Trail Time

So we get asked on a regular basis if people can ride the big horses (big horses being in this case, our 2,000 plus pound Percheron draft horses.) We smile, as our minds wander to our real passion of sitting on the horse instead of behind them, and say, "We absolutely can and do!"

They may not be made for speed specifically. Nor do they always care about grace and fulidity. What they do have is a willingness to be game for just about any wacky thing we may ask of them. Draft horses are known for their easy going and more relaxed demeanor. Once trained they can take traffic and other normal city sights in stride with ease. Ever thought of Urban Trail Rides?

If you are out riding and get the munchies, you are sure to be given extra cups of ice for the horses at SONIC.

Or you might want to get back to nature and a true escape into a more natural habitat. Far from the hustle and bustle and on a horse you get a rare opportunity to feel an undeniable freedom. On a draft horse that feeling can be super-sized.

The bonus for horses out on the trails is the never ending buffet lining the paths. A little nibble here, a quick bite there, it is a regular smorgasbord of vegetation for them to sample. And should they get thirsty or warm then a quick dip down to the creek will satisfy both needs nicely!

Another question you may have is can you run (i.e.: gallop) on one of the big boys. Well this one you just have to see to believe:



Now if only you could feel the ground shake when he does that. Even Taylor's dog couldn't keep up this time!

And for a little size perspective I give you a photo of Elysian, 18'3" hands, 2,400lbs at age 8, standing with me, Fiona, 5 feet, 115lbs, and age A-lady-never-tells.

Or Percheron Cormier out on the trails with a Quarter Horse friend of his named Mazzy; ridden by the amazing horse woman, Brooke.

Cormier thinks Mazzy is just one of the most beautiful lady horses he's ever met! Can't you just see the adoration in his eyes?

Now I couldn't write about draft horses without giving some love to my first gentle giant partner, the Clydesdale. These wonderful babies belong to Elaine Glass of Die Gelbe Rose Carriage.

That's my shadow blending with my buddy Thor's down at the bottom.

I can honestly say that there is nothing like riding a draft horse. To feel connected to an animal of that size is an unbelievable feeling. They quite literally bring you closer to the sky. That reminds me of one more little thing. Watch out for trees because you will gain a whole new perspective for low limbs!

Part Two: Horsey Treats, à la "I See & Hear Nothing Else"

Like most horses, ours enjoy treats. Say the word, "Cookies!" with the right emphasis, and you will have the rapt (and physically close) attention of every one of our equine partners. Or just let them hear you open the "cookie jar".

In addition to store bought cookies, our horses' Aunt Kyle makes homemade cookies. She constantly tweaks recipes, but hasn't found one yet that the horses won't stop, drop or run over to get.

Like all treats, cookie intake is limited. No doubt, much too limited as far as our horses are concerned. Kenny is officially known as "Cookie Man" around our paddocks, and he is EXPECTED to provide a treat before leaving at the end of each night.

When no cookies are available, a few alfalfa cubes will substitute.

Considering their pelleted feed is alfalfa-based, we're amused at how eager they are for 2-3 more bites of alfalfa.

Carrots are a another favorite. We checked with our vet to confirm maximum safe carrot intake. :) While you may have trouble getting your children to eat carrots, our horses would eat all you would give them.

Interestingly, Devereaux wasn't too sure about carrots when he first arrived.

Apples either. It was only from watching the other horses get excited about them and a human eating samples under his nose that he decided they might be good.

Because they are SO sweet, apples are only allowed one/horse/day when they get them. We cut them in slices or offer them in bites so they can't choke by accidentally swallowing one whole.

That would certainly take the fun out of the treat, eh?

If you ever see Cormier looking like he is wearing pale frosted lipstick, he's just been eating peppermints.

While the highlight of Baraats for us may be the music, dancing and gorgeous saris, we're pretty sure for Cormier, it's the peppermints.

Who doesn't love melon balls? (Ok, maybe some of you don't, but our horses LOVE them.) And we even have a late night video of Elysian gingerly eating melon balls off a little plastic fork.

It's all the more hilarious in that his muzzle is the size of a medium-sized cantelope. Horse lips are amazing. He never so much as broke a fork tine. (You can see this video on our Facebook page--or just ask us to send you the link.)

All you horsey people probably have unusual treats your horses have loved ... and we want to hear about them!

We once had an Arabian that loved hush-puppies and orange push-ups.

Part One: "How much do you feed your horses?"

We often get asked how much our horses eat/drink. Even horsey people are sometimes surprised at the answers.

