A thread for carriage ride operators

Geoff,
We do mostly weddings. They are of course, by appointment, and the majority of the advertising we do for them is at one of the “wedding shows” they hold here. It’s usually a pretty good deal. We also get quite a few from our website tags, but by far, the most come from “word of mouth”.
We also do rides here on our ranch, with a sleigh, sled, carriage or wagon, depending on the time of year and how many people in the party. We have plenty of room to take them on a ride that usually lasts at least an hour and never get close to leaving our land, nor travelling the same path twice. We have been toying with the idea of doing some “dinner rides” and providing a “chuck wagon” style supper and maybe some entertainment for the guests on an appointment basis. I’m not sure just how that will work, but we have had some pretty good feedback from everyone we’ve discussed it with.
We do some work every year for a victorian era historical mansion in town (about 30 miles away) and donate rides for the day, usually for their spring opening, or an ice cream social or some other special occasion. We usually wind up hauling some of their crew, dressed in period clothing in the 4th of July parade as well. All in all, it’s great fun, they love it, and everyone benefits, so it’s a good time!
We donate rides to quite a few local charities and fund raisers. That’s great advertising, and is a good thing to do anyway. It seems it always pays us back a bunch of times, even if it’s not in a “cash” sort of way. It’s been a big thing to some people and it’s something we both enjoy.
One of our yearly highlights is the local fair. We wind up taking at least 6 in every year and spending the week in the draft horse barn. They display the wagons and equipment out front, and we are in there with about 20 other draft horses. It’s a great time, with lots of “old timers” as well as kids getting to come “up close and personal” with the big horses, sometimes for the first time in their lives! We always make sure we’ve got harness displayed, brochures available, and someone there to answer questions about the horses or equipment, and we usually pick up a few jobs that way as well.
We talked to our local city police department before ever showing up in town (other than parades), and explained what we do, who we are, and gave them our backgrounds and experience. I think that was a big part of them feeling so comfortable with us operating there, and they’ve been extremely courteous to us! We always have bun bags on the horses in town, whether doing a parade, or an event, and we keep a shovel and broom handy and are quick to sweep up ANY trace of us being there, before we’re gone. The comment was made one time that you could tell exactly where we had parked and hooked up, as it was much cleaner than the rest of the block. I took that as a huge compliment!!
We normally don’t need insurance here. Montana has an “equine law” that basically says that if you’re willingly participating in a horse related activity, you’ve assumed the responsibility. One of our wedding venues requires us to have liability insurance, and we have arranged to have them share the cost with us, as they are the only ones requiring that, and they want us to be there. From talking to other operators, insurance seems to be the thing that kills most of the operations. (imagine that) We set up a LLC for the carriage company, to somewhat protect us, and benefit us taxwise. I’m not sure how that would work for anywhere else.
We always have 2 of us with the carriage, and as soon as we stop, one of us is heading the horses. That’s a huge deal, especially in a wedding scenario, as I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a kid run toward the horses, and some even getting as far as grabbing one by the leg. (my heartbeat didn’t return to normal for a day or 2 after that!) Bombproof/bulletproof horses are a MUST! People are stupid, and trust me, they get more stupid every day! Most of it (99%) isn’t malicious intent…but people just don’t understand anymore, how to be around animals. I had one guy pull up right behind us with a firetruck (the groom was a fireman) just before we were picking up the bride, and blow the siren (just for fun!). I jumped about 3 feet, but the horses stood rock solid… and some wonder why I love our Clydes! It’s always good to have extra eyes that know horses around, as like I said, people will amaze you at what they do!
I’m lucky as my wife worked for Budweiser for years, so learned alot about the fine art of big horses in public. She’s a real stickler for absolutely doing everything possible for safety, and it’s drawn us some compliments. Both of us have worked horses all our lives, and that helps alot too. I’m an airplane mechanic, with an emphasis on antique aircraft, so I’m left with the primary responsibility of vehicle maintenance, and I treat all our wagons, sleighs, etc just as I would an aircraft… I’ve seen too many wrecks caused by trying to get by with something that’s a bit sub-standard. Not all of our stuff is new..in fact, our newest carriage/wagon is 40+ years old (and it’s getting rebuilt by us right now), and the oldest were built in the 1800’s…but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t in perfect (or as close as I can get them) shape. It’s just not worth the risk to have someone fall through a floor, or have a wheel come apart, or whatever. Same goes for our harness… every piece of it is checked over and cleaned by hand before AND after we use it each time. It’s saved us some awkward moments, I’m sure. We always carry one complete spare harness so that we can swap out whatever we need if we get somewhere and need to.
Reading back, it sounds like alot of work and a pain in the butt…but it isn’t….well, at least not that bad. We both love doing it, and it’s certainly rewarding in more ways than one! We try to pay for all our horses’ feed with the carriage work, and it usually does that for us. We consider that we’d probably have all these anyway, and at least this way, they’re carrying their own weight. Probably the greatest reward from it is the people we’ve met, and getting to share the horses. You’ll hardly ever see us without a slight smile when we are doing this, because it’s what we really enjoy!
Wow…didn’t mean to ramble this long…. any more questions? (can ya tell I kind of like to share this? haha)
John

Robin, I’m still working. I have my own shop and runway here at the ranch and take in very select few projects. Right now I’m rebuilding a plane from New Hampshire.

We have a sleigh ride operation , near Bromley ,Stratton ski areas in southern Vt ,sleighing people since 1981 mostly with bad jokes
All rides by appointment . We leave from an inn, a 5 minute ride away from home. Do some weddings , travel some for special occassions with 3 different wheeled rigs . I was told once that insurance, is something a court sees as a business like way to operate.Glad I have never had to find out .
Pros and cons You got to like people !. If you can’t take talking to little kids or drunks or telling the same stories a zillion times it’s
tough. Or giving directions ( thank God for GPS), or telling people to wear all the clothes they own cause its cold at 10 degrees and blowing sitting for an hour in an open sleigh is cold . People canceling , not showing or people just being people when you’re cold and tried. Not to mention all the time on the phone .

But on a beautiful day or a starry night when the people are just mesmerized by what they’re part of it’s great . With great horses,,
got to have the best, no kickers ,biters, balkers . Everything is amplified with more people . the ones getting off ,on, lost .I don’t
believe in being Hyper vigilant, just a relaxed alert ,I think the horses deal with me better then too. done both

Moving people with horses has a long history, different from logging and farming for sure,with different problems and satisfactions .
It has been an adventure for me …