Icicle Outfitters & Guides

We spent a fabulous weekend on a family pack trip with our 8– and 10-​year-​olds. The guides and wranglers were terrific. Pictures and details can be found here:

My girls and I took an hour horseback ride today with Wendell. The horses were well trained and were great with my two 6 year olds. The ride was at a slower pace (which was appreciated) and a great experience for my girls. You can tell the horses are well cared for! We will definitely be back for a sleigh ride this winter!

I took my wife on a private sleigh ride through this company and we were very pleased.
We were originally booked for a 10:30 ride but upon arrival they told us the track was too frozen over for the horses to be safe on. They told us to try and come back around noon and see if enough progress was made on the track for us to take a safe ride.
We came back a little after noon and were surprised and pleased that the course had been cleared for riding. The workers were friendly, the driver was pleasant and outgoing, and the horses and the scenery were beautiful.
They also have hot cocoa, hot apple cider, hot coffee, cookies, and a fire to warm you up at the end of your ride!
All in all we had an amazing experience and highly recommend this outfitter to anyone looking into a horse drawn sleigh ride!

Took my girl here for the sleigh ride in the snow. You can pay extra for a private ride.(recommended) The parking lot is muddy so be prepared. The older guys that greet you and do the rides seem grumpy at first but it’s just an act. The ride is about 15 – 20 minutes. Afterwards they have coffee, tea, cocoa, and apple cider to warm you up. Excellent experience!

I recently returned from the 3-​day horse drive ride and would not recommend it. The pace was much too slow for an experienced rider (we barely kept the horses at a slow crawl the entire time), but there is not enough oversight for novice riders to feel safe. Views were amazing, but we never stopped to take pictures (although we seemed to stop for everything else constantly). Horses were kept overly bunched up the entire ride, so there was constant kicking and biting. There were several preventable accidents with the riders that nearly resulted in catastrophic injury. I would not dispute the care of the horses, that was definitely good. However, the poor management and oversight made the ride much less enjoyable than it could have been. Also, the lack of experienced medical personnel was alarming considering that conditions were ripe for a problem (three horses-​two with riders on board went down, and one rider came off). The day rides may be ok, but I would never recommend this ride.

Just returned from the 3 day horsedrive with my girlfriends! Had an absolute fantastic time! We are already planning for next year! The Icicle crew are an amazing group of people and made us feel like part of the family for sure! The view was gorgeous, the food was ridiculous, the conversation made me have belly aches from laughing so hard! Had a blast sitting around the fire listening to stories and singing! We are for sure repeat customers!!!

My husband booked over an hour long trail ride for the two of us as a surprise and I really enjoyed it. We both hadn’t ridden a horse in years, but they made it really easy for us to get on and off. Rainie was the best guide, she was funny, full of stories, and very friendly. We went at a leisurely pace and had a lot of time to fully enjoy our ride. I’d love to come back and do a ride in the winter through the snow. I’d recommend them to all my friends.

Maybe because I have never ridden on a trail horse, but they should warn folks that you will be going up a steep incline along the edge of a cliff. My horse either wanted to stop to eat or walk along the edge of this cliff. Scared the hell out of me. The view up top was beautiful, but when they asked you to turn your horse around on this 5′ wide trail, I nearly had a heart attack. I didn’t see the horses get any water breaks between our ride and the folks before us. They were running late, so I’m not sure if that was why or not. I worry that these horses aren’t getting proper care after carrying folks of various weight mile after mile. I hope I’m wrong. The guides need to ensure they have working cell phones or may a walkie talkie. They should also have first aid kits on them. Also, it would be helpful if they had a staff member at base at all times. Our friend took a near deadly spill on our ride, so please remember to wear a helmet. The ride is full of slick rocks, fallen trees and exposed roots. Many horses stumbled that day. I would hope they find the time to clean up their trails.

The sharp pain shooting up my leg from my knees to my hips told me in no uncertain terms, that it had been WAY too long since I’d ridden a horse. Don’t misunderstand me, the trail rides are fabulous and done at a pace that makes you forget about the rush on I-​5 every evening. Unfortunately, riding horseback uses muscles that haven’t seen any activity for quite a while.
That said, the guides are great, funny, insightful and full of stories about previous trail rides that turned into something out of a comedy movie. You can’t go wrong with these folks and they will do right by you.