Here is the answer for our Percherons (our Norwegian, much to his little tubby dismay, get's MUCH less):

1) We drool over hay trucks on the highway like this.
GOOD HAY: 30-45 lbs daily per horse
12-13% protein, super clean, barn-stored Bermuda (Coastal or Tipton 85) grass hay - more in winter, less in summer; year-round, more for our highest-metabolism burner than our lowest one. Which are the best types of hay varies across the country. We can get very good Coastal here.

2) Is water a food? Yes!!!
CLEAN WATER: Between 10 and 35 gallons daily
The amount consumed depends on temperature/exercise and we watch each horse's individual consumption like a hawk. We top off 45 gallon containers of fresh water at home twice daily if necessary. They are emptied and scrubbed every 1-3 days as no dirt or algae is allowed in their water. We carry a 50 gallon drum of fresh water in our trailer, keep fresh water on our carriages for them at work, plus know all the faucets in downtown Austin!

3) BALANCED FEED: 9-13 lbs/day each (1 1/4 - 2 LARGE scoops twice daily) based on individual needs.
We feed a 14% protein, alfalpha-based, vitamin/mineral balanced pelleted equine feed. Our highest metabolism horse gets an additional 2 lbs/day (split in half) of 12% sweet feed mixed in to encourage him to finish the quantity of pelleted feed he needs.

[You have to be careful not to overfeed in a single feeding. We've fostered horses that were fed 3/times/day to get the number of calories in without risk of colic/laminitis.]

4) SUPPLIMENTS: Mineral salt blocks + other suppliments.
One of our Percherons receives hoof suppliments. Gradual (no more than 1/8 cup/day increase) vegetable oil is our preferred safe method of increasing calories in super cold winters (- risk of colic/laminitus from grain). Our Norwegian recieves joint suppliments.

So there you have it. Horses by the ton like to eat and drink by the ton! We like to keep ours healthy and happy so we are busy servers!

Horses ears - what are they saying?

Couldn't fit this into the 420 character limit on FB. Horses' ears are "what's on my mind". As in whether a horse is MAD or just paying attention to what's going on behind them.

Last night, we heard this comment from a young lady to her companion as they petted one of our horse's shoulders, "This horse is mad. Look at it's ears. My Grandpa told me that if a horse's ears are back, they are mad." Well, the horse's ears were back, the left ear idly listening to traffic, the right ear probably idly listening to HER. Not mad.

Here's the deal with mood and horse ears: animals with directional ears sometimes swivel them to listen, rather than turning their heads. You want to know what a horse's brain is probably focused on, look at their ears, not their eyes. They only turn their heads from the direction they're facing if they've heard something REALLY interesting.

How to tell if they are listening to something behind vs. sending a warning? Pinned ears = warning, irritation, i.e., speaking. Ears angled backwards = listening.

This horse is listening to it's rider.

They can pin those ears nearly flat to their heads when irritated or sending a warning. This is often accompanied by a snaked out neck, and distinctly ugly expression on their faces--curled nostrils (think Elvis) coupled with unmistakably glaring eyes. I have to admit, if no one is in biting, kicking, striking or bucking off range, this look has been known to crack me up, ... kind of like a 4 year old about to throw a big ole temper tantrum. (Otherwise it's not too funny.)

This horse has it all, pinned ears, stretched neck, glaring eyes, Elvis nostrils. Anything unclear here?

I think the confusion comes in because when horses turn their ears back to listen, they swivel on a downward diagonal. But they don't go flat. So that's the short explanation about horse ears. I wish humans had horse ears. Or dog, cat, rabbit, etc., ears ... so much cuter. Plus, you have to admit, human ears aren't exactly expressive by comparison.

Farrier Humor

Farriers have a tough job. We admire a good farrier's skill, knowledge and physical stamina. We've had a horse or two come to us without "polite" manners, ahem, and heard some wild/awful tales and funny stories from farriers. In honor of all the crazy stuff they deal with, we thought we'd pass along a couple of links to some farrier humor even non-farriers might find amusing.

Things Farriers Love to Hear by Tom Stovall, CJF includes these:
"He doesn't bite, he only nibbles ... ."
"You won't have any trouble catching them."
"He never did that before ... ."
"Its the bank's fault, run it back through."

You can picture the big whelp on the farrier's back from horse teeth, see horses gleefully galloping to the back of a 100 acre pasture with no one to help gather them, or imagine the Olympian gymnastics a horse can perform once they've decided that shoe is NOT going on! And to be sure, the bad check will be for a multiple-horse job, done in the mud, way out in Timbuktu, where all three of the former also occurred.

