Chaparral at Woodside

The experience was great. Both of my kids loved it and they would like to do it again.

My daughter loved the camp. She had a great time, and rated it 10/10.

My 8yo daughter had a great time. She kept telling me all about her horse and horse facts. She especially enjoyed the trail ride on the last day of camp. A bit pricy and short (would love a 3pm end option), but my daughter wants to do it again next summer.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her time at this camp

Great camp and lovely instructors! My son had a great time.

It's not 2 hours of activities, maybe 40 minutes max per day. Every day, first 20 mins at check in we did nothing and waited for instructor. There were too many fillers like instructors just going around all kids asking names as there was no activity to do. They were passing time to get 2 hours done every day. The only solid thing on agenda was 20 min ride per day which would cost me $100 for 3 days instead of enrolling in the camp.

Kids really had a great time! They learned how to ride and take care of horses, and history of the place. We suggest one staff can keep an eye on kids in the morning before group activities start. Currently they set up the table and do check-ins facing away from where kids hang out. We did not feel safe to leave kids there without constant supervision in case kids wander too far.

Compared to another horse camp, my daughter didn't like that they didn't each get their own horse and had to take turns, which means less time riding.

My son loved it and he's been to Chaparral's camp 3 times and taken horseback riding lessons and trail rides. It's really a gem!

My daughter did this horse camp for the first time. I thought she might be scared. She wasn’t afraid at all and looked comfortable within the first 15 minutes of being on the most calm and gentle horse she had. She had the best time/ she’s asked to do continues lessons after this.

My daughter really enjoyed the camp. Now she really in to horseback riding. We will send her there next time again!

This was my daughter's second time attending summer camp at Chaparral, and once again, she absolutely loved it! I was surprised by how much she learned about horse anatomy, behavior, and riding. She also met other friendly campers, and the staff are also helpful.

Camp was great and our daughter loved her experience and her horse Shasta. We will be back next year and both daughters will attend. We did not get much information on what our daughter was doing all day but hoped that she would get a bit more time helping with the day to day maintenance of the horses, like mucking out the stalls, brushing the horse, feeding them and learning how to clean and care for their hoofs. It seems like there were a lot of groups so the time each kid got with the horses was limited.

Ver nice staff and counselors. Instructors are very knowledgable. Horses were also very schooled, safe and well trained. The stable/facility and horse arena is beautiful and the young riders got to trial ride and hike up into the wooded hills filled with gorgeous pine and redwood trees right next to the facility. Kids also had lunch in the woods a couple of times. It was very hot though and the kids were really tired by the end of the day because there are so many activities under the hot sun and only a 30 minute lunch in a shaded area. Chaparral should consider putting some of the horsemanship activities (like knot tying and saddling) in the shaded areas of the park.

Overall this camp provided a great experience for beginning riders and the staff covered a lot of horsemanship from the ground up! Beginning students were able to practice walk and trot for four days straight. No cantering. This camp is not for intermediate or advanced riders. More experienced riders should consider lessons with an instructor instead of the camp.

I wouldn't send my child here again. She enjoyed the horses but the (16yo) teenagers left mostly in charge, of 5yo (too young by Chaparral policies) to 13yos, were immature. That's to be expected, which is why they shouldn't have had such free reign and needed adult supervision.
When I shared the first day experience, including bickering counselors, poor teaching methods of animal info, and being cramped in a small room because it had heat on a rainy day BUT not enough room to spread out and eat lunch safely in these COVID times, Carla is the one who responded to me in person the next morning. She listened and assured me that she'd be managing them. The 3 days of that week that Carla was there, no issues with the teenage counselors, or anything else. For those 3 days when I asked my daughter how her day was, she spoke excitedly about her time with the horses (the other 2 days it was about the treatment of the kids by the teenagers, including bickering, and refusing to take a picture of my daughter on the horse).
The 2 days that Erazel was the manager onsite, the teenagers did not have adult supervision. I shared the last day experience with Erazel, including that the kids were doing 2 hours of barn chores- sounds a bit like using campers for child labor. Erazel said that she didn't think that had happened so my daughter gave me the names of the older campers who had done the most work and the two teenager "counselors" who were chatting together in a stall while the 10-13yos cleaned horse stalls. Her reply was that my daughter wasn't a good fit for their programs.
Instead of approaching with curiosity by asking more questions, by sending out a survey to all the campers, by talking to the parents of the older kids, she told me that we weren't welcome there anymore. Why not use this for a growth opportunity, instead?
A credit to Erazel, when my daughter shared her COVID concerns regarding being in the cramped room for lunch, she sent the kids outside.

Our boys were delighted with this camp! They didn't have any prior experience with horses, and they found it absolutely amazing to ride horses. Thank you!

Our daughter has been on several summer camps and one wintercamp and loved it! She is 12. Lots of time with the horses and sweet camp leaders.

My 11 year old daughter loved the horses and the riding, and felt like the rest of the camp was too unstructured. After lunch, she mentioned there was mostly sitting around. So the horse instruction was fun, but we ended up thinking it probably wasn't worth the cost. A half-day camp would have been fine.

