2beagle 2 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Has anyone done any of the pony, carriage, or wagon rides I see under the Sports and Recreation tab? We plan to have one full day at FW during our visit next month, as well as a flex day, where we'll play it by ear. The Meadow Pool is a given. Didn't know if the pony ride was a "real" ride, or just circling around? Are the wagon or carriage rides worth making time for? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy and Grandma 739 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Pony rides are "parents leading around the enclosure". Can't address the carriage/wagon, never done them, but they are usually busy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cortezcapt (Derek) 156 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 The pony rides I believe are in fenced area, not like your standard fair circle but not a trail ride. The carriage and wagon rides are nice during holidays when there are a lot of decorations up. Their normal route is through the loops. I'm not sure if it's something I'd spend money on unless you just like carriage or wagon rides or the experience for your family. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Not sure of the ages of family members you are looking to include, but they do offer horse trail rides also for those 9 and up. The pony rides are for younger kids under 80 pounds and under 48 inches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LONE-STAR 370 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Pony rides are $8.00 a ride now, it is a short ride, but my little girl loves it and has her favorite horse(Blaze). The wagon ride is kind of fun if your a group. If I remember right it's $6.00 per person. I think it was a 15 to 20 minute ride. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 The wagon ride is the best bargain you will find at the Fort and possibly at any other resort. $8 for adults, $5 for kids. Its about a 45 minute ride. Its really nice around Halloween and Christmas, because they take you past the most decorated loops. The carriage ride in my opinion is a rip off. Way overpriced and a shorter ride, but it is private. So if you want a romantic setting that would be better than a wagon carrying about 25 - 30 strangers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LONE-STAR 370 Posted July 24, 2016 Report Share Posted July 24, 2016 20 hours ago, Travisma said: The wagon ride is the best bargain you will find at the Fort and possibly at any other resort. $8 for adults, $5 for kids. Its about a 45 minute ride. Its really nice around Halloween and Christmas, because they take you past the most decorated loops. The carriage ride in my opinion is a rip off. Way overpriced and a shorter ride, but it is private. So if you want a romantic setting that would be better than a wagon carrying about 25 - 30 strangers. Go with what he said it's been awhile since we did the wagon ride Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 My son loves the pony rides, and I love leading him, but I think he might be too tall on our next trip. It stinks because he's a string bean and only weighs about 45 lbs. We did a carriage ride for our anniversary last year. We brought a bottle of wine with us, and it was pretty romantic. Our guide had been working with horses at the Fort for a long time.... I can't remember but like 30 years. We really enjoyed the experience. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 On 7/23/2016 at 10:12 PM, DaveInTN said: Not sure of the ages of family members you are looking to include, but they do offer horse trail rides also for those 9 and up. The pony rides are for younger kids under 80 pounds and under 48 inches. 16 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said: My son loves the pony rides, and I love leading him, but I think he might be too tall on our next trip. It stinks because he's a string bean and only weighs about 45 lbs. We did a carriage ride for our anniversary last year. We brought a bottle of wine with us, and it was pretty romantic. Our guide had been working with horses at the Fort for a long time.... I can't remember but like 30 years. We really enjoyed the experience. Yeah, I never understood the height limit as this is what can injure the animal. I wish they had a couple larger ponies, for larger (but still young) kids. It's a pretty big jump from pony ride to trail ride... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 20 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said: Yeah, I never understood the height limit as this is what can injure the animal. I wish they had a couple larger ponies, for larger (but still young) kids. It's a pretty big jump from pony ride to trail ride... My guess is that they use height as one of the limiting factors because it is easy and unobtrusive to verify by placing the measuring stick for kids to stand against. It's an awkward thing to ask someone to stand on a scale, and if you simply relied on the parents to tell the CM their child's weight....well, you know how that would go. The same parents that would hire a disabled person so that their little Buffy and Jody can avoid standing in lines, would have no qualms about shaving 30 pounds off little pookie-muffin's weight to get her on a precious pony. Who cares whether the poor pony is struggling beneath the weight of their dumb kid? At least the height limit somewhat helps reel this in, I would think. It would be fairly rare for a child 48" or less to weigh much more than 100 pounds, which I bet is still within the comfort level of those ponies for short durations. BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 2 hours ago, DaveInTN said: My guess is that they use height as one of the limiting factors because it is easy and unobtrusive to verify by placing the measuring stick for kids to stand against. It's an awkward thing to ask someone to stand on a scale, and if you simply relied on the parents to tell the CM their child's weight....well, you know how that would go. The same parents that would hire a disabled person so that their little Buffy and Jody can avoid standing in lines, would have no qualms about shaving 30 pounds off little pookie-muffin's weight to get her on a precious pony. Who cares whether the poor pony is struggling beneath the weight of their dumb kid? At least the height limit somewhat helps reel this in, I would think. It would be fairly rare for a child 48" or less to weigh much more than 100 pounds, which I bet is still within the comfort level of those ponies for short durations. Agreed. We're just at that weird in-between time where our 9 year old is too tall/big for a pony... but not ready for a trail ride