What They Say About Us

When we do it right, we do it right!!

Below are some nice things that folks have written about Horspitality. We hope you like them. If it seems like we are braggin' we are. We try very hard to provide a wonderful experience for our guests. Better than that, our guests provide a wonderful experience for other guests. If we ever were able to tell all the stories of all the guests who pitch in to help the park and each other there wouldn't be enough space in this website. Thanks to all of the folks who send along a nice note or write a nice article or send a nice picture, we appreciate them all. Oh, also, we do appreciate those who tell when we don't get it right. We thank them also. We try to do it right, but sometimes we could do it better. By telling us how to improve, we can improve. We love suggestions and criticism.

Horspitality's History

Horspitality was concieived in 1986 by a family who loved horses and wanted to create an experience for couples with horses and those folks who just loved being around horses. They took some raw land and installed the infrastructure, and built 20 pens to accommodate horses. Then they built an arena. Initially it was set up for folks to practice calf roping.

Over the first 10 years more and more folks discovered the uniqueness of Horspitality and Wickenburg. The original office was located in the recreation building. It was moved into a corner of the new residence which was added in 1994. The emphasis on roping slowly evolved into trail riding. Also, ATV riding became an intregal part of daily activities.

Potluck dinners and bond fires were happening on a regular basis. Bingo and card playing took up many nights. Just getting together for informal get togethers.

In 1996 the park had new owners. It became necessary to double the number of horse pens. Some additional water and electric sites were added. An additional round horse training pen was added. More people came and more activities sponsored by the guests resulted.

In 2001 the present owners arrived. Janice, a paralegal by trade and Paul, an executive in the computer industry. Janice handled very complex personal injury cases for some of the largest law firms in Palm Beach, Florida. Paul was a regional manager for companies including IBM, Nynex/Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and other computer companies. They have lived in Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Royal Palm Beach and Wellington, Florida. One or both of them have lived in Brandon, Manitoba, Calgary, Winnipeg, Wittier, California, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, New Hampshire, Denver and several others.

While in Colorado they purchased an RV and lived in it for a year while on assignment with a major computer company. The company was headquartered outside of Phoenix. On business trips they fell in love with Arizona and the desert. In 2000, Janice and Paul decided to leave the corporate world and find a place where they could work together and enjoy the RV life they had experienced in Colorado. They literally traveled from Florida to Montana and south to the Mexican border. They wound up in Wickenburg. Janice and Paul loved the town and the icing on the cake was Horspitality.

What a beautiful view as they turned into the driveway. They saw the mountains in the backgound and the palm trees and mulberry's. The recreation building reminded them of something out of a John Wayne movie. They were hooked.

Over the next several years they worked to make Horspitality the best RV Park in Arizona. They listened to their guests. When a guest made a suggestion, they tried to implement it. When something needed repairs, they tried to do it first class and spent a little bit more to make it really fixed. Much of the improvements are done in the summer. Since the Sullivan's have been at horspitality they have more than doubled the number of horse pens to 95. They have added 7 full service sites. The park was built with only 30 amp service at each site. Adequate for 1986, but inadequate for current RV's. The upgrade to 50 amp for 74 of the 100 sites was completed in the summer of 2008.

New tent sites have been added. New heating systems for the restrooms was installed in 2008. Water heating upgrades for showers and laundry. The well, which provides wonderful, healthful water, was upgraded a couple years ago with two new 10,000 gallon storage tanks added in 2009. Also in 2009 all of the asphalt (over 90,000 square feet) was torn out and replaced. Other upgrades and repairs too numerous to mention.

Each fall as Horspitality guests love to come down the hill and discover the changes the summer has wrought. Attractive split rail fences appear along new grassy areas. Fresh paint glimmers, and new modern horse pens gleem. What was broken is fixed and what was inadequate is better than adequate, it is done right.

Improvements never end. Janice and Paul have a list of things they want to make better, bigger and more fun. They know there will be set backs, but they are always moving forward.

Janice and Paul want you and all their guests to have a wonderful experience. Come on down!!!

From the Sears of Oklahoma

Hello Jan & Paul,

Had a great vacation....too short though. The park is more diverse than 12 years ago to us, and things look real nice. Between golfing, playing tennis and eating there with our close friend who is working in dining at Los Cab, plus riding, going out dancing and singing, we are exhausted!

Glad we could make the trip out to your place !

Thanks!

John & Linda Sears Claremore,OK

What our Guests Say:

Good Morning Horspitality Resort - Janice & Paul,
This is an article we wrote for our horse club newsletter being printed in the March edition. The club is located in Northern CA and called the Wine Country Peruvian Paso Horse Club. You can tell by the article that we really enjoyed our recent visit and are looking forward to returning in December.
Hope all is well and you are enjoying good weather. Here, it is snow and wet, typical for this time of the year. Next year we will be with you Dec - through Feb. Have a good day.
Mike & Jo Keim