My daughter loved her time, and her horse Angel. Well run and all outdoors which was great during these covid times! Thank you!

My 11 yr old daughter loves the camps at Chaparral, Woodside. So far she went to the winter and spring camps and will be returning to the summer camp as well - this is how much she loved the experience. The staff is really nice, keeps the kids busy and they learn a ton about horses, appreciating and taking care for them.

Great week for both of my girls. So much fun. We will definitely come back.

My 6-year old daughter had a great time at her 1-week horse camp. Drop off and pick up were easy and everything was outdoors, rain or shine!

I had three kids - ages 7, 10 and 12 participate the week of 8/3. On the pros side — good COVID protocols (strict mask wearing enforcement for both campers and staff), 1 hour of riding/day and a trail ride one of the days, and location in Wunderlich park allowed the camp to take advantage of the surroundings and do a hike or two during the week. My 7 year old really enjoyed this camp but my 10 year old and 12 year old were less impressed Becca there was a lot of down time and unstructured activity. Only 1 hour of riding for a 5 hour camp was not enough for them. Rhey said that the counselors were nice but did a lot to try to fill the time with what they perceived as trivial activities.

My daughter has an amazing camp! She loves the entire week. She learned a lot about practical horsemanship as well as was so excited when we picked her up and she had gone on a trail ride. We can’t wait to return.

We definitely recommend this camp. My 8 yr old daughter had the best time at this summer camp. She enjoyed all the activities and games they played, but she mostly loved the time on horse back.

Chaparral at Woodside has done a great job of engaging children with equestrian activities in these difficult conditions of pandemic. My daughter attended 2 week sessions, and every day she spent more time with horses than at any other horse camp she attended in the last 2 years. There were enough counselors and all of them were nice and helpful. We certainly are planning to send her to the camp again.

Thank you for the wonderful camp experience. My daughter had such a great time. Your camp counselors were fantastic!!

My 6 year old boy loved this camp! I loved hearing all his stories and listening to the excitement in his voice. I’ll definitely send him back.

My daughter didn't know much about horses and was even a little fearful. She loved this camp and that it was more than just riding the horse. The counselors had a lot of kids but still made it fun and instructive. She is definitely going back!!

My daughter had a great week. She loved it. However, I did not think it was any where near worth the money. They didn’t have enough horses for all the kids, so that cut their horse time in half. I had thought that during their down time, they’d be learning horsemanship or doing crafts, or mucking stalls even. But they seemed to spend their down time sitting at the picnic table playing rock scissors paper... rarely were adults around. The teens mostly ran the show and I’m not sure they all knew what they were doing. There was a very pleasant young man named Alex, who was friendly and helpful with the kids. There was a woman teaching there the third morning who was drinking out of a flask... hopefully it was coffee? The owner showed up the last two days, probably because a lot of us parents weren’t happy with how the week was going. Next summer we will pay more to go to a different horse camp with better reviews. Most of the people working there didn’t seem to want to be there either. This place has a lot of potential, hopefully they can fix some of these issues.

I never right negative reviews yet this joke of an establishment is well deserving. I can not speak to lessons, beach rides or trail rides but as a camp they stink! So this review is strickly regarding their camp.
They say they provide a horse camp they are hardly that. I sent my daughter there for horsemanship and riding. She rode for an hour a day which I expected but other than that the kids sit on their duffs doing nothing. There are no structured activities, no crafts and horsemanship is looking at a coloring sheet and identifying parts on a live horse. If the kids are lucky someone might take them on a hike. The horses look miserable and the staff is unfriendly.
Camp was to start at 9:00. At 9:45 the staff were still saddling the horses. At 9:45 one of the staffers got up on her soap box and proceeded to lecture the children by looking down on them. These people have no sense of how to communicate or work with kids. How about introduce yourself so the kids know your name, show them where your port-a-potty is, who do they go to when they need assistance and talk to them or with them not down on them. Lunch is at noon for an hour and camp ends at 1.

My son had a great time. Lots of time to ride. The first day was slow but after that, it was great.

The camp didn’t have enough riding hours and activities.

My 8 year old grandson was happy to go every day and enjoyed his time on the horses, which from what I could tell was about 25% of his 4 hour camp day. They also learned different things about horses such as the names of equip. and horse parts. The description of camp said crafts and games would fill the rest of the time - I didn't see much evidence of this, in fact I think some of the time was just sit around time. I also think it is nice if the counselors greet the campers when they arrive and say goodbye at end of day.

She really liked everything about the camp. The counselors were especially friendly and she loved a certain horse named Abbey. We're very proud of the confidence she exhibited at the show on the last day.

Highly recommended!!! Best experience ever! 8 year old Granddaughter loves this place. Staff is friendly and caring as well as being quite experienced. Fees are very reasonable too!

Nice team. Kids enjoyed the camp and asked to return asap. They learned a lot about horses, rideback... Secure and beautiful environment.