2011 Christmas Wagon Rides

Wow … I’ve been putting off this blog post for quite a while. Maybe I should have made a New Years Resolution to “not procrastinate”.  At any rate, I’m getting it to you now, so that’s what matters.


For 2011 Christmas Season, I once again did wagon rides for the Park Street Historical Society in Greenville, TX. I did rides 4 nights (Friday and Saturday night for 2 weeks). I had a great time and once again, I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to get my horses out in Greenville and share them with other people. I love my horses immensely, and it’s just a great feeling to see others (especially children) in awe and amazement at how big, and how well mannered they are. I had my helper, Jacob, with me again this year and he was awesome company to have.  Jacob is a real sharp young man, very sober and very solemn.  I love having him help me with the horses, because its one of the few times I see him actually smiling.

This is Jacob.  I can't believe I caught him smiling.

The first night of rides didn’t go so well. When I went to hitch up the horses, I noticed one of the wagon tires was flat. I thought that was odd, and we found an air compressor and filled it up. We loaded up the wagon, and down the road we went. After a block, I heard a rhythmic lug sound from the back of the wagon. I looked back, and the tire was pretty much flat. A block later, and the whole wagon was rocking as the tire became unseated. I apologized immensely and we turned around and went back. The people in my wagon hopped on another wagon, and away they went. Turns out, the valve stem completely blew out of the tire as we started to go down the road. I had no way to fix a tire without a valve stem, and knew that I needed professional help to get this done quickly.

Getting ready for the rides.  Girls are hitched and waiting to go.

I was left with a predicament. 7:30ish on a Friday night … who could fix the tire? Well, it turns out that NTB is open till 9. I ran the tire to them quickly (thanks to my boy scout “Be Prepared” training I had all the tools needed to remove the tire from the wagon). They found the flat, fixed it, and used a cheater seater to seat the tire that had really gotten abused being pulled while it was flat. They were done in a short time, and didn’t charge me anything for the repair. THANK YOU NTB!!! I’ll be giving them my business next time I need tires.

My son enjoying a snack while we finish getting ready

Here's the wagon, ready to go.

I got back in time to do one more wagon ride for the night. It went well and the horses were all to happy to be done after a single full length ride.

The next 3 nights went perfectly. The horses were awesome, and the wagon rides were fun. I really need to try that trick I posted a few blogs back about a way to make it so your lines don’t get caught under the team pole. That would happen to me every time Pam would step out in front of Rachael. It’s very annoying, but I impressed Jacob with my skills at making Rachael step forward more than pam to get them unhooked without having to stop the wagon and walk up there. It was a minor annoyance though!

I should also mention that the bells were AWESOME!  Just having bells jingling as we walked down the road made it so much better.  I am a huge fan of bells and will be doing christmas with them from now on.  It seemed to be the cherry on top of a wonderful experience.

Wagon rides are just getting underway.  Here we are waiting for people to load up.  Jacob is a great header.

For me, the best part of this Christmas season was to have my parents visit. I’ve only been doing hitch stuff for a short time, and my parents have never been around to see it. They are big fans of the blog, and love what they read and see through pictures, but they have never gotten to experience it in person. With my parents here, I took them on a special wagon ride to see the lights on Park Street in Greenville.

My mom got her camera out and documented me and my father getting us ready for the ride. I’ll have to post her pictures when she gets them. Her first comment was how amazed she was at the size of the horses. She said pictures didn’t do them justice or really show you just how big they are. She was then amazed that I could walk in and put halters on and that the horses didn’t kill me.  It was a lot of fun having them there with me, and my father (who has no horse experience) did great at leading the horses and helping me as needed. The wagon ride was awesome and my parents had a really good time. I also gave a wagon ride to the Whitlock family. They are basically my Texas family and have helped me out so much. Chuck Whitlock is a teamster, and my very first harness I used on Lily was borrowed from him. He sat up front with me and we had a fun time going down the road.

Whitlock Family Wagon Ride

Christmas was a success. A few bumps along the way, but a great season.