Being around horses several days a week, it’s easy to forget that they’re a pretty rare and exciting commodity in suburban America. We were reminded — loudly, and for several miles — on Saturday night when Millenium Stables took six horses to the Ormond Beach Christmas parade. I went to help with the horses . . . and I dragged Danny along to trailer some of the horses. And he ended up loving it. He joined us for the whole parade, a camera in hand (although I think I severely handicapped him by sticking him with just my 50 mm lens at an event when a zoom would have come in quite handy) and here’s what he got — with another handicap: I insisted he avoid using any flash. In the dark of night. There were already enough flashing lights to weird the horses out, so Danny had to make do with their ambient, neon glow.

We got the horses unloaded from the trailers and trimmed as festively as Christmas trees . . . in a grassy lot right beside one of the busiest streets in town. For the most part, the horses were cool with it. Cooler than I was.

A little known fact about Christmas parades: Before you can start walking the route, you have to wait in line on side streets. For what feels like hours. Standing right next to a float filled with children who are all singing the same song, but in different keys. It’s quite holiday-spirit-esque.
Buttercup, the little robotic horse, got to ride in the float. The other horses all had to hoof it (that was awful, I know it) through the parade.
The horses and humans weren’t the only ones who got Christmasy for the parade. The trusty Kubota and our stable manager’s car joined right in.
In this year’s parade, we were entry # 49 out of 52, or something like that. So it really was a long, long time before the parade staffers summoned us and we finally made our way out to the parade route, along US 1, up to Granada, over to Beach Street, and in front of the judges’ booth right by Ormond Beach City Hall and the Ormond Beach Public Library. As we headed out into the noise of the crowds — and the traffic whizzing past on the other side of the median — the horses that were old parade veterans barely batted an eye, while the first-timers would have preferred to go right back to our grassy lot and get back inside their trailers. But they took it all in stride — the bright lights, the loud vehicles, the sirens, the shouting children on the sidewalks.
This is Ben. Danny took a lot of pictures of Ben that night, because Danny decided Ben is the coolest pony he’s ever seen. All the kids along the parade route who benefited from Ben’s calm temper and friendliness would probably agree!It’s all fun and games, until someone has a splashdown. Which was actually a hit with the bystanders. Buddy kept them all laughing . . . for quite some time. Then they had to quickly scramble up onto the sidewalk, because the curb was about to become uninhabitable.
Some Christmas sugar. . . .
By the time the parade was over (and we made it back to our horse trailers by winding our way through unlit residential streets — seriously, the City of Ormond Beach needs to come up with a way for parade participants, especially those with animals and small children, to get back to their staging areas that is safer than mingling with traffic on dark, narrow roads!), I definitely understood why Millenium Stables was the only stable that brought horses to the parade. It can be a lot of nerve-wracking work! But for all the children who saw horses up close for possibly the first time in their lives, it made the parade so much more special. In other words: Worth it.

And Danny, who really hadn’t wanted to go in the first place, announced that he’s onboard to do it again next year!

~ Laura