Horse-Drawn Trolley at Walt Disney World

A Horse Is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course

A Percheron horse gets a short break while pulling the trolley along Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, as seen during the 2019 Band and Chorus Disney Trip.

The horses and their trolleys are always fun to see along Main Street USA. For one thing, they add an interesting “live” element to the area. Yes, all of the people walking up and down the street are also live. But you expect to see them there because it is a theme park and all. You don’t always see other live animals out in theme parks these days. So it is pretty cool that they use real horses to pull the trolleys.

But another reason that these horses are fun to see is because they are so much bigger than our horses at home. Our horses are what I would consider to be normal-size horses. These draft horses are much larger than normal. That makes sense, of course, because they have to pull a trolley full of people. I don’t know that our smaller horses could pull that. Or if they would even want to try. I wonder if they would even want to go to Walt Disney World, or if they are fine just where they are.

Plus, it is neat to see all of the Mickey Mouse emblems on the harnesses that they use at Walt Disney World. Our horses don’t have that, either.

But I didn’t bother telling this horse that he blinked right when I took the photo. I wanted him to keep on being a happy horse, after all.

See more from this trip at the 2019 Band and Chorus Disney Trip page.

The Hunter and His Prey

Keeping with our animal theme for this post, our dog Copper was quite proud of his latest feat the other day:

When I went out to feed the horses one morning, I saw that Copper was carrying around something in his mouth. For a while, when I would get close to him he would pick it up and move it, presumably so that I wouldn’t take it from him.

Copper finally let me get close to him, and I saw that he was carrying a dead squirrel. Even though I call this section “The Hunter and His Prey,” I am not entirely sure if Copper actually killed this squirrel or if he found it already dead. Either way, he was proud of it. But he didn’t have to worry; I wasn’t going to take it from him. I didn’t want it!

I figured that as soon as I left for work, Copper was going to have himself a nice snack. However, when I got home that night, he was still carrying around the dead squirrel. Instead of a snack, I think that he found a new favorite toy.

Copper would run around with the squirrel and drop it near us, as he does with his other, store-bought toys, wanting us to try to get it from him or throw it so that he can chase it. While we are happy to do that with a felt or plastic thing from the store, we have no desire to do that with a dead squirrel. So he was on his own in playing with the thing.

Who knew something like a dead squirrel could provide so much enjoyment for a dog?

Bible Verse

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. - Psalm 84:10-11

About the Photos

The first photo was just a quick one as we were walking by on our way to somewhere else in the Magic Kingdom. That was the first time in a couple of years I had spent much time in the Walt Disney World parks, so it was good to see one of the horses again. And it was a beautiful day, as you can see. So there was not much to do to this photo to improve it, because it was already good. I did run it through Aurora HDR and increased the color saturation some, just to make it look even better, but that was about it.

The second photo of Copper was taken with my iPhone. I didn’t figure he would stick around with the squirrel long enough for me to go inside and get my camera. But that was before I knew he considered the squirrel a toy and not a snack. Still, the phone photo was just fine for this situation.

First Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Luminar. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: March 7, 2019
Location: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida