My wife and I did a 3-hour ride with Horse Ranch Bonaire back on Feb. 12 2020. We booked the standard group tour, but when we arrived, we were the... read more only two customers booked for that morning so we ended up having a private ride with just the two of us and our guide. Our ride start time was 8AM.
Locating the ranch was not difficult and was only a 20 minute or so drive in our rental car from our hotel Harbour Village Bonaire (north of capital of Kralendijk). It is located south of Kralendijk, very close to the airport, but felt isolated and well away from the urban area of Kralendijk. Our iPhones (service provider Sprint) were working on island so we were able to use Google Maps to find our way there from our hotel.
The ranch is like and very much has the appearance of a small farm and had several other animals cared for at the ranch as well. The terrain while riding was mostly arid with lots of dirt trails and roads (though not dusty) and cactus, as well as Mangroves and finally beach and ocean areas. Ground was very flat the entire ride, no tricky areas. We were there in early February and sun was bright and very hot, but breezy where we were riding which helped make it bearable.
The horses were very well behaved though did get slightly ornery once or twice on the trail ride as my horse and my wife’s horse were not particularly good friends. I rode on Poncho while my wife rode Liberty whom apparently did not care for Poncho very much. The guide led the way on her horse Macho Man, with my wife and Liberty in the middle, and Poncho and I leading up the rear. Asking if we were comfortable doing so before each time, our guide (to our delight) allowed us to trot several times during our trail ride. There are not really any facilities during the ride, but that is pretty standard on horse back riding excursions anywhere.
The ranch hands and our personal ride guide were a couple of very nice, young Dutch ladies who moved to Bonaire from the Netherlands to live for a time and work. They were very sweet and friendly and spoke English well.
The ride from the ranch to Lac Cai Beach where you swim with the horse/s was approximately an hour, with an hour spent at Lac Cai beach itself, and an hour return ride back to the ranch, give or take a few minutes. During the ride, we saw many wild donkeys, some Flamingoes, and wild goats. The time at the beach near Lac Bay was fun. Since there were just the three of us, the guide let Liberty and Poncho rest tied under cover in some shady forest area at the beach while we took just her horse Macho Man into the water for a swim after removing all his tack. He seemed to genuinely like the water as once led down to its edge, he laid down and rolled in the water’s edge and sand like our dog does whenever we take her to the beach. It was quite funny. There were no facilities at Lac Cai beach that I recall seeing or mentioned, though there was a restaurant/bar right next to the beach which I am not sure, but assume you could use if you truly had to. The guide also provided us water (a little warm) and as I recall some crackers or something like that once we dismounted the horses at Lac Cai beach.
Riding the horse in the water was actually done floating horizontally just above the horses back while holding onto his mane, versus "sitting" on his back, so hence you are actually “swimming” with the horse/s which was quite fine with us to ensure we were not stressing the horse and instead alleviated any weight as the horses do swim in water deeper than they are tall so are literally swimming.
All in all, we were very pleased with the experience and the overall quality of the ride. As we are animal lovers, we are always a little judgmental and observe to see how the animals are treated, cared for, and housed and these horses looked well taken care of. Although hot and sunny out, they did not look uncomfortable and looked happy and healthy during the ride.
We would recommend Horse Ranch Bonaire and use them again ourselves.
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