Pony Rides

[ahill004]

Has anyone recently done the pony rides at Fort Wilderness? I have to girls (3 and 5) who love, love, love horses. They would love to do this but I don't know anything about it.
The cost? The times it is open? Is there parking near the stables? Is it worth a trip over to Fort Wilderness for this?

 

[Robo]

Has anyone recently done the pony rides at Fort Wilderness? I have to girls (3 and 5) who love, love, love horses. They would love to do this but I don't know anything about it.
The cost? The times it is open? Is there parking near the stables? Is it worth a trip over to Fort Wilderness for this?

No parking near the stables.

You must either park at the main parking lot of FtW and take an internal bus to Settlement Stop, or ride a boat over from MK or Contemporary or Wilderness Lodge.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Pony rides are currently $5. The ponies are well trained. You will walk your child around the short course. The ride lasts for about 5 minutes. Even though the ride is short, young children love this. There is also a big barn on site that you can tour. They keep the huge horses that work in the MK at this Barn. There is a small display area in the barn with photos and artifacts relating to WDW's horses. There is also a working Blacksmith shop there, and sometimes a blacksmith/farrier will be putting shoes on a horse. You can watch the whole process, and the worker will explain how they care for the horse's feet. If you take the boat over from the MK, it is just a short walk from the dock to the Tri-Circle-D Farm area.

Spending time in this area and riding the ponies used to be one of my DD's favorite things to do.

I say it's worth the effort to get over to Ft. Wilderness and give it a try.

TCD

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Camping board. This is the best place to discuss all of the activities and amenities available at Fort Wilderness.

 

[minniebeth]

I would definately suggest the boat launch to the Fort Wildnerness over the buses. It is more fun of a journey too. My kids love the boats as entertainment themselves. Again, the stables are a short walk to the marina. We loved walking by the stables and ponies. They are so so sweet! It is a neat area to explore and a nice break away from all the hustle and bustle of WDW. I definately think it is worth a trip for your girls' ages, especially if they love horses....

 

[PrincessNana]

My grandson wanted to ride the ponies, but it didn't work out this trip. This is what we learned: It's $5.00 cash. They don't take credit cards or your resort card and they usually can't make change. Plan accordingly. Your child needs to be able to sit on the horse by himself. Our grandson fell in the comfort station and got a concussion right before we were going to do the pony rides so we didn't want to take any chances on another fall. (If you were there in July, you might have seen the ambulance at our campsite.) He's still sad he didn't get to ride the horses.

 

[PrincessNana]

I forgot to tell you the pony rides close at 5:00 pm.

 

[minniebeth]

PrincessNana, I hope your grandson is ok and that he can get another chance to ride the ponies sometime!

 

[we3peas]

Also remember the person leading the pony and the ones riding have to have closed toed shoes on or they can't ride. My dd in one of our pics is wearing her water shoes because that's all I could find when we went back to our RV to get her shoes. They did let her ride with those on.

 

[PrincessNana]

PrincessNana, I hope your grandson is ok and that he can get another chance to ride the ponies sometime!

Thank you, he's fine now but he still says "I was supposed to ride a horsey!" As soon as his mom gets over the scare, we'll look for some pony rides close to home.