Things to Do in Forestville

The Phoenix Equestrian Centre's owner and lifelong horse expert Linda Gonzalez draws on her professional racehorse-training experience while teaching riding lessons and caring for her fleet of steeds. Having trained racehorses that have breached the upper echelons of the nation's Experimental Handicap top 200 and gone on to race before the queen of England, Linda has an expert eye for tending to the needs and birthday wishes of each horse. Set on 19 acres, her horse boarding and training facility features 60'x60' indoor and 100'x200' outdoor riding arenas, where ponies are free to strut and students take their first tentative gallops atop well-trained mounts. Aside from private lessons and day camps, Linda also breaks and trains unruly horses, leases trustworthy steeds, and hosts a variety of informational seminars about the future possibilities of a centaur composite race.

Hundreds of unadorned pottery pieces line the shelves and wooden worktables at Mad Potter, a whimsical studio where walk-in artists can select the preferred vessels for their creativity and set to work crafting custom masterpieces. The studio’s panoply of provided art supplies includes patterns, stencils, and colorful paints with which to decorate vases in floral designs and pasta bowls with step-by-step instructions for wielding silverware. Professional potters emerge from the earthenware scenery to answer questions throughout the process and to fire finished artworks until each is hardened and safe for food, dishwashers, and microwaves. Large groups can rent out the studio to fashion brittle cakes for birthday parties, and resident artists often travel to businesses and homes to allow kids to paint in their natural habitats.