movable panels to tie up to in the boarder's area (they have a much better set up for their horses, of course). Arena footing is just local dirt, very dusty, and often crusty for a week after a rain before they get to dragging it - if they have a lesson coming, they fix the arena, but for boarders...nope. Staffed with volunteer/"work-study" teens who are consistently rude and do not know a whole lot about horses - which is fine, every one starts somewhere, but they are left in charge when the adults are gone. Gates to pens and hay storage have been left unlatched randomly, and more than once my horse has had a clear path to a whole load of fresh alfalfa if she wanted to colic herself. Tendency to send inappropriate communications late at night (ie pestering for board check before it is due) although that stopped when I complained. Most concerns are met with at best a phony apology and no changes, but often even worse - I was told that actual painful bloody wounds were "normal rub marks" ... They certainly did not get right out there to find out where the hazards were so they could fix them which is more what I expected. They don't seem to want boarders around who actually need facilities and diligent horse care and want to ride, I felt like they wanted me to just leave a bucket of money in their yard every month and just go away until the next payment. They certainly are not into forming the kind of horse community/family feel at their barn that keeps people engaged. Overall, a cut rate facility with marginal to dangerous horse care and crappy customer service skills at market prices. You can do better. I have.

I usually don't leave reviews but wanted to take a minute to share about our wonderful experience with Orona's Ranch. Gloria and Lawrence, the owners, have been wonderful to work with. My 13 yr old daughter just finished her second set of horse riding lessons (10 classes per set, and each class is an hour long). She has gone from an absolute beginner, knowing very little about horses, to knowing a great deal about horse anatomy, riding gear, saddling a horse, trailering a horse, horse care, has gone from walking a horse to running a horse, and even just competed in her first youth rodeo doing pole bending and barrel racing. It has been a wonderful experience for her, and Gloria and Lawrence are both super friendly and have been great to work with. Every time I pick my daughter up from her lessons she goes on and on about how much fun she's had, tells me how much she's learned, and that she can't wait for her next lesson. Oh, I think it's also important to note that you can tell all their animals are very well taken care of. I highly recommend Orona's Ranch for anyone looking to take riding lessons.