Horseback Riding

[curlyqs]

Has anyone been horseback riding at Fort Wilderness? Was it a worth it experience?

 

[3kidsdad]

My kids love this activity and want to go everytime we are at the Fort. It is just a very slow walking trail ride and you do need to control your horse at times. My daughters horse liked to try and leave the trail to snack on things on the side of the trail. If you post this in the camping forum you will probably get more replies.

 

[DaniPoppins]

My daughter is horse crazy and obsessed with riding. We leave tomorrow for our trip. I've been trying to call WDW-PLAY for a week to make a reservation for her to do a trail ride. Every single time it says to call back later. The website says you can sign up same day at the barn. Does anyone happen to know if the trail rides fill up? She'll be crushed if we go and she can't do it.

 

[tiggerdad]

We've done it twice. Last time was October 2020.

Simply put, it's slow paced walk through woods. Saw plenty of wildlife and good CM interaction. It's good for kids with love for horses. However, if you are experienced with horse riding you might find it boring.

 

[tiggerdad]

My daughter is horse crazy and obsessed with riding. We leave tomorrow for our trip. I've been trying to call WDW-PLAY for a week to make a reservation for her to do a trail ride. Every single time it says to call back later. The website says you can sign up same day at the barn. Does anyone happen to know if the trail rides fill up? She'll be crushed if we go and she can't do it.

We walked up and were not able to get that day, but got next day. That was in October. During summer it does fill quickly.

 

[Twitterpaited]

I did it when I was a kid. I thought it was kind of boring because it is a slow walk and the scenery on the trail wasn’t very exciting. But, I was comparing it to riding in Kentucky where my horse got to gallop.

 

[curlyqs]

My daughter is an experienced rider. I'm wondering if she would like this. Thank you everyone for your feedback.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

If riding is new to you, or you want to have the experience of riding at Disney, this is a great experienced. If you are a rider and don't really care about the Disney factor, you'd likely find it underwhelming. We did it and had a great time - but we are Disney geeks and wanted the kids to be able to say they road at Disney. If we had this same trail ride at a random destination, we would have been disappointed.

 

[DaniPoppins]

We just got back from our trip, and my daughter enjoyed the ride overall. We had to change the reservation because it was pouring rain the morning we were supposed to go. But we got a reservation for the next day without issue.

My daughter loves horses, so it was a good experience for her. She had never ridden western before, so she was happy to get to try it. But, she was not a fan of the western saddle! She said it hurt her tush!

She was the last in line and chatted with the CM on the horse behind her the whole ride. She really loved that!

I had prepared her ahead of time that it would be a very slow ride with no trotting or cantering, so she was prepped and therefore not disappointed!

 

[BrotherCraig]

Where do you go at FW for the trail rides? Front of the resort or back of the resort by the lake and Pioneer Hall?

 

[PalmettoPath]

Where do you go at FW for the trail rides? Front of the resort or back of the resort by the lake and Pioneer Hall?

Front of the resort near the main gate. Those are the riding stables. Fun experience that we love to do every couple of years. Fun fact: the lockers there are the old River Country lockers

 

[BrotherCraig]

Front of the resort near the main gate. Those are the riding stables. Fun experience that we love to do every couple of years. Fun fact: the lockers there are the old River Country lockers

Thank you. That is what I thought but wanted to make sure. Thank you. Now I just need to figure out how to get there from Yacht Club.,

 

[DaniPoppins]

When we did the horseback riding in April, we made the mistake of going to the new (amazing!) stables near the boats and Hoop-Dee-Do. But the people there were so nice and told us where to go and called ahead for us so they knew we were coming. I highly recommend you visit the new stables while you are at Fort Wilderness! We spent quite a while there looking at the horses and chatting with CMs.

If you are using Disney transportation, I would recommend taking a bus from the Yacht Club to MK and then take a boat from there to FW. Then, you will need to take an internal FW bus to get to the stables near the gate for the horseback riding. Just tell the bus driver when you get on that you are going there. Definitely give yourself lots of time to get there!

 

[BrotherCraig]

When we did the horseback riding in April, we made the mistake of going to the new (amazing!) stables near the boats and Hoop-Dee-Do. But the people there were so nice and told us where to go and called ahead for us so they knew we were coming. I highly recommend you visit the new stables while you are at Fort Wilderness! We spent quite a while there looking at the horses and chatting with CMs.

If you are using Disney transportation, I would recommend taking a bus from the Yacht Club to MK and then take a boat from there to FW. Then, you will need to take an internal FW bus to get to the stables near the gate for the horseback riding. Just tell the bus driver when you get on that you are going there. Definitely give yourself lots of time to get there!

Thank you so much for the information. Very helpful.