Ft. Wilderness Trail Ride

[fortwilderness]

I am curious about other people's experiences with the Fort Wilderness Horse Trail Ride. My experience was not very positive. I thought it would be so great. We (me, mom, and boyfriend) even got up extremely early to go on the first trail ride of the day so the horses would be rested and it wouldn't be so hot. Okay so maybe I was naive but I imagined "something" like Disney always shows on the vacation videos and postcards. You know, riders going in rows along a shady canal out in the wilderness. My experience was not even close.

Well first of all we were in single file not in pairs so there was no one to talk to. To make it worse you were not even put in line with the other members of your family. No, they let the horses decide what order to be in. I was in line between a 10 year old boy and 40-ish man who seemed unhappy that he was separated from his kids. His two daughters were way down the line and he couldn't even keep an eye on them. My mom and boyfriend were way down the line too. I felt so lonely.

Then during the whole trail ride the horses kept trying to eat the bushes and the trail ride CM's kept yelling really loud at them and wanted us to yank the reigns to make them stop. I began to wonder if they had even fed the horses that morning. My horse kept almost tripping over stuff because it kept trying to sneak and eat the brush and wasn't watching the ground.

Oh and where did we go on our $75 ($25 pp) trail ride you ask ? How about in a circle in the middle of some boring trees with a couple of old golf carts as our only scenery. I am not kidding. I kept waiting to get to something interesting to look at but no. There was no canal or anything. It was just the hind end of the horse in front of me and some golf carts. Plus the CM's lacked social skills. One of them was downright unfriendly and the other one just pretty much kept telling you to make the horses stop eating the brush. I had anticipated at least some degree of positive CM interaction.

This was by far the biggest disappointment of any Disney experience I have ever had. Plus it was so expensive ! Has anyone else been on the trail ride ? I would love to know how your trail ride was. I hope it was better than mine

 

[bianca]

My crew has done the trail ride on two separate occasions. Both experiences closely mirror your own. The CM's at the horse barn are just downright surly ...... maybe too much time with all those critters has made them unable to relate to people! Both of our rides were before they doubled the rates this year. After we heard about the recent rate increase, we all agreed that we were glad we had done it, but would never go again!

 

[Belle5]

We had the exact same experience! The only difference being that my pre-teen and I were treated to our guide warning off a would be college program student about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and how rampant they are running through the Disney College program! Then, the Richard Petty cars, or whatever they're called, were racing so loud that I thought I was in the middle of the Daytona 500! Never again!

 

[TinkerbellRules]

We also had a bad experience. I posted on here over a year ago. RUDE CM as well. We won't ride the trail again.

As a side, I spoke with someone around here with about 40 yrs experience about riding lessons for my daughter. She stated she HATES trail rides and that anyone that has not had lessons, should NOT be on them. All horses have a mind of their own and they know when inexperienced riders are on them. I told her about the horse that ran in the corral at FW, which scared my then 9 yr old daughter. My DD then wanted lead and you would have thought it was the end of the world for that CM. She was so extremely rude and embarrassed us in front of others. My DD didn't seem to notice. All she cared about was riding Taco. It was fun for her, but not us. Won't do it again!

 

[1000th_ghost]

Having small children, we usually stick to the pony ride around the petting zoo.
It's quick, inexpensive, the kids love it and I enjoy speaking with the lady wrangler.
The only commercial trail ride I've actually enjoyed was the mule train ride into the Grand Canyon. After that, I don't think even Disney could show me something better.

 

[LML]

We tried to book in for horse back riding over our trip in December. There were only two horses available at two different times. So we saw an ad for horseback riding in a magazine and called a booked in there(there was a coupon available for money off). I don't remember the name off hand now. However, it was amazing!! We started off on the horses walking around in a small enclosure. We were told when we were comfortable we could go into to the larger fenced in area. The owner, Ellen, said if we never got out of the small area there would be no charge. So, we stayed in there as long as needed then headed over to the very large fenced in area. After getting comfortable there we were allowed to walk the horses outside the fenced in area walking around it. When we were comfortable with that we had a guide take us out on a trail. My sister and niece did that. I was not comfortable with that...and yes, I agree with the horses knowing how comfortable the rider is, and who's the boss I was nervous so I stayed behind going around in the fenced in area. We loved it!!! The drive from Fort Wilderness was only about 15 minutes. Very fair price! Excellent time with wonderful memories that will cherish for a long long time!