My son bought me a "hill ride" voucher for my 58th birthday. I ended up using it on my 59th birthday, never having ridden a horse before in my life. It was a great experience, the people were friendly, the horses obedient, the scenery spectacular. I would recommend this for anyone, experienced or not.
We came for a beach horse ride, and it was quite pleasant, even with the winds. We didn't get to see any penguins, however we did see some seals and other animals on the beach, which was great. The tour went for quite a long time, allowing us to see a lot of the scenery, and the tour guide also took some photos of us on the horses at various places. The biggest drawback was probably just that we weren't really 'riding' per se. Rather, we were on horseback while the guide walked the horse around by their lead - I guess we were expecting the guide to also be on horseback so we could have covered a lot more area. That said, it was a good experience, the staff were friendly, and the horses were lovely.