A goal long sought is achieved

I have been longing to drive a team of horses for years. I've had the harness for a team, and I've practiced with horses I've owned before, but we never had a really solid, safe, feeling. The team on the right is not what you want pulling you through town!

Finally at Seaview Farm in Rockport, the perfect situation arose. Sam and his owner, Don, were willing to practice with me. Sam had been a Boston carriage horse, now retired, and is a sensible slow sort of guy. He and Curley worked together very nicely and we hav

been having fun pulling things through the fields for about a year.

I have had a carriage under transition for quite some

time. It was my original carriage, built in 1996 just for me to help me give historic tours in Salem. It was always hard for people to get in and out of, however, and after many years of deliberation, I decided to take out the seats and make it into a wagonette. The first photo is the original carriage, then you see my son in law Joel

working on installing the new, longer benches to transform it into a wagonette.

Today, oh joy, Don and I have had our first run putting both our horses to the new wagonette, newly equipped with a pole and two horse evener. It took a good solid year of work and about $1,000 in new equipment to reach this goal, but I feel it has been worth it all.

How good they look, don't they? Don is at the reins here, and I'm the photographer.

Thank you Don and Sammy, thanks also to my mentor Barbara Lowes, who contracted for the original carriage to be built and made the pole assembly for the team. Thanks to Rob Wall, my partner and supporter through all these years. Friendship Carriage tours is 15 this year, and we have grown up!