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Sleigh Bells Ring: Sharing Memories of Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides

photo by Cookie Steponaitis Driven by owner Al Myers, one of the teams of Clay Country Farms moves off on one of their Saturday sleigh rides. Fun for the whole family