Review: 41683 Forest Horseback Riding Center

Let's visit the Ranch where Savannah lives in the forest outside of HLC and the Horseback Riding Center there, as she trains animals for other visually impaired riders, plus service and support.

Over the barn there are living quarters with a cozy kitchen and lounge, with a sleeping loft above.


No Ranch is complete without a camp fire site -- so our first build is the small camp fire site and an evergreen tree using the newly recolored into bright green small cone, large cone, and flower crowns.
The trees are great! Built with a brown antenna piece through the nougat 1x1 rounds and flower crown, it's more solid than without.
The camp fire is a clever design with the "logs" anchored with black nozzle pieces to surround the flame above the trans orange -- it glows nicely.
We get 2 roasting sticks with swirly, sticky marshmallows!


Kevin is Savannah's brother, a micro-doll in nougat skin tone with wavy hard plastic hair. He's wearing a red shirt with a cute "Bee" graphic. The pony is also new-for-2021 in dark orange with a tan mane and tail, which are the same hard plastic as the horse itself. We use a lavender 1x1x2/3 plate with outside bow as his back, or saddle, for when Kevin isn't riding. It doesn't seem there exist a dark orange version of that part to have the pony bareback.
When Kevin is riding, he wears a black safety helmet.


Melody is a new-for-2021 Dapple Grey horse breed with a moveable head in sand blue and a black mane that is rubbery. The back arch fill-in brick (2x2 with bow and knobs) is new in this color.


Rhapsody is another new-for-2021 horse with moveable head in tan with white rubbery mane that is braided down one side, which actually hangs a bit separately away from the horse's shoulder as it gets longer. Very lovely in person! Kudos to the integrated parts team.


Mia is wearing her riding cap with integrated hair ponytail she's had in the past. Her green sleeveless zip jacket over a dark azure shirt is not new, yet it's nice to see it has small back print detail. The blue jeans and boots are a great riding outfit.


Everything bag 1 builds.


Savannah and her guide dog Goldie arrive in bag 2. She wore this magenta floral-decorative blue vest shirt in 41446, yet here she has white riding pants with black boots.
She also has a black riding safety helmet.


Here is everything else we build from bag 2 parts: A dog house for Goldie, and a beginning base section that is the front steps up to the living area. Under the stairs is a small area fenced off from the barn.


Bag 3 builds the barn section and uses some newly recolored parts, such as the 1x1x3 brick in earth blue on the sides of the tan gate hinge clip brick, and the curved balcony banister (fence 4x4x2) here in medium Lavender.
We use 1x3 smooth tiles in Teal for the horses name stickers for each stall's gate.


Next with bag 4 we build the entrance foyer at the top of the stairs and tile the top of the barn walls, then add roof slopes and flowers.


Onto bag 5 is the start to building the Living space; we get to build the furniture separately, then install them onto center-knob jumper type of tiles for easy removal or re-arranging. I always love this aspect of sets!

The stove/sink cabinet could go under the left window. The table can swivel, while the bench is mostly in the best spot. I opted to delay stickers here -- and I do not think this model needs them -- for AFOL builders, anyway.


Newly recolored parts here are the shutters in Teal. I really like the color combo of dark orange, cool yellow, navy and Teal.


With parts from bag 6 added, we have the whole upper module Living area -- with kitchen and lounge, then loft sleeping space above.
The golden chicken weather vane can rotate with the wind!


This module could be a separate little cabin -- it's so nice. It's great that we get to brick-build the Lavender horseshoe sign, rather than it being a sticker!


Here are the two separate modules we build. I didn't realize this set as a Modular build when viewing the box images -- so it's a pleasant surprise!


A front view with the top Living quarters section attached; we stack plenty of hay bales under the stairs to keep dry. Then get to build another tree with the newly recolored bright green parts.


Inside with the upper module added, you can see the access steps from the foyer. A map to the overall Ranch property sticker (#6) can be put onto the entrance wall.
A carrot goes in the bucket, horse grooming brushes in holders, and the barn's water trough -- which can be pulled out easily for play -- gets trans blue "water" 1x1s.
The spares are typical small parts, yet getting an extra gold spear is nice.


The front of the box shows the Horseback Riding Center aptly in the Forest near the mountains outside HLC. The BFF heart inset in the upper right indicates it's a standard HLC set, not a true "Forest" sub-theme. Since we already knew Savannah grew up on a Ranch, this makes sense.

Box contains: 6 numbered bags, a soft bag with horses and nougat base plates, wrapped instructions book with stickers enclosed.


Here is Savannah's biography and a map of the family Ranch, which is where the Horseback Riding Center is located.


Box back shows lots of activities to do. I've highlighted newly recolored parts in this review; for the complete list see the last pages of instructions book pdf on the LEGO site.


Sticker sheet.


I could not resist a little imagination indulgence to see how the upper module would look as a Guest Cabin! I like it :-)


Since the kitchen counter section is easy to move from, I decided to have it on the left wall. Goldie has a spot to watch Savannah as she prepares dessert for Mia. Looks like Kevin smells it too!

The upper module is securely attached with only four studs, so it's also easy to remove and re-create with from your own imagination and spare parts.


One more look at the overall set. This is a very inviting, busy and colorful Ranch!

Summary:

Such a lovely Ranch House and surprise for this to be a modular design. The color scheme is even more pleasing in person. It's great to have a set of the place where Savannah lives, and surely it's close to Mia's House.

This set gives us good parts that are very versatile, with a build that is engaging and imagination igniting.

As for stickers, although this set is lovely enough to not need any -- the name stickers are fine; especially since they serve to give us information. The sleeping mats stickers are nice to confirm what they are in the Loft. Since there is a brick-built Ranch sign, this box could have easily not contained any.

For AFOLs this could be incorporated into a western layout. I certainly recommend it for newly recolored parts -- especially the Teal shutters!


Disclaimer:
This set was provided by The LEGO Group for the purpose of sharing set details with fans.
Opinions provided here solely reflect those of our reviewer.
Photographs are property of FriendsBricks and are not directed by TLG in any fashion.

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