Cancellation Policy & Refund Policy

All booking cancellations 7 days prior to departure date and time booked will be refunded in full minus 15% of the total deposit to cover administration and service fee costs. 

Any cancellations requested after this, between 6 days and 72 hours of your departure date and time booked will receive 50% of the total deposit made.

No refund is available when given less than 72 hours before the departure date and time booked.

Please be sure about your booking date and time and availability before you book to avoid any issues. Once a booking is made we have reserved a horse for you, if non attendance for any reason is to occur we need ample opportunity to replan and possibly resell the seat to another customer.

This cancellation policy applies to all bookings made even if a booking is made after the timelines mentioned above eg If a client books a trial 48 hours before a trial is due to depart and changes their mind or cannot attend, no refund can be provided.

These policies are strictly followed at all times to ensure the facility is organised and runs efficiently.

Please understand there is a lot of organising and planning that goes into running our trails including rostering adequate and appropriate staff to meet correct support ratios and trail experiences, transportation of horses to the beach and back in trucks and floats etc, setting up and packing up for trail rides can take up to three hours each way and requires immense preparations. We cannot simply cancel staff shifts short notice and or easily return horses back to home without causing implications to the business and its staff.

If you are unsure of anything in our policies please call or email us to discuss further. Please be reminded that we are a business and have obligations to our company, horses and staff to ensure fair, safe and efficient practices are maintained at all times.

Manual Group Bookings (not booked through the website) – please be aware that cancellation and reschedule policies for manual bookings may differ from timelines mentioned in standard policies, please check with us first if you have any questions. All bookings will have policies and terms and conditions outlined to them at time of confirmation of booking and may supersede information stated on this website.

Reschedule or Postpone Policy

If you should need to postpone or reschedule your trek for any reason we do require a minimum of 72 hours notice. We are happy to find another suitable day and time for you to attend your trail when given this minimum notice period.

Please note that all reschedule treks can only be booked on days when we have space available and are operating and for the same deposit value. For example if you need to reschedule and you are booked on

a one hour trail on a Tuesday we may only be able to reschedule on another one hour trail on a similar day and time. We cannot promise to offer a reschedule on a high peak season day (summer saturday) if you have previously booked on off peak day (winter tuesday), or offer to take you on a higher value trail without you paying the difference. However we will do our best to accommodate you and get you in again on a date that works for both parties (customer and operator) as soon as possible.

Should you need to reschedule your trail we suggest you email us with your original booking reference number and a couple of future dates that are suitable for you, you can check our open dates on our calendar to see what days we will be open as our days change seasonally throughout the year.

We cannot offer future refunds for trails that have already been postponed or rescheduled. Please read our cancellation refund policies above which only apply to the original booking date and time. A rescheduled trek for a future date does not then apply to the cancellation and refund policy but only applies with this rescheduling policy and can only be redeemed by attending our facility for one of our services or options.

Manual Group Bookings (not booked through the website) – please be aware that cancellation and reschedule policies for manual bookings may differ from timelines mentioned in standard policies, please check with us first if you have any questions. All bookings will have policies and terms and conditions outlined to them at time of confirmation of booking and may supersede information stated on this website.

What if I can’t rebook?

We understand this is difficult and situations can come up suddenly and we promise to work our hardest to find a solution for you and be as flexible as possible but we cannot offer refunds for any trails rescheduled.

If you cannot find an immediate date to reschedule to, we are happy to hold your deposit for a year to reuse with us, or you can give it to another person to use. We have also found solutions such as providing a gift voucher for the full deposited amount that can be given as a gift to another person or the deposit may be used for one of our other services we offer. Please note all and any changes made to a deposit and booking must fit within our rider requirements eg under our weight limit and over the age of 5 years old etc (see our full terms and conditions for rider requirements).

Manual Group Bookings (not booked through the website) – please be aware that cancellation and reschedule policies for manual bookings may differ from timelines mentioned in standard policies, please check with us first if you have any questions. All bookings will have policies and terms and conditions outlined to them at time of confirmation of booking and may supersede information stated on this website.

