Switch Willo Stables

My 8 year old daughter loved this camp. It is a very well run camp, and all the people there are so friendly and helpful. I expect we will be going there for years to come. It is like a country oasis hidden in the residental area.

This is my daughter’s favorite summer camp by far. She has done it two summers in a row. She enjoys the riding lessons as well as the rest of the time in and around the stables and the swimming. It amazes me how much riding she learned in such a short time. I was a little nervous about the safety of the riding, but they have many junior counselors in the ring at riding time, so lots of extra supervision. The riding itself seemed very calm and controlled. Yes, it is hot, dusty, and smells like horses, and my daughter adores it.

My youngest has attended many summer camps at Switch Willo Stables two Summers in a row now. She really enjoyed her time at the camps and always came home excited to share what she did with the horses. If she could change one thing about the camp, I am pretty sure she would have the campers spend more time actually riding the horses. Even though she felt she didn’t get enough time riding horses (I can’t recall the amount of time the campers spent riding horses, but it did seem rather short at the time), however, she is always talking about returning to camp. My one complaint about the camp is that the «counselors» are older kids (12,13 and up) who have been riding at Switch Willo for a while. While I did find some of the «counselors» completely competent, others left me wondering if my 7 years old was more mature than her «counselors», which was obviously disconcerting. Fortunately, I never heard of any dangerous situations (and I know I would have heard about any if they occurred because my daughter takes her «reporting» very seriously.).
All in all, my daughter always left camp happy and exhausted, just the way we want her. ;)

I was extremely disappointed in the staff and the communication. I signed my children up for a day of the winter break camp. I received an email reminding me to bring lunch and water bottles for my children — it did NOT say anything about bringing a helmet.
So the morning of the camp my children were turned away because they didn’t have helmets (are you supposed to buy helmets for horseback riding before you know if your children like it?) and they REFUSED to give me a refund.
They were very defensive and unpleasant to deal with. If you want to horseback ride go to Hutto or Del Valle — it’s worth the extra time in the car!

My 6 year old daughter went to summer camp for two weeks at Switch Willo and she had a wonderful experience. There were indeed some young counselors, but when asked, the director explained that they were mostly young adults (i.e. 20’s) and that there were always at least 8 adults (not including the teenager assistants) with the kids at all times.
There was a much bigger emphasis on safety (horses were always led at first, no riding without helmets and boots) and proper horse care than I remember when I was a kid learning to ride. My daughter still treasures a picture her that father took of her with one of the camp horses, and will be returning for Winter Break camp this year, in addition to summer camp next summer. Everyone was always pleasant and the staff seemed sincerely happy to see the campers and genuinely fond of the school horses, which was wonderful to see.
The only thing that I found at all difficult about the camp experience was the parking lot, which does get very busy at drop off and pick up times, but it was really only a minor annoyance.

My 7 year-​old daughter attended 2 weeks of summer camp at Switch Willo. I do not recommend it. There are many junior counselors, but they are very young and seem to have no experience with children and very little supervision from the very few older counselors. When I saw the counselors each day they were mostly grouped off chatting with each other. In fact, the 10 days she was at camp no counselor ever welcomed my daughter or said good-​bye to her at the end of the day. My usually bold daughter was hesitant to approach and did not feel comfortable asking the counselors questions. On two occasions my daughter told me about girls fighting and I asked her what the counselors did and she told me that they were not present when it happened.
In sum, this camp is not living up to it’s potential. It’s a beautiful place with a great program but the there’s a very bad lack of positive role models and direction.

Hidden in a cozy residential neighborhood just outside of downtown is Switch Willo Stables. I’ve been in Austin for almost 2 years and had no idea it even existed. It’s a gorgeous property that makes it easy to forget the city is right around the corner.
I purchased a groupon for 2 riding lessons and just completed my first one. I hadn’t ridden english for years, so was a little nervous, but by the end of the hour-​long lessons, I was completely comfortable. The instructor was great, she let us ride according to our comfort levels and the facilities were impressive. Out of four in my group, 2 were beginners. That slowed things down quite a bit and is the reason I gave a 4-​star rating.

My daughter, age 8, went to a friend’s birthday party here recently. At first, my daughter was apprehensive about this whole riding a horse thing. Sure… she’s ridden ponies and donkeys before. But horses??? «They’re so much bigger!!», she expressed.
I’ve never been to this stable before. When I looked at the direction to this place, I was in disbelieve? Really? A stable this close to town? In fact, we have a friend who used to live a block away. We went to our friend’s house several times, but I never noticed this stable.
The stable is preceded by a gravel dirt road. There is a huge gate covered with luscious vegetation. As you drive though the gate, you’ll turn right to go to the main part of the stable. There’s a small 6 – 8 cars parking space, horse stables, a large gated area where horses roam. There are well manicured gardens all around. Everything is lively and the plants look like they are happy to be there.
I didn’t stick around to watch the girls rode their horses. But when I picked up my daughter, she had completely changed her mind about riding horses. She had so much fun that she declared this was where she wanted to have her next birthday (10 months away). I watched the girls walked the horses to the stables, turned them around so the horses faced outside. The horses were very beautiful, tame and well behaved.
Where the girls were having cake and snacks after the riding lesson was this small house near the entrance of the property. Inside this house were a big huge wooden table, wooden chairs with high back, antique furniture, horse and riding artifacts everywhere, of course.
It was just a lovely place for a birthday.

If you live in North Austin, you’re probably unaware that nestled in what is now a largely residential area, there is a cozy 25-​acre horse farm called Switch Willo Stables.
Switch Willo holds a special place in my heart, as it is where I grew up riding horses and where I spent many summers squinting into the hot sun while sitting on a horse’s back, feeling the heat radiating off of his sleek skin. The owners of Switch Willo have spent years grooming Switch Willo into an immaculate botanical garden that happens to also have horses inside of it. There are koi ponds and fountains at the edge of each barn, and beautiful landscaping meets the eye at every turn.
Switch Willo has a large herd of lesson horses that are safe for beginners but also great for the hunter student who has had more training. The facilities for lesson rider are wonderful — there are cross ties and a full tack room and now tack shop to purchase horsey goodies.
They offer a summer camp as well, and attend local and national horse shows. If you enjoy aesthetic beauty, attention to detail and learning a discipline, Switch Willo will not let you down.