Wickenburg, Arizona
Mike & Jo Keim

Many WCPPHC members are aware that Jo and I have lived, traveled and visited many areas of the western states with our Peruvian Paso horses and even traveled to Mexico and Peru on horse riding trips. We have some of the best areas right here in Northern California for wonderful camping and trail riding. Now we have a new location to add to the list.
Last fall we started to look at places for us to get out of the cold weather for a few months. We were thinking about places in Southern California maybe Santa Barbara or Palm Springs or even San Diego. Part of our research was to talk to our friends who either have gone to warmer areas or were aware of possible locations. One such friend, Susan Black, who now lives in Oregon, was one of our contacts. Susan is always researching horse related information on the web and suggested a place in Wickenburg, AZ. We were familiar with the area having visited Wickenburg in the 1996 when Jo read her poems at the Cowboy Poets Gathering there that year. We did not have our horses with us, but stayed at a Dude Ranch and rode their horse in the desert and mountains in the area. Susan's research had located a place called Horspitality RV Resort and Boarding Stable.
After reviewing information on their web site we decided to give it a try for the month of December 2008. The facility has room for 90 RV spots and over 90 horse stalls. We were able to make a reservation for our RV and took our two horses and dog, Rico.
We closed up our log home in the Sierra's, had a friend watch our cat and asked neighbors to watch the place while we were away. Mail would be forwarded or held until we returned.
We decided to break up the trip to Wickenburg, about 800 miles, into short drives. First stop was in Modesto, Ca to stay at a friends ranch who we met as another member of the Back Country Horseman of California. Went all of 100 miles that first day. The next two stops were at Horse Boarding facilities available to us in Lost Hills, Ca and Barstow, Ca. The fourth day we arrived in Wickenburg. Actually, Jo arrived before me. She was driving our P/U and pulling our two horse trailer. I blew a tire on the RV about 25 miles out of town. It was getting dark so we decided to have her go ahead to the park. After getting a quick fix I joined her at the park about two hours later. She had the horses bedded down in nice 12' x 12' stalls and I parked the RV in our assigned location. All RV spots have water, power and sewer hook ups. The park folks were very helpful keeping the office open for my after dark arrival and make sure we and the horses were set for the night.
Horspitality RV Resort and Boarding Stable was all we had hoped for as a vacation spot. We soon were meeting our neighbors, most with horses and some with both horses and ATV's. The resort was about 3/4 full in December and folks were arriving every day for overnight or longer stays. We could tell from the start that this was going to be our kind of place. There were people from all over the US staying there. One from as far away as Alaska, another from the NE and nearly all the northern states. We saw all kinds of horses, even other Peruvian Paso's, some had mules. The resort is located outside of town and you can access trails right out the back gate. The trails were on dry creek beds, mostly sand, and you could take other trails over the mountains riding as long and far as you wanted. After the first ride we realized we needed to put shoes on the boys due to rocks and even the dry sand was hard on their feet. This brings me to a big plus for the area. Living in the resort was an excellent farrier we met and appreciated. He had extensive experience working with vets over the years in the Reno, NV area correcting lame horse created by injuries, conformation issues or in many cases bad trimming.
We found our boys need special attention although they had just been trimmed days before we left home. What's important is we got them corrected, shod and in one case medicated to correct a major issue with Jo's horse. Needless to say, we are changing our farrier now that we are home.

We took trail rides with other folks in the resort to learn and explore the area. Every day groups would leave on rides so we could ride as often or as far as we wanted. Most rides were in the 2 to 4 hour range with some having lunch on the trail. Riding in the desert area has it's own kind of challenge. The trails, although well marked, still had things you need to pay attention to. It is called Cactus ! ! Cactus in bloom is beautiful, but it is still something to beware off. Especially the cholla cactus. I think I still have a few reminders from my leaving the trails and brushing against one of those fellows. Other types were organ pipe, strawberry hedgehog, pincushion, prickly pear, fish hook, barrel ocotillo and the biggest of all the giant saguaro. They are all native to the area and for the most part just off the trails. All are easy to spot, just pay attention to where you ride.

There were other options for trail rides. Jo and I did not take many of the rides you could trailer to, but we did trailer for one ride with the local riding club. The Wickenburg Saddle Club has monthly rides with lunch or cookouts. The ride we took had 62 riders. It was an easy 3 hour ride wandering through the hills just a few miles out of town. At the end of the ride there were goodies for all to enjoy. Nice people and again all kinds of horses. Even with that many riders it was fun and well organized. Other rides leave from the local rodeo grounds just a few miles from the resort. Next trip we will take in more of those options.

Back to the resort. The center of resort activities is a recreation hall with TV, meeting room, laundry and clean restrooms with hot showers. Every week there are fire pit potlucks, bingo, big screen movies, videos free to rent or special activities like birthdays and anniversary celebrations. Christmas was hosted by the resort owners providing the main meal of turkey and ham. We took part in western BBQ's and cowboy breakfast of biscuits and gravey.The resort is setup for Wi-Fi, data ports and fax/copy service. Propane and public phone sites are located in the resort. There is a large arena and two round pens for exercising your horses. You are only less than an hour out of Phoenix allowing more options. Wickenburg has a variety of restaurants, entertainment, a movie theatre and a great Western Museum. The best part was meeting the other folks in the resort. Many have been coming back year after year - some for over 10 years. A few live there year round, but many leave their RV's, park model mobile homes or trailers there year round. Summers can get very hot. We were told the best time to go is December through April. Storage is available or you can rent your RV space year round. We found people of similar age, mostly retired, but all are horse folks. The ATV's were never a problem on the trails. What more could you ask for as a horse vacation site?

Needless to say, we are going back again in December this year. This time we are staying for three months and may stay more if we find weather at our home in Somerset, Ca is too cold and wet for the planned return in March, 2010. If you are looking for a place to go next winter give Wickenburg, AZ a shot...we will be there to show you the ropes.
Mike & Jo Keim

Horspitality

RV Resort and Boarding Stables