Troy, NY Outdoor Activities

Classic wooden rail fences surround the knolls and trees at Placid Hills Stables' 110-acre ranch, where trainers lead riding lessons and weekly clinics on several well-trained mounts, including resident school horses Yosie, Knuckle Puck, and Hermes. Tailored to accommodate riders of all experience levels, classes blend a survey of skills in a variety of disciplines—such as eventing, dressage, and the traditional western riding style—with proper care techniques. The facility can accommodate sessions in any sort of weather, thanks to the large indoor arena and the outdoor stone track, designed to be rideable after heavy rains or matches of the exciting hybrid of water polo and polo known as "wet horse ball."

Adventure Racing enchants fun-seekers with a sprawling mini-metropolis of indoor and outdoor attractions. Drivers execute turns and passes around the indoor and outdoor go-kart tracks, which offer single karts for solo racers and tandem conveyances so adults can teach young passengers to flout traffic laws. Towering Star Wars figures lurk in the darkened passageways of a three-story laser-tag arena, where teams of up to 12 people test their marksmanship as they navigate between phosphorescent walls.

Inside Adventure Racing's indoor bumper-car arena, drivers steer circular vehicles on a constant collision course with their fellow vessels. The fun center's climbing wall tests the strength of grappling hands, and more technical tests of dexterity await at Adventure Racing's paintball shooting range, arcade, and knitting circle.:m]]

At Player’s Park, gentle hills and dales peppered with greenery surround an 18-hole miniature-golf course, the park’s scaled-down version of the nine-hole par-3 course. The par-3 course, open during the day and into the evening, provides players with short-game practice, just as the mini-golf course provides putt-polishing opportunities for players shorter than a putter.

In addition to hosting rounds of golf, Player’s Park stays true to its name by inviting kids to play on a row of bounce-house inflatables. Families can also visit the ice-cream parlor, where they can play the quiet game as they chow down on ice cream or other quick bites such as burgers, hot dogs, and fries. Designed for sit-down dining, the eatery has an air-conditioned interior as well as an outdoor porch for those who prefer Mother Nature’s air conditioner—the flapping wings of a curious butterfly.