As part of the Captain Jacks Santa Barbara tour company tour I took before CJU 2008 started, Chris (the tour guide) and I went to the Circle Bar B Stable in Goleta, California for a 1.5 hour horse back ride. On the road up to the stable, it is a beautiful ride. There are great sights, lemon and avacado trees all over the place and views of the ocean and the Channel Islands.
I had a nice mellow horse by the name of Leroy. He was a little pokey and I had to give him some encouragement to keep up with the guide, Danny ahead of me. The hour and a half ride was on a windy trail that was fairly rocky and crosed a few streams. Athough he was a little slow, Leroy was a great horse. He didn’t stop to eat along the way, didn’t toss me off at any time during the ride, never got spooked and handles the somewhat rugged terain like a champ.
Circle B Stables offers various lengths of horse back rides ranging from an hour and a half to half day rides that go for four hours. There are group and private rides as well as sunset and sunrise rides as well. The tour I took included the 1.5 hour ride. Since no one else was booked at the time, I had a private guide (normally $65.00) but still paid the group rate of $37.00.
The tour was absolutely beautiful, very relaxing, and the guides and whole staff were wonderful and made sure the equipment and the orse were well suited for me. If you are looking for more than just a horseback ride, you can also check out the Circle B Stables packages. While that was not something I did while there, it would be a great way to get away for a couple days. When you are out in Santa Barbara and want to do something unique, be sure to head over to Circle B Stables and do some horseback riding. You might not be able to walk after being on the horse for even an hour and a half (it took me a while to feel like my legs were back to normal after the ride) but you’ll have a good time, see some beautiful sights and have a chance to take some great pictures and relax away from everything.
