Celtic Cross Equestrian Center

I have literally been stewing over writing this review for months now. Months.
I hate giving a place five stars, then having to go back later and give it anything less than four. But unfortunately, I have to give them three. (It was two, but as I progressed with this review, three seemed fairer to Tori and her staff.)
I want to make something absolutely clear here. The daughter, Tori, is the most wonderful, professional business woman I have had the pleasure of meeting. She runs Celtic Cross like a well-​oiled machine. MaryLee, the owner, on the other hand, is the downfall of the business.
I know mentioning names is a bad thing, but I just really want the reader to know that this place really is great… but only to the extent that MaryLee allows it to be.
The three stars I’ve given them are completely attributed to Tori, her staff, and the immaculate grounds. Their new barn is incredible. It’s clean, it has anything and everything one could possibly need and more. Everything is organized… and did I mention, clean? (Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a 30-​stall barn clean?!? It’s freaking hard.) The pastures and arenas are always in pristine condition.
(Side note: They have 80 acres of trails on their property too. Something no other horse boarding place has in the OKC metro area.)
I was taking lessons from MaryLee twice a week during their adult riding lesson sessions. I really enjoyed it at first. Their horses are well mannered, and they have quality riding gear. I felt like it was a great fit until I noticed that I wasn’t really learning –anything– from MaryLee’s lessons.
It was like experiencing a play, over and over again, with the same words being spoken for every performance. She would tell us which direction to go, and a few points about dressage. Every. Time. They were the same points. They never changed. I get the concept of really trying to teach people by repetitive nature… but not the same thing for weeks and weeks.
And so my doubts began.
MaryLee was always very complimentary on my style of riding, except for the fact that (multiple times) she insisted that my stirrups were too high, so she lowered them. Well, the stirrups are what keep you in the saddle. So if the stirrups are long, you end up flopping around in the saddle like a dead fish. So as I’m flopping about, she was always so complimentary. «Did that feel as good as that looked?» Was one of her favorite lines. Sure, it would have felt great if I hadn’t been flopping around!
Honestly, I was just so glad to be around horses that I would have just dealt with it and gone to private lessons or something instead.
Until MaryLee got passive aggressive. I mean we’re talking White Chicks, Mean Girls, any other movie that features passive aggressive people status. It was intense.
They rent horses there, and a lot of them are the horses that Celtic Cross owns, so naturally, they try to rent their horses to customers to help with upkeep and costs.
That is 100% fine, and I probably would have considered renting one of them if MaryLee hadn’t been so gosh darn passive aggressive about me wanting to rent someone else’s horse.
Now. I can handle someone being passive aggressive to me. Rolls right off my shoulders. But when someone is passive aggressive to me, in front of the entire class, singling me out? That’s where I draw the line. She didn’t do it one time. She didn’t do it twice. She did it –three– times, and by the third time, I threw in the towel.
I stopped going. I’m not going to be humiliated by someone, in public, in front of my entire class, over their being pissed off that I wanted to rent a horse that wasn’t theirs.
Bottom line:
If you’re okay with renting one of their horses, and are okay with not really learning anything, just walking (lots…and lots of walking. Very little trotting, and even less cantering) in a circle for an hour – then this is the place for you.
If you’re looking for somewhere to board your horse that has fair pricing, and will take care of your horse as one of their own, this is the place for you.
If you want trail riding and arena riding (both indoor and outdoor) this is the place for you.
If you want to have a kids party, Tori is magical. She’ll help the kids put sparkles all over the horses and decorate them up however the kids like, then lead them around the arena. It looked so fun, I was jealous! This is the place for you.
If you want quality riding lessons, don’t take them from MaryLee. I don’t know if Tori does riding lessons, and if she does, take them from her. You’ll learn a lot more and probably enjoy your time more.
If you even *think* you may want to rent someone else’s horse, look elsewhere.
If you don’t deal with passive aggressive people well, avoid MaryLee at all costs.
I would go back if it wasn’t for the owner. I would go back for Tori and the way she runs things.
I would board my horses here in a heartbeat, but I wouldn’t want to deal with MaryLee at ALL.