Family horseback riding near San Miguel de Allende

Trail rides run one, one and a half, or two hours, from $1,200 to $1,600 MXN, and groups are capped at four riders so a guide can actually watch everyone. Families often start with the one-hour ride, which is enough time to relax into it without asking anyone to sit a saddle too long. Rides go out in the morning, apart from the sunset ride, and every ride is private to your group.

This is the part we would rather be straight about. Trail rides are for riders 12 and older, or 10 for a child who is mature and has had enough lessons to control a horse on their own. Out in the campo each rider handles their own horse, and we do not put two riders on one horse, so there is no safe way to carry a small child along. We would rather tell you now than have you find out at the gate.

Smaller kids are genuinely welcome here, just not on the trail. They can take a riding lesson or have a pony ride in the arena, where someone is right beside them the whole time. Plenty of families book a trail ride for the older half of the group and a lesson or a pony ride for the younger half on the same morning, and everybody goes home having been on a horse.

Horses like Holly and Capitán have carried hundreds of first-time riders and are matched to each rider's size and comfort. Roberto, our caballerango of more than 30 years, guides most family rides and has a natural, unhurried way with nervous first-timers and young riders alike.

Roberto teaches children's riding lessons, usually on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, though other times can sometimes be arranged if you ask what is open. Lessons are private, and he can sometimes take two riders together. For a child who is not quite ready for the trail, lessons are also how that day eventually arrives.

Part of what makes a ride here feel like a family memory rather than a tour is the small, unscripted moments: horses greeted up close at the start and end of a ride, and a real local tradition where kids in the village of San Miguelito come running because our riders carry lollipops. It is not a marketing line, it just happens.

Message us on WhatsApp with the ages in your group and we will tell you honestly what fits, whether that is a trail ride for everyone, or a ride for some and a lesson or pony ride for the youngest. A day or two of notice is usually enough.