being 9 years old to ride...is that a requirement or suggestion?..because if the rules say 9, then i guess we wont stay here..DD wants to ride but is only 7...(and riding horses for 4 years)
Very well enforced rule...not a guideline or suggestion.
It will be boring if you've ridden before. We did it the year my dd turned 9. It was August. She hadn't ridden before (other than pony rides) and dh hadn't ridden before. I rode as a teen, so at least knew how to mount a horse!!!
We were the last ones there...got on the wrong bus. So, we were at the end of the line. Dd was behind me, dh last in the line. Dd was pretty nervous but one of the guides stuck to her and joked around...he was wonderful. The horses do pretty much plod along..nose to tail. But...as the clouds gathered overhead, I asked the guide what happened if a thunderstorm cropped up...you know, did the horses get all nutty?? He told me that they had checked radar before leaving the stables, all was fine. But even if a storm did come along the horses didn't really mind..they were used to it. Although, one or two of the horses weren't thrilled with being wet. And of course, mine was one of them.
So...about half way through the ride, the skies opened up. The guides got on their radios and found that a storm cell had just formed, right over us. There was thunder in the distance!!! The guides made the decision to go back the way we had come rather than going forward. Only problem was they had a group of people who had no idea how to turn their horses around!!! It was really funny (at least for me) to see people tryng to get their horses to turn and go back!!! Those around me were lucky since I had no such issues...which the guides realized. They went off to the front of the line to get the horses up front turned.....those around me turned when my horse turned. My poor dd???? Horrified!!!! She was sure her horse was going to take off on her.
By the time we got back to the stables, we were soaked to the bone. My underwear was even soaked!!!! Some guests just got off their horses and returned to their cars. The guides told us that we should head to the stable office where they had towels for us to dry off. It was there that we found that they were refunding our money....100%!!! Even though we had had a longer ride than normal. It was actually one of our best WDW memories!!!
They really took care of the guests, from start to finish. It was very impressive.
She told the CM she was an experienced rider and asked for a frisky horse. The one she got, walked at a very slow plodding walk and it was just a very slow trail ride where you ride nose to tail with the other horses. After the ride, she looked at me and said, 'well that was a waste of time and soooo boring'.