Please be sure about your booking date and time and availability before you book to avoid any issues. Once a booking is made we have reserved a horse for you, if non attendance for any reason is to occur we need ample opportunity to replan and possibly resell the seat to another customer.

Our reschedule policy applies to all bookings made even if a booking is made after the timelines mentioned above eg If a client books a trial 48 hours before a trial is due to depart and changes their mind or cannot attend, no refund can be provided nor can we promise to reschedule the trek. We try our best to accommodate and provide solutions in difficult situations and we understand that short notice issues can present themselves unexpectedly, please call or email us to discuss or for clarification.

These policies are strictly followed at all times to ensure the facility is organised and runs efficiently.

Please understand there is a lot of organising and planning that goes into running our trails including rostering adequate and appropriate staff to meet correct support ratios and trail experiences, transportation of horses to the beach and back in trucks and floats etc, setting up and packing up for trail rides can take up to three hours each way and requires immense preparations. We cannot simply cancel staff shifts short notice and or easily return horses back to home without causing implications to the business and its staff.

If you are unsure of anything in our policies please call or email us to discuss further. Please be reminded that we are a business and have obligations to our company, horses and staff to ensure fair, safe and efficient practices are maintained at all times.

Weather Policy

What happens if the weather isn’t looking ideal?

We do ride in all weather generally, during winter months we advise to bring a raincoat and warm clothes, in summer, please use sunblock and other sun protection methods.

The weather at Muriwai Beach is very changeable and Muriwai is considered to be a microclimate so the weather forecast can be quite unreliable. However, if you are unsure and wish to postpone to another day to be sure please call 72 hours in advance to your departure time and date to reschedule your horse trek. We are happy to postpone and transfer your deposit as required to a suitable and of equal or lesser value (including days and times eg. if you have booked on a weekday in off peak season we cannot promise to reschedule you to a weekend in our busy season) but when given no less than 72 hours notice. After this we will not be able to reschedule your trek. We do not offer refunds if the weather is not ideal and you choose not to ride only reschedules within the time frame mentioned above.

If we are experiencing the following conditions of weather we are likely to postpone.

• Thunder & lightning

• Long periods of torrential rain

• High heats where there is significant risk of forest fires

• High winds (over 60- 70kms) or high wind gusts

If the provider needs to reschedule the trek due to bad unsafe weather because of it affecting the safety of our riders or environment we will offer to reschedule the trek and try to do this at the next convenient time for both parties.

Muriwai Beach Horse Treks opportates on land owned by other authorities, due to the permits we hold with these authorities/organisations we are sometimes subject to the health and safety practices of these organisations and may be instructed to at short notice close operations for weather safety. If this happens when you have a ride booked in with us we will be in touch as soons as possible to postpone and reschedule your booking with us.

Please note we the provider can and have rights to call off a trek with as little as 30mins notice if we need to and cannot offer refunds for trails booked with us that need to be rescheduled due to weather conditions. We do not have control over the weather at it can change rather quickly with little notice, we do our best to work with the weather while still providing a safe environment for everyone, however due to the nature of weather and rapid changes please understand that sometimes this is out of our control and we do our best to find solutions for all involved.

Manual Group Bookings (not booked through the website) – please be aware that cancellation and reschedule policies for manual bookings may differ from timelines mentioned in standard policies, please check with us first if you have any questions. All bookings will have policies and terms and conditions outlined to them at time of confirmation of booking and may supersede information stated on this website.

Covid Policy

Please note in the event of a Covid Restriction advised by the government our Covid-19 policy will come into effect immediately and supersedes any of our other policies. Our covid policy forms part of our terms and conditions and can be found under “Covid Policy” on our website with other supporting documentation. Due to the ever changing situation around covid please understand that our policy and restrictions can change rapidly to meet the requirements of the GOVT and other authorities/organisations we hold permits with.