as she's intimidated by idea of riding a horse "alone". I wonder if they would let me pony her horse on the trail? Probably not as I imagine that might open Disney up to possible liability, should something go wrong. Our little man can still ride the ponies however, this last visit he didn't even ask to. Hopefully we'll get lucky with that again. If not, it's just one of those life lessons that she'll handle, but makes this mama sad Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cortezcapt (Derek) 156 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 A horse trainer used to make us ride a friend little sisters pony to exercise it and keep it jumping. Back then my friend and I probably weighed in at about 140. That wasn't a daily occurrence but let's face it the ponies at the Fort aren't overly worked like a fair pony. If I remember correctly the standard rule of thumb with ponies used to be 20-30% of their body weight depending on the breed and condition of the horse. I don't know how they conduct their trail rides but if they don't it would be nice if they had someone to lead younger riders on the horses. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 13 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said: I wonder if they would let me pony her horse on the trail? Probably not as I imagine that might open Disney up to possible liability, should something go wrong. 3 minutes ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said: I don't know how they conduct their trail rides but if they don't it would be nice if they had someone to lead younger riders on the horses. The trail rides are conducted in a large group setting, with a CM riding a horse at the front and another at the rear. Guests on horses will be lined up nose to tail, and the horses will slowly walk the trail that they know well. Nothing is expected or required of the riders- you just sit there and hold on. The ride is really, really, really, slow. The horses just walk out on the trail and then you come back. Not worth the money they charge at all. And there is no way that they would let a guest walk along leading a horse. The horses don't need to be led, and there would be too much risk of the person walking along getting kicked or disrupting the slow march of horses. TCD BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 21 minutes ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said: A horse trainer used to make us ride a friend little sisters pony to exercise it and keep it jumping. Back then my friend and I probably weighed in at about 140. That wasn't a daily occurrence but let's face it the ponies at the Fort aren't overly worked like a fair pony. If I remember correctly the standard rule of thumb with ponies used to be 20-30% of their body weight depending on the breed and condition of the horse. I don't know how they conduct their trail rides but if they don't it would be nice if they had someone to lead younger riders on the horses. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Like you noted, what ponies can handle is dependent on several factors, not the least of which being the size of the pony and their conditioning. Our older pony has been ridden and shown regularly, including jumping, and can easily handle my 110 pound daughter. But she's a nice, stout mare and sized a bit bigger than the average TCD Ranch pony I think. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted July 26, 2016 Report Share Posted July 26, 2016 Agreed. We're just at that weird in-between time where our 9 year old is too tall/big for a pony... but not ready for a trail ride as she's intimidated by idea of riding a horse "alone". I wonder if they would let me pony her horse on the trail? Probably not as I imagine that might open Disney up to possible liability, should something go wrong. Our little man can still ride the ponies however, this last visit he didn't even ask to. Hopefully we'll get lucky with that again. If not, it's just one of those life lessons that she'll handle, but makes this mama sad [emoji20] Could she lead him? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted July 26, 2016 Report Share Posted July 26, 2016 All this talk is making me want to drive Z down tomorrow for one more ride! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted July 26, 2016 Report Share Posted July 26, 2016 9 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said: Could she lead him? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Technically, no. The rules require an adult to lead..... however, we did let her hold the end of the lead rope (with Tom walking next to the pony) one of the times he rode. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
libbylovespluto 1 Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 I loved the wagon ride, best 8 buck value! We went on the early ride, but I think the later ride pauses for the fireworks. I also really enjoyed the trail ride. It is what it is -- just a slow ride, single file, through the woods on horses that are basically self directing...but I dunno, I still loved it! I signed up again this year. There are discounts available, I think I got 15% off for using Disney Visa. Gonna try to do almost all the offerings this year. Hoop de doo, wagon ride, trail ride, campfire sing-a-long, kayaking, farrier, calliope. I love Fort Wilderness! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 3 hours ago, libbylovespluto said: I loved the wagon ride, best 8 buck value! We went on the early ride, but I think the later ride pauses for the fireworks. I also really enjoyed the trail ride. It is what it is -- just a slow ride, single file, through the woods on horses that are basically self directing...but I dunno, I still loved it! I signed up again this year. There are discounts available, I think I got 15% off for using Disney Visa. Gonna try to do almost all the offerings this year. Hoop de doo, wagon ride, trail ride, campfire sing-a-long, kayaking, farrier, calliope. I love Fort Wilderness! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Agreed, the wagon ride is the best bargain by far at the fort, and maybe even all of the resorts Quote Link to post Share on other sites
acornlover 1 Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 They also do a free tour of the horse barn, we did it last winter and it was very informative. We love draft horses so this was fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
libbylovespluto 1 Posted September 17, 2016 Report Share Posted September 17, 2016 A tour of the horse barn some sounds awesome! Do you recall the time(s) it's offered? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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