Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone and welcome to Living in Leclair. This is a
periodic segment of knowledge is power, made possible through the
generosity of Rob Kine and City's Insurance Group. I'm Wayne
Wally and I'm currently the president of the Leclair Tours
and Board and your host of Living in Leclair, where
I like to talk about things that are going on
in Leclair. So here we are getting into the holiday season.
(00:20):
We've got Thanksgiving coming up, followed by Black Friday and
Small Business Saturday. The following weekend is the annual Christmas
and Leclair Celebration with shopping and special events going on
downtown with strolling Santas and Moore on Friday December sixth,
Saturday December seventh, and Sunday December the eighth. So be
sure and think about checking out downtown. There are a
(00:41):
lot of things to look for, things you can find.
I mean, let's just take a quick tour of what's downtown.
You've got the Leclair Olive Oil Company with a variety
of olive oils, dep mixes and more that you can
check out. On the south side of town. As you
come up the street, you're going to run into Emily
found It. You also have Happy Joe's. Well, remember they've
had a great buffet on weekdays and it's always great
(01:02):
for pizza, pasta and more and ice cream. Then you
also have One twenty nine, which is a place where
you can enjoy cocktails again on that river side of
the road. And as we keep going up, you're going
to end up at Bella, a great gift store running
downtown Leclair, Bamboo Baby, and also now Ember on the hill.
(01:24):
Also then as you keep going up north, you're going
to run into Decades, a great antique store, and also
the Mississippi Cottage another great antique store, especially if you're
looking for wonderful antique furniture and great again gift ideas.
Coming back down, don't forget you got Lahara Dura for
Mexican food. Also Los Amigos was on the other side
(01:46):
of town, so there are plenty of places or at
least two to enjoy Mexican food during the holidays if
that's what you're looking for. As you come back down,
you're going to run into Kitchen Sink, another antique store, Dwellings.
It has great home decor that you need to check out.
You also have Grasshoppers gatherings. We have the Potter's House
with Polish pottery. You've got Heaven and Earth that has
(02:07):
plenty of different jewelry, gemstones and all sorts of things
to check out. Then there's Cody Road Coffee and the
Cody Road Trading Post with interesting things. There's the Wide
Ripper Winery that's fantastic. Don't forget the Green Tree Brewery
as well. These are places again where you can find
all sorts of great items, gifts, gift cards, whatever. And
don't forget there's an Hattie's Fan Sulamporium and also you've
(02:30):
got Shelley's Sweet Sensations now also downtown where you can
get pies, you can get cakes, you can get baked goods,
and also sandwiches and soups for lunch and for breakfast.
So be sure and check all these out. There's lots
of things in downtown Leclair that you can enjoy. And
also remember Small Business Saturday is a great way and
a great day to support your small businesses in downtown
(02:53):
Leclair Black Friday. The businesses will be open also again
as we come into as we've talked about just briefly here,
Christmas and Leclaire coming up on December sixth, December seventh,
and December eighth. Now there will be a craft show,
there will be a silent auction, there will be a
variety of things going on at the Civic Center, so
be sure and check that out. And also this year,
(03:16):
what we're doing is we're bringing back the carriage rides. Now,
many of you that have lived in Leclaire for a
while can remember that there were carriage rides that would
start at the Civic Center and give you a quick
run around circle and it was all part of the
Christmas and Leclaire celebration. Now the company that used to
do the carriage rides no longer does them. With COVID,
it seems that the carriage rides tradition we lost it.
(03:39):
Then we haven't found anything to replace it until now.
And so thanks to Ann Hatties, who is sponsoring it,
we'll be having TDR carriages down on the levee doing
carriage rides on Sunday, December eighth, from noon to three.
Now the carriage only holds four people at a time.
We're going to do a short route that'll take you
around the Freedom Rock, up to the museum and back.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Short carriage ride. But what a.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Beautiful thing to do for Christmas. There'll be great photo
opportunities with the horses and the carriage, and plus you
get to take a nice little ride right along the
Mississippi River, so be sure to check that out again.
Carriage rides are free. It's going to be courtesy of
Ann Hattie's fncl Imporium, who is sponsoring it. Today we're
speaking with Jim and Cindy Mildrim. They're the owners of
TDR Carriages who are going to be coming to Christmas
(04:25):
and Leclair this year to offer carriage rides on Sunday,
December the eighth from twelve to three pm. And this
is also sponsored by Ann Hattie's. So come on out
and get a little carriage ride and have your pictures
taken in all that. And Cindy, Jim, thanks for joining us.
Tell us a little bit about TDR Carriages and how
(04:45):
you got involved in doing these sorts of rides for people.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, I've had horses since I was twelve, and I
have shown them break and train. We had our own
breeding stallion for a while, and Jim has always wanted
to get into driving horses. So eventually, little by little
we kind of advanced from having a pony for driving
all the way up to the big boys that we
have four perturns now that each weigh two thousand pounds
(05:14):
each and eat a lot, and they are known as
the gentle Giants of the horse world. And they truly
are just sweet animals to be around and very docile
and easy to work with.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Now, how long have you been doing this? Then?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We've been doing the carriage rides publicly for about a year, okay,
But previous to that we just went to shows and
did trail riding with them.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And it looks like now you're offering all carriage in
wagon rides and it's for private parties, corporate functions. You
got special events, weddings, birthday parties, whatever somebody would want
to do.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know, how do you figure this out? How do
you set that up?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, we had to get insurance and see if we
could even afford to do it in the first place
with the insurance costs, and then little by little piecing
it together, getting the horses, getting the right wagons that
were a fit for us and for what we wanted
to do, and just going to horse and tax sales
(06:17):
to pick up our equipment that we need and getting
the word out through folks like you and through Facebook,
trying to get more business and take care of people.
You know, it's a novelty. Yes, not everybody has access
to these big horses or the wagons and everything, and
we're just trying to bring a little bit of the
(06:38):
nostalgic Christmas and events back into the forefront exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean Christmas and mclaire used to have carriage rides.
I don't know when exactly the last year it was
that happened, but it's at least five years ago. So
bringing it back this year was something that Don and
I with Anne Hattie's, we really wanted to do and
make us something special for Christmas and Leclair again, and
so we really appreciate the opportunity of having TDR Carriages
(07:05):
to do this for us. Tell us a little about
the carriage you have and the horses that will be
coming de Leclair.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, our first team that we bought, we've had them
for just a little over a year and they are
six and seven year old full brother Pertron Geldings Black
and their names were a different name when we bought them,
and they were kind of boring so Jim came up
with the idea to call him Black and Decker, and
(07:33):
we've gotten a lot of very positive feedback from that
that they think that's really catchy and it's kind of.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Neat that they you know, something they can remember.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
We had a little bit of a scare with one
of the horses that got sick and could have died
from it, and we thought we already have a lot
of things booked and if he did die, we'd have to.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Cancel all of our events.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So we got the wild Hair, thinking, well, we just
need some more horses. So we went up to northwest
North Dakota in the first of September and.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Came back home with Mike and Monty.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Who are half brothers, and they are seven and eight
year old black Pertrons. Wow, so we have the four
big black Pertrons and then we have four quarter horses.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Very interesting, I mean, I again sort of this idea. Well, Jim,
you talked about the horses that you're brought back from
North Dakota and that was kind of an interesting deal
to get them and.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Bring them down. How are you enjoying.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Driving these horses? Cindy just said this was something you
kind of wanted to do and try. How different is
this from anything you've done before?
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Well, it's pretty exciting. I've had horses on and off
for many, many years, and I thought that I was
pretty smart until I met Miss Cindy. I knew absolutely
nothing about ones. And when we got into the carriages
and started to drive them, I thought, perhaps this is
an opportunity for me to be able to take, rebuild, restore,
(09:13):
and work on carriages. And my forte on that was
old slaves of the late eighteen hundreds, and the wagons
would be the wooden wagon wheel late eighteen hundreds and
try to do something with that. And in doing the
restoring on this, we've had this whole adventure of the
way life was back in the eighteen hundreds early nineteen
(09:35):
hundreds and the way people really traveled across the country
and how did they actually do that. The wagons that
we have out here for our events are of course
modern wagons, and they have hydraulic brakes and they're maintained
very well. The white carriage we have only carries probably
four people, and we kind of rebuilt and restored it
a little bit and worked on the brakes and a
(09:58):
comment was made earlier about you have breaks, but in
reality we don't use them very often. I don't like
to unless we have to. But the idea to drive
them is really great. You know, it's a lot of fun.
It's learning curve of like anything else, learn your horses
and then the horses learn from us. And I'm going
(10:18):
to say my best teacher so far has been the horses.
It's another situation. It's like anybody who owns animals. If
you listen to the animal, you'll really learn a lot.
And so driving them. Probably the main unknown that we
have when we drive them in large events are people.
People have not been around horses like they were sixty
(10:41):
seventy eighty years ago. They forget about proper etiquette that
you don't scream, you don't run up to the horse,
you don't open up umbrellas in front of them. So
we have a little learning curve, and we have outwalkers
normally at our parades to make sure that we let
people know that, Okay, if you want to pit them,
(11:01):
you come up to Miss Cindy and I and ask permission.
We'll do that with you, but please step back. Parades
where they throw candy is always a big issue where
sometimes the parents forget to tell their children not to
get too close to the hoofs of the horses. The
hoods on these percherons are about the size of a
(11:21):
dinner plate, and all the horse has to do is
if he steps to get rid of a fly, and
if you're going his way, you might get stepped on.
So it's a full time event and we take it
pretty serious. But the main thing is to watch people
have a good time, and particularly to watch the children
and their eyes light up and a lot of them
have never seen anything this big, this up close.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, very very true.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I mean for Christmas and the Claire, we'll have the
Christmas carriage that you now have, but you have other
types of vehicles. Jimmy talked about a wagon. Cindy also,
what's the difference with the wagons and what can you
do with those?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Another wagon that we have holds twelve to fourteen adults comfortably.
It's just like glorified hay rack, and we have an
ability to take a put hoops on it and put
a canvas on it like for the old covered wagon.
We had an event down in another town where we
celebrated whiter and we had it all decked out with
(12:22):
the old Western ropes and lanterns, and we had country
music playing and everybody thought that was pretty cool. We've
had church groups higher us and then we'll have Christian
music playing when we take the church group out. So
depending on the group or the event, we try to
dress the period ourselves, learn something about the people in
the period, and then typically Cindy will narronate narrate different
(12:47):
things about the town that we're in, the parade that
we're in and what it represents, and a lot of
people really get a big kick out of that.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's a fun thing that you have a background of
history either of you that got you in to this
where you wanted to do things particular to that time period.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Not really were just with the horses in our lives
all the time. It's it was just something another route
that we could take with them, not just going to
shows all the time or trail rides, that we could
actually provide something for the public to get to know
a horse a little bit better. It's just to go
around in a circle with the horse, with the wagon
(13:27):
and everything.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
It's a great adventure.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's just I think that for me, I like to
at least give some a little bit of history of
Leclair or Monmouth or wherever we're at, to give them
an idea of what this might have been like if
you were traveling across the country a year or one
hundred and fifty years ago, how would you like this?
You know, all your equipment and everything, your food and
(13:52):
water had to be carried, and they didn't have rubber
wheels back then, so you really felt every little bump
and bounce along.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The way, that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
The other thing, when you were showing us one of
the wagons, you talked about trying to be very authentic,
and that you learned that there's all different things. There's collectibles,
antiques and all that. What if you figured out.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
We figured out that my miss Cindy was probably born
one hundred and fifty years too late. She should have
been born back in the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties.
It's like any other endeavor that you get into, whether
it be antique cars or old slaves or old carriages,
as you have the people that will go for the
authenticity of getting it right down to the nitty gritty
(14:40):
and taking points off. If you go to a show
because it's not exactly accurate. We're not that. We'd like
to get something close to something that looks good, something
that's functional, and something that is safe. Many of the
very older things that we look at, they would not
be safe for us to have on the wagon or
around the wagon, but to try to have the old
(15:02):
antiques on it. We carried a replica John Wayne thirty
thirty lever action rifle the other day and we had
some people question as to whether it was a real
weapon or not, and no, we do not carry real
weapons with us. Everything is going to be a replica.
Let put people's minds at ease on that. But it's
(15:22):
it's been a really good time. We've not getting into
the cooking of the old time. A lot of insurances
to go on with our Chuck Wagon, but we do
lease this out if somebody wants to rent the Chuck
Wagon and have their own chef for their own prepared
food and serve off the back. And then we also
give wagon rides as that's going simultaneously.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh wow, very very very interesting. Yeah, it's yeah. TDR Carriages.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You're based out in Alito, Illinois, and obviously you're coming
to Leclair for Christmas and Leclair over in Iowa. It's
about I don't know, thirty thirty five to fifty miles away,
but what's the take? How far do you travel to
do these sorts of events.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
We'd look at each individual event and try to come
up with what our costs and our expenses are for
us to mobilize out to an event. We're bringing two
one ton trucks and two trailers, so once we get
on the road, we try to stay within probably one
hundred one hundred and fifty miles. That seems to be
(16:28):
okay for us to travel time wise, to get to
an event, take care of our clients, and then return
home that evening. However, if somebody has a specific event,
we can sit down and talk with them and hash
out the details.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
With that.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
We've done a funeral and very stressful, but it turned
out very, very very well, so we kind of look
at each one and see where we are. We started
this off with saying a tank of gas out and
background trip was basically what we would like to do,
and that so far has worked out pretty well within
the time frame that we have and the costs that
(17:06):
it would take for us. Any time you go over
that then the cost increases just for the diesel fuel.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Now you have the two of you that are doing this,
I assume you have other people that help you with us.
Then if you're taking that much equipment and everything and
when you travel, how many people does it take to
do one of these events?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Again, this is going to be event specific. We will
be doing a couple events for some large parades in
the Quad City area where we'll have a minimum of
two outwalkers with us, just because of the number of
people around us. As a number of participants increase, a
number of outwalkers, we also increase. If we have a
(17:42):
private party someplace on a farm, typically we don't have
any outwalkers. If we're just going down a gravel road
or out through the pasture, none would be required. Safety's
paramount number one thing. We just s don't want anybody
to get hurt.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
YEA, What types of safety precautions do you take? What
do people need to know if they if they want
to take one of these carriage rides, what do they
need to be prepared for?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Well, we just like everybody to be respectful of the
space and the size of the horses that they take.
You know, don't run up to the horses and kicking
and screaming, don't open up umbrellas in front of them,
things like that.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Horses are very reactive.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And they are prey animals, so they are gonna their
first thing is to run to get away from whatever
they think is going to eat them, whether it's a
fire breathing dragon or the umbrella.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So we try to be proactive and look for things
that we think.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Are going to be an issue, whether that's traffic or
some crazy sign that's flipping in the wind or something
like that, so that our sidewalkers are aware of those
things and can act react immediately to get a hold
of the horses if they need to, or to shoot
somebody away that's getting too close to the animals when
(19:03):
we're coming through.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
So we do a.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Lot of things at home to desensitize the animals before
we even put a halter on them and do anything
with them. We have plastic bags tied to our fences
because that seems to be a scary thing for a
lot of horses.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Is that moving plastic bag.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I didn't realize that interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We call those Midwest tumbleweeds, and they are scary for
them for some reason. We have bells and caution tape
and all sorts of things that flap in the wind
and make noise, make different movements.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
And everything like that.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
When we're out there working with them, we have a
radio turned on and we have you know, pretty loud
music playing just to get them used to that. There's
going to be noises and different tones coming out.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Going through a parade.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
You know, you have the band playing, and you got
somebody playing the drums, and you know, so there's just
different things that we try to prevent from ever becoming
an issue.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, very good.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Well, you know, everybody in Leclair, whoever's listening, you know,
this is a chance to come and have a carriage
ride in downtown l Player again. It's Sunday, December the eighth,
twelve to three pm. Come on down and meet meet Cindy,
meet Jim. Meet the horses, you know, Black and Decker
or whichever pair you bring.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Should be an interesting time and I hope people will
come down.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And as Cindy said, you need to be respectful of
the horses and safety is coming first. But we'll enjoy
having you in Leclair on Sunday, December the eighth, and
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Thank you, we look forward to it.
Everyone and welcome to Living in Leclair. This is a
periodic segment of knowledge is power, made possible through the
generosity of Rob Kine and City's Insurance Group. I'm Wayne
Wally and I'm currently the president of the Leclair Tours
and Board and your host of Living in Leclair, where
I like to talk about things that are going on
in Leclair. So here we are getting into the holiday season.
(00:20):
We've got Thanksgiving coming up, followed by Black Friday and
Small Business Saturday. The following weekend is the annual Christmas
and Leclair Celebration with shopping and special events going on
downtown with strolling Santas and Moore on Friday December sixth,
Saturday December seventh, and Sunday December the eighth. So be
sure and think about checking out downtown. There are a
(00:41):
lot of things to look for, things you can find.
I mean, let's just take a quick tour of what's downtown.
You've got the Leclair Olive Oil Company with a variety
of olive oils, dep mixes and more that you can
check out. On the south side of town. As you
come up the street, you're going to run into Emily
found It. You also have Happy Joe's. Well, remember they've
had a great buffet on weekdays and it's always great
(01:02):
for pizza, pasta and more and ice cream. Then you
also have One twenty nine, which is a place where
you can enjoy cocktails again on that river side of
the road. And as we keep going up, you're going
to end up at Bella, a great gift store running
downtown Leclair, Bamboo Baby, and also now Ember on the hill.
(01:24):
Also then as you keep going up north, you're going
to run into Decades, a great antique store, and also
the Mississippi Cottage another great antique store, especially if you're
looking for wonderful antique furniture and great again gift ideas.
Coming back down, don't forget you got Lahara Dura for
Mexican food. Also Los Amigos was on the other side
(01:46):
of town, so there are plenty of places or at
least two to enjoy Mexican food during the holidays if
that's what you're looking for. As you come back down,
you're going to run into Kitchen Sink, another antique store, Dwellings.
It has great home decor that you need to check out.
You also have Grasshoppers gatherings. We have the Potter's House
with Polish pottery. You've got Heaven and Earth that has
(02:07):
plenty of different jewelry, gemstones and all sorts of things
to check out. Then there's Cody Road Coffee and the
Cody Road Trading Post with interesting things. There's the Wide
Ripper Winery that's fantastic. Don't forget the Green Tree Brewery
as well. These are places again where you can find
all sorts of great items, gifts, gift cards, whatever. And
don't forget there's an Hattie's Fan Sulamporium and also you've
(02:30):
got Shelley's Sweet Sensations now also downtown where you can
get pies, you can get cakes, you can get baked goods,
and also sandwiches and soups for lunch and for breakfast.
So be sure and check all these out. There's lots
of things in downtown Leclair that you can enjoy. And
also remember Small Business Saturday is a great way and
a great day to support your small businesses in downtown
(02:53):
Leclair Black Friday. The businesses will be open also again
as we come into as we've talked about just briefly here,
Christmas and Leclaire coming up on December sixth, December seventh,
and December eighth. Now there will be a craft show,
there will be a silent auction, there will be a
variety of things going on at the Civic Center, so
be sure and check that out. And also this year,
(03:16):
what we're doing is we're bringing back the carriage rides. Now,
many of you that have lived in Leclaire for a
while can remember that there were carriage rides that would
start at the Civic Center and give you a quick
run around circle and it was all part of the
Christmas and Leclaire celebration. Now the company that used to
do the carriage rides no longer does them. With COVID,
it seems that the carriage rides tradition we lost it.
(03:39):
Then we haven't found anything to replace it until now.
And so thanks to Ann Hatties, who is sponsoring it,
we'll be having TDR carriages down on the levee doing
carriage rides on Sunday, December eighth, from noon to three.
Now the carriage only holds four people at a time.
We're going to do a short route that'll take you
around the Freedom Rock, up to the museum and back.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Short carriage ride. But what a.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Beautiful thing to do for Christmas. There'll be great photo
opportunities with the horses and the carriage, and plus you
get to take a nice little ride right along the
Mississippi River, so be sure to check that out again.
Carriage rides are free. It's going to be courtesy of
Ann Hattie's fncl Imporium, who is sponsoring it. Today we're
speaking with Jim and Cindy Mildrim. They're the owners of
TDR Carriages who are going to be coming to Christmas
(04:25):
and Leclair this year to offer carriage rides on Sunday,
December the eighth from twelve to three pm. And this
is also sponsored by Ann Hattie's. So come on out
and get a little carriage ride and have your pictures
taken in all that. And Cindy, Jim, thanks for joining us.
Tell us a little bit about TDR Carriages and how
(04:45):
you got involved in doing these sorts of rides for people.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, I've had horses since I was twelve, and I
have shown them break and train. We had our own
breeding stallion for a while, and Jim has always wanted
to get into driving horses. So eventually, little by little
we kind of advanced from having a pony for driving
all the way up to the big boys that we
have four perturns now that each weigh two thousand pounds
(05:14):
each and eat a lot, and they are known as
the gentle Giants of the horse world. And they truly
are just sweet animals to be around and very docile
and easy to work with.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Now, how long have you been doing this? Then?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We've been doing the carriage rides publicly for about a year, okay,
But previous to that we just went to shows and
did trail riding with them.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And it looks like now you're offering all carriage in
wagon rides and it's for private parties, corporate functions. You
got special events, weddings, birthday parties, whatever somebody would want
to do.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know, how do you figure this out? How do
you set that up?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, we had to get insurance and see if we
could even afford to do it in the first place
with the insurance costs, and then little by little piecing
it together, getting the horses, getting the right wagons that
were a fit for us and for what we wanted
to do, and just going to horse and tax sales
(06:17):
to pick up our equipment that we need and getting
the word out through folks like you and through Facebook,
trying to get more business and take care of people.
You know, it's a novelty. Yes, not everybody has access
to these big horses or the wagons and everything, and
we're just trying to bring a little bit of the
(06:38):
nostalgic Christmas and events back into the forefront exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean Christmas and mclaire used to have carriage rides.
I don't know when exactly the last year it was
that happened, but it's at least five years ago. So
bringing it back this year was something that Don and
I with Anne Hattie's, we really wanted to do and
make us something special for Christmas and Leclair again, and
so we really appreciate the opportunity of having TDR Carriages
(07:05):
to do this for us. Tell us a little about
the carriage you have and the horses that will be
coming de Leclair.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, our first team that we bought, we've had them
for just a little over a year and they are
six and seven year old full brother Pertron Geldings Black
and their names were a different name when we bought them,
and they were kind of boring so Jim came up
with the idea to call him Black and Decker, and
(07:33):
we've gotten a lot of very positive feedback from that
that they think that's really catchy and it's kind of.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Neat that they you know, something they can remember.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
We had a little bit of a scare with one
of the horses that got sick and could have died
from it, and we thought we already have a lot
of things booked and if he did die, we'd have to.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Cancel all of our events.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So we got the wild Hair, thinking, well, we just
need some more horses. So we went up to northwest
North Dakota in the first of September and.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Came back home with Mike and Monty.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Who are half brothers, and they are seven and eight
year old black Pertrons. Wow, so we have the four
big black Pertrons and then we have four quarter horses.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Very interesting, I mean, I again sort of this idea. Well, Jim,
you talked about the horses that you're brought back from
North Dakota and that was kind of an interesting deal
to get them and.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Bring them down. How are you enjoying.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Driving these horses? Cindy just said this was something you
kind of wanted to do and try. How different is
this from anything you've done before?
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Well, it's pretty exciting. I've had horses on and off
for many, many years, and I thought that I was
pretty smart until I met Miss Cindy. I knew absolutely
nothing about ones. And when we got into the carriages
and started to drive them, I thought, perhaps this is
an opportunity for me to be able to take, rebuild, restore,
(09:13):
and work on carriages. And my forte on that was
old slaves of the late eighteen hundreds, and the wagons
would be the wooden wagon wheel late eighteen hundreds and
try to do something with that. And in doing the
restoring on this, we've had this whole adventure of the
way life was back in the eighteen hundreds early nineteen
(09:35):
hundreds and the way people really traveled across the country
and how did they actually do that. The wagons that
we have out here for our events are of course
modern wagons, and they have hydraulic brakes and they're maintained
very well. The white carriage we have only carries probably
four people, and we kind of rebuilt and restored it
a little bit and worked on the brakes and a
(09:58):
comment was made earlier about you have breaks, but in
reality we don't use them very often. I don't like
to unless we have to. But the idea to drive
them is really great. You know, it's a lot of fun.
It's learning curve of like anything else, learn your horses
and then the horses learn from us. And I'm going
(10:18):
to say my best teacher so far has been the horses.
It's another situation. It's like anybody who owns animals. If
you listen to the animal, you'll really learn a lot.
And so driving them. Probably the main unknown that we
have when we drive them in large events are people.
People have not been around horses like they were sixty
(10:41):
seventy eighty years ago. They forget about proper etiquette that
you don't scream, you don't run up to the horse,
you don't open up umbrellas in front of them. So
we have a little learning curve, and we have outwalkers
normally at our parades to make sure that we let
people know that, Okay, if you want to pit them,
(11:01):
you come up to Miss Cindy and I and ask permission.
We'll do that with you, but please step back. Parades
where they throw candy is always a big issue where
sometimes the parents forget to tell their children not to
get too close to the hoofs of the horses. The
hoods on these percherons are about the size of a
(11:21):
dinner plate, and all the horse has to do is
if he steps to get rid of a fly, and
if you're going his way, you might get stepped on.
So it's a full time event and we take it
pretty serious. But the main thing is to watch people
have a good time, and particularly to watch the children
and their eyes light up and a lot of them
have never seen anything this big, this up close.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, very very true.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I mean for Christmas and the Claire, we'll have the
Christmas carriage that you now have, but you have other
types of vehicles. Jimmy talked about a wagon. Cindy also,
what's the difference with the wagons and what can you
do with those?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Another wagon that we have holds twelve to fourteen adults comfortably.
It's just like glorified hay rack, and we have an
ability to take a put hoops on it and put
a canvas on it like for the old covered wagon.
We had an event down in another town where we
celebrated whiter and we had it all decked out with
(12:22):
the old Western ropes and lanterns, and we had country
music playing and everybody thought that was pretty cool. We've
had church groups higher us and then we'll have Christian
music playing when we take the church group out. So
depending on the group or the event, we try to
dress the period ourselves, learn something about the people in
the period, and then typically Cindy will narronate narrate different
(12:47):
things about the town that we're in, the parade that
we're in and what it represents, and a lot of
people really get a big kick out of that.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's a fun thing that you have a background of
history either of you that got you in to this
where you wanted to do things particular to that time period.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Not really were just with the horses in our lives
all the time. It's it was just something another route
that we could take with them, not just going to
shows all the time or trail rides, that we could
actually provide something for the public to get to know
a horse a little bit better. It's just to go
around in a circle with the horse, with the wagon
(13:27):
and everything.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
It's a great adventure.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's just I think that for me, I like to
at least give some a little bit of history of
Leclair or Monmouth or wherever we're at, to give them
an idea of what this might have been like if
you were traveling across the country a year or one
hundred and fifty years ago, how would you like this?
You know, all your equipment and everything, your food and
(13:52):
water had to be carried, and they didn't have rubber
wheels back then, so you really felt every little bump
and bounce along.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
The way, that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
The other thing, when you were showing us one of
the wagons, you talked about trying to be very authentic,
and that you learned that there's all different things. There's collectibles,
antiques and all that. What if you figured out.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
We figured out that my miss Cindy was probably born
one hundred and fifty years too late. She should have
been born back in the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties.
It's like any other endeavor that you get into, whether
it be antique cars or old slaves or old carriages,
as you have the people that will go for the
authenticity of getting it right down to the nitty gritty
(14:40):
and taking points off. If you go to a show
because it's not exactly accurate. We're not that. We'd like
to get something close to something that looks good, something
that's functional, and something that is safe. Many of the
very older things that we look at, they would not
be safe for us to have on the wagon or
around the wagon, but to try to have the old
(15:02):
antiques on it. We carried a replica John Wayne thirty
thirty lever action rifle the other day and we had
some people question as to whether it was a real
weapon or not, and no, we do not carry real
weapons with us. Everything is going to be a replica.
Let put people's minds at ease on that. But it's
(15:22):
it's been a really good time. We've not getting into
the cooking of the old time. A lot of insurances
to go on with our Chuck Wagon, but we do
lease this out if somebody wants to rent the Chuck
Wagon and have their own chef for their own prepared
food and serve off the back. And then we also
give wagon rides as that's going simultaneously.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh wow, very very very interesting. Yeah, it's yeah. TDR Carriages.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
You're based out in Alito, Illinois, and obviously you're coming
to Leclair for Christmas and Leclair over in Iowa. It's
about I don't know, thirty thirty five to fifty miles away,
but what's the take? How far do you travel to
do these sorts of events.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
We'd look at each individual event and try to come
up with what our costs and our expenses are for
us to mobilize out to an event. We're bringing two
one ton trucks and two trailers, so once we get
on the road, we try to stay within probably one
hundred one hundred and fifty miles. That seems to be
(16:28):
okay for us to travel time wise, to get to
an event, take care of our clients, and then return
home that evening. However, if somebody has a specific event,
we can sit down and talk with them and hash
out the details.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
With that.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
We've done a funeral and very stressful, but it turned
out very, very very well, so we kind of look
at each one and see where we are. We started
this off with saying a tank of gas out and
background trip was basically what we would like to do,
and that so far has worked out pretty well within
the time frame that we have and the costs that
(17:06):
it would take for us. Any time you go over
that then the cost increases just for the diesel fuel.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Now you have the two of you that are doing this,
I assume you have other people that help you with us.
Then if you're taking that much equipment and everything and
when you travel, how many people does it take to
do one of these events?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Again, this is going to be event specific. We will
be doing a couple events for some large parades in
the Quad City area where we'll have a minimum of
two outwalkers with us, just because of the number of
people around us. As a number of participants increase, a
number of outwalkers, we also increase. If we have a
(17:42):
private party someplace on a farm, typically we don't have
any outwalkers. If we're just going down a gravel road
or out through the pasture, none would be required. Safety's
paramount number one thing. We just s don't want anybody
to get hurt.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
YEA, What types of safety precautions do you take? What
do people need to know if they if they want
to take one of these carriage rides, what do they
need to be prepared for?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Well, we just like everybody to be respectful of the
space and the size of the horses that they take.
You know, don't run up to the horses and kicking
and screaming, don't open up umbrellas in front of them,
things like that.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Horses are very reactive.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And they are prey animals, so they are gonna their
first thing is to run to get away from whatever
they think is going to eat them, whether it's a
fire breathing dragon or the umbrella.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So we try to be proactive and look for things
that we think.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Are going to be an issue, whether that's traffic or
some crazy sign that's flipping in the wind or something
like that, so that our sidewalkers are aware of those
things and can act react immediately to get a hold
of the horses if they need to, or to shoot
somebody away that's getting too close to the animals when
(19:03):
we're coming through.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
So we do a.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Lot of things at home to desensitize the animals before
we even put a halter on them and do anything
with them. We have plastic bags tied to our fences
because that seems to be a scary thing for a
lot of horses.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Is that moving plastic bag.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I didn't realize that interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We call those Midwest tumbleweeds, and they are scary for
them for some reason. We have bells and caution tape
and all sorts of things that flap in the wind
and make noise, make different movements.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
And everything like that.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
When we're out there working with them, we have a
radio turned on and we have you know, pretty loud
music playing just to get them used to that. There's
going to be noises and different tones coming out.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Going through a parade.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
You know, you have the band playing, and you got
somebody playing the drums, and you know, so there's just
different things that we try to prevent from ever becoming
an issue.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, very good.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Well, you know, everybody in Leclair, whoever's listening, you know,
this is a chance to come and have a carriage
ride in downtown l Player again. It's Sunday, December the eighth,
twelve to three pm. Come on down and meet meet Cindy,
meet Jim. Meet the horses, you know, Black and Decker
or whichever pair you bring.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Should be an interesting time and I hope people will
come down.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And as Cindy said, you need to be respectful of
the horses and safety is coming first. But we'll enjoy
having you in Leclair on Sunday, December the eighth, and
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Thank you, we look forward to it.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.