Mountainside Stables

We are a church in Ridgewood NJ and we had hired Mountainside stables petting zoo recently March 2024. This was the 3rd time we hired their petting zoo. They came and were all set up and ready to go on time. As always. The animals were so beautiful, healthy and gentle. The families loved them. The children and adults had so much fun feeding them and they held the bunnies for the children to pet. They also brought hand sanatizer for everyone..that was a huge plus! The two men who came were so kind and helpful and left the lawn as clean and tidy as they found it! Another wonderful experience! Looking forward to the next time. Joe Aulisi the owner, runs his business so professionally. He is a great guy! And he has a great staff!
Thanks Joe!!!!

I had mountainside for my daughters 9 th birthday party and i must say , it was the best part of her birthday. Joe was prompt and on time very professional and friendly . The kids (and adults ) experience was priceless .. he made booking easy and really provided the best experience for my child and her guests. I strongly recommend this service if you are looking for a special addition to your next event or party . I will be booking joe again for my daughters next party ! Thanks mountainside !

WARNING!!!!! Let me start by saying, I would have given a zero star review if I could. If you are an owner/operator of a childcare center, school, etc...please do read this review. First, Joe - the owner- was extremely rude even before getting out of the truck. Upon arrival, he nastily said how there was not enough space for him to work with and demanded us to move things around. He did not greet my staff or our children, and made everyone feel uncomfortable. He was more concerned with collecting his money than providing good service. Joe has horrible customer service skills. He did not connect with us a day or two before our booking to confirm - like all professional businesses providing a service do- we had to contact him. When he asked our event coordinator to contact him on the phone after she reached out, his attitude was very disgusting. He mentioned how the city we operate our childcare center in is unpleasant, and said if we did not have enough space reserved there would be a problem. Our event coordinator kept asking for an invoice of our transaction which we still have yet to receive.

Upon departure, Mountainside Stables left a very large amount of poo scrapings/stains in our backyard, they only shoved it up. We asked their staff if they could wash it so that the children could continue playing in the yard safely, and one staff said yes. However when Joe arrived he told her to leave it and "let's go". In addition, they left a big bag of animal waste on the ground, which is very unsanitary/unhealthy, period. We could sense that a lot of Joe's behavior towards us was caused by some underlying racism. We are a diverse childcare center with children/staff of all cultural backgrounds, and this is very unacceptable/disheartening. Joe was not gentle to the animals. He aggressively shoved their cow- which was completely unrecognizable(you can see his bones I thought it was a dog) and looked sick on the trailor, after it fell on its knees-. One staff punched the donkey for just turning its head. We have the video to prove this as well. Joe should not be in this business with this kind of behavior, it is clear he is in it for the money. If you do not have the patience for this type of work, please change your career. WE WILL NEVER WORK WITH OR RECOMMEND MOUNTAINSIDE STABLES TO ANY PARENT OR SCHOOL. The only pleasant staff was the young lady who stayed with us throughout and provided feeding to the children to give the animals. She and the animals were the only pleasure from this horrible first-time experience.

All the negative reviews about this company are accurate and on point. Joe, the owner, only cares about putting money in his pocket and has no regard or consideration for his customers. I apologize for the lengthy review, however, it is important for any prospective client to get a clear picture of what they would be dealing with and stay away. I booked a petting zoo/pony combination for my daughter’s birthday party which took place last weekend. I paid $480 dollars for an hour. On the days leading up to the party, rain was forecasted for the day of my event. I informed Joe I would make a decision the morning of since the forecast kept changing. I also inquired as to whether a two car garage would be a good back-up plan in the event of rain. Joe informed me that would be fine. I had an available two car garage so, on the morning of the party, I informed Joe I wanted to go forward with my party. If it rained, I was okay with moving it to the garage. He arrived early at my house and asked if I wanted him to set up outside or in the garage. The forecast now showed no rain, so I asked him to set up outside. At the scheduled start time of the petting zoo, 1:30 p.m., it had started to rain lightly. I went out to Joe’s truck and asked if he could move the petting zoo to the garage. At that time, he told me I didn’t have enough space in the garage for the petting zoo. He said he could only wait out the rain and hopefully it stopped before my hour was up. He also told me that he had asked me originally where I wanted to set up the petting zoo and I had told him outside. So, which was it? The garage was too small or he couldn’t be bothered because he had set up the coral outside already and wasn’t going to move it? He had already collected my money so clearly, he didn’t care. Shortly thereafter, a strong thunderstorm moved through the area. After the storm passed, Joe sent his assistant into my garage with two rabbits in a cage. It was now around 2:00 p.m. I asked him again if he could just bring a few animals into the garage and he said “No.” About 10 minutes later, the skies cleared and he brought out the animals onto my front lawn. He also proceeded to tell the kids they only had 20 minutes left. During every exchange with him, he was dismissive and rude. I wasn’t upset that my petting zoo had to be cut short due to the weather, no one had control over that. However, how he responded was completely his choice and within his control. Despite the rain, this review could have been different if he had shown any consideration for the fact that I paid him $480 for a service he almost didn’t even fulfill. He could have moved the petting zoo to the garage or brought some of the animals into the garage when asked. He could have offered to stay a few minutes longer if available or offered a partial refund. None of this occurred. Successful businesses set themselves apart because they provide excellent service to their customers and make them feel valued. There is a standard level of service where favorable solutions are reached for their customers. That is what results in customer loyalty and referrals. None of that is achieved by this business. Customers are not valued and there is a mediocre standard of service. Do yourself a favor and stay away.

Hired Mountainside Stables for my daughter’s birthday party. The animals were adorable but EVERY adult that accompanied his/her child to my party commented on how rude and arrogant the owner is. He is not kid friendly and it was very obvious he was annoyed the entire time. I would not recommend Mountainside Stables to anyone. There are several place in New Jersey that offer traveling petting zoos and are nice to you and your guests. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere.

Animals were fine if not a little sad looking. The kids loved feeding them, however, i wish i had read more of these reviews before booking because we had a terrible experience with the owner, as many others have stated, as he was extremely rude and unreasonable. We read the contract in full before signing and there are reasonable requirements stated for the safety of the animals and ease of set up… the animals must be within 50 feet from trailer and 4 parking spots must be accessible for the truck and trailer to park, we have these options available.
When they arrived, after not hearing back after 5+ phone calls and messages and 3 emails the week before the party of which I was attempting to confirm and discuss details of, we were told that we could not have the animals in our backyard even though it was within 50 feet of the trailer. The owner was extremely rude, we offered other options for parking and walking the animals in and the owner refused all at first. After arguing with my husband for 30 minutes he was finally willing to back the trailer in to our driveway and take the animals in part of the way to the backyard.
The animals are all in a single pen except for the rabbit which is in a tiny wire cage that young children can not even reach in to pet.
When it was time for them to pack up and leave a few of my guests commented to me about how rough they were in handling and dragging the animals back to the trailer by their heads and horns. They also left a pony in the hot trailer throughout the entire party because we did not add it on even though we offered to have the pony in a separate area to allow it to have some space and fresh air.
I would absolutely not recommend this farm and I’m disappointed we supported this business.

Had the pleasure of having Joe and his staff for my sons 4th birthday party. We had the petting zoo and pony for 2 hours. Joe and his staff were great, I would definitely recommend. The pony staff girl is so nice, welcoming, and caring with the kids. I am glad I didnt go by the other reviews and decided to go with mountain side stables.