You're a Farrier If ... by Henry Heymering, CJF, RJF, and Jack Millman, CJF
This was published in 1995, but no doubt all are still true today ... plus some! Examples:

• You have more photos of horses' feet than all your other photos including vacations, pets and relatives combined.
• While working, you notice blood - both you and the customer are relieved to find it's just yours and not the horse's.
• You think that it is normal to come home to messages on your answering machine from strange women who say they need you right away.
• You're not a stripper, but the people who hire you spend more time looking at your buns than your face.

Because we have one horse who likes to see a farrier more often than the standard six-week interval (often unscheduled on a day he is to be the main attraction at an important event), we have a profound gratitude and deep appreciation for the remarkable kindness and generosity the farriers we know have shown us and our horses. One related to us that a client told him he was in her will. Said he didn't quite know what to make of that. Well, we understand. If we had riches to will to somebody, we would, too! Hats off to all the great farriers out there who know and love horses, and have to put up with horse owners.

Angeli Carriages at SXSW 2010

Love this photo of Cormier and the Cinderella in front of the majestic Driskill Hotel. Look at that pony posing! Later in the evening, this shot wouldn't have been possible because the entire street was PACKED with people.

SXSW was pretty cool for Angeli this year, except that the bigger it gets, the more of a challenge it is to get people where they want to go after 10 pm! There were bands playing everywhere, even on the sidewalk on 6th St. 

Taylor and Fiona managed to sneak in a look at a cool poster exhibit today. Great people-watching from the vantage point of the driver's box on a carriage. All the Coachwomen had bands stop and visit or ride with us to their gigs. 

A friend of "Cormie" stopped by early one evening with her Dad who snapped all these photos. Parker (cool name, huh?) sat on the driver's box to get her pic made with Fiona. Thank you Dad Dennis for these photos!

Between rides Taylor stood at Cormier's head while people petted him and got photos ... cuz he's gawgeous.

Some bands and their friends took some photos and video. Many gave us CDs so we're sharing the luv with each other. Great people, great music. We hope they ring us up for a REAL tour when they get back to Austin. We're developing a "Haunted Austin" tour that should be a kick!

From the passenger's perspective, the Cinderella Carriage is rather fantastique. We make sure our horses like their work. Cormier in particular is a social butterfly, nuzzling humans and whinnying at horse buddies.

Cormier providing the horsepower, Stacey driving, she met and/or drove several artists to gigs, including a Playing In Traffic Records founder (Los Lonely Boys label) to the Austin Music Awards. PITR won for Local Label and LLB for Rock. Stacey also taxied a group from Seattle called Run From Cover Friday and had a band member of Le Loup stop to chat. RegularJOE interviewed a singer while riding with her and Beats Antique posted this photo of them about to ride in style!.

Riding with Taylor:
Karmina, a folk/pop girl band from LA, Cali. They flagged down the Cinderella Friday, on 5th St, and wanted a ride to somewhere where they could "catch a cab". A horse taxi to a car taxi--ha! The girls filmed their carriage experience on the way to the Driskill and remarked that “a carriage ride is the best way to end the long trip of SXSW.” Tipped Taylor with a CD (that she says is badass). Somebody, let us know when they get their video of SXSW uploaded--we hope we're in it a little!



When Karmina got off the carriage they exchanged embraces with another rock-star group from LA, The Rescues, who promptly boarded the carriage. Although they didn’t tip via CD, Taylor checked out their music and said it was real cool. During the ride they talked about how being on the horse carriage was VIP status and that it made them ‘friggen awesome’. Of course, so many bands thought they were SO MUCH COOLER on the Cinderella.  

Finally, Drake & Truth, a rapper who is signed to Lil Wayne's label, Young Money Entertainment, rode with Taylor. This guy has no shortage of confidence. Check out some of his acting and music credits on Wikipedia.


Saturday, The Gin Riots used Taylor's horse as an advertising stand, putting a sticker on him (only barely attached horse-lovers!), then gave her a professional mix tape with their music on it.

Fiona fanned the film THE RUNAWAYS which opened at The Paramount Theater during SXSW. People promoting the film gave her and Taylor fliers and pins and had them pose for pics on their carriages holding the fliers up--that's surely creative advertising. If you see that they post those pics send us the link.

Some of the members of The Giving Tree stopped by Fiona's carriage to visit. She joked with them about their CD cover (the word is "obvious", not "devious" - ha!) and they invited her to see them play The Ghost Room. Too bad she was working!

Evergreen Terrace also rode with Fiona, going "green" for the day, but we don't know if there are any pics/vid posted.

We'll post more links as we remember more names of artists we met. If you took photos of us at SXSW, we'll link to them or you can send them and we'll post them here!

Angeli crew, happy to be in Austin, TX and celebrating SXSW.

A Newlywed's Surprise for Angeli

WeddingWire, just announced Angeli Carriages has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for horse-drawn wedding carriage services!

From WeddingWire:
The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Angeli Carriages is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Angeli Carriages is among the very best horse-drawn carriage services within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™.

Sweet!

Each 5 Star rating we've received at WeddingWire has been unsolicited, and each a delicous pleasure for us to read. Having someone take the time, days or weeks after their wedding, to review us so highly, is a lovely compliment. Reading each one always brings back all our happy memories of their wedding. Every wedding, every couple is unique, and we feel the JOY of the occasion!

We work so hard to please our clients ... this recognition is a bit of icing on the cake!

"The Cutest Pony in the World"

Angeli's draft pony, Blue, is the perfect size to pull the Die Gelbe Rose sleigh.

Round Rock, TX began the holiday season with an annual celebration, Christmas Family Night Friday, Dec. 11th in historic downtown Round Rock. A fellow carriage company, Die Gelbe Rose, provided their sleigh carriage. Angeli Carriages supplied "The Cutest Pony in the World" aka Blue, to pull Santa and his helper in it!

Here are a few more photos of our preparations, and the pony and sleigh.


After grooming, Fiona braids Blue's tail.


Fiona added rhinestones to the ribbon to make his bow really sparkle.


We snapped a few shots of Blue traveling to the festival in the Die Gelbe Rose trailer. He's not used to such an open trailer, so we wonder what he was thinking as he zipped down the highway from Austin. This is a view we've never gotten of any of our horses, as they are always behind our truck!


For those who are wondering, Blue is a Norwegian Fjord, an unusual breed here in Texas, and the only professional DRAFT PONY carriage horse in the Austin region. He looks like such a living doll in his harness, but he is built like a little tank!


Santa prepares to board his sleigh.


Elaine of Die Gelbe Rose drives Santa and his Helper in the sleigh.


Fiona couldn't resist making sparkling antlers for Blue, and putting gold glitter on his toes. Now he looks just like a reindeer, eh?

What is Dappled, Ginormous & Sweet as Summer Watermelon?

Why that'd be Elysian. He's dappled grey, 18.2 hands tall, and 2400 pounds--yes, he honestly weighs over a ton, British or American. For those who are curious, he's a registered Percheron whose been shown in single and as a team in Michigan. This is the guy we searched six months to find, and drove 2700 miles roundtrip through a snowstorm last winter to get. He is not only big and showy, but he's very handsomely built and has a sweet temperament.

THE "OMG, HE'S BIG!" FACTOR
If you aren't regularly around tall horses you don't have a frame of reference for what 18.2 hands tall is. It equals 6' 2" tall ... at the shoulders. Horse's height isn't measured to the top of their heads like people, but to their withers (top of their shoulder blades).

Horse height is measured in "hands". A hand equals 4 inches. We get quite a kick our of horse advertisements that measure a horse as "16.5 hands". This basically means take everything else the ad says with a HUGE grain of salt.

So here are a couple of pics of Elysian from last winter so you can see his height in relation to a person,




... and a closeup of his withers, the point at which he is 6' 2" tall--look right in front of the person on him, that's it.








THIS GUY IS REALLY POWERFUL

Elysian's massive size is impressive in so many ways, for instance in his powerhouse, i.e., rear end.





Maybe you'd like a better view of this remarkable mass of muscle:






















He has a very strong back, too:


HE HAS * STARBURST * DAPPLING!


And for pulling, just look at his chest and forearms. This image also shows some of his beautiful starburst dappling.











"UNDERPINNINGS" TO MATCH THE MUSCLE
Underpinnings is a nickname given to legs in the horse world. Anytime you have a horse with a great deal of mass, whether a draft or a Quarter Horse halter horse, if they are carrying a lot of weight for their size, horsemen/women always want to know if they genetically have enough leg bone or "underpinnings" to carry that weight and remain sound. Here is a pic of his back legs--if you know horses, you can see how substantial his bone is.

We wish you could feel his legs, wow-oh-wow, what strong, clean bone and joints! And we do everything we're supposed to, to keep them that way.


WHAT IS IT ABOUT MEN WITH LONG RINGLETTED HAIR???
And finally, his curls. Yep, his leg feathering curls into ringlets. We keep the fronts of his legs clipped so he looks elegant and polished for special events, but we can't bring ourselves to clip the hair that grows on the backs of his legs because it curls into ringlets!




So, to sum up, Elysian is HUGE, has starburst dappling, an almost white mane and tail to go with his pewter grey color, and has ringlets in his feathers. Yum, yum, he's a pretty boy, even when he's unbathed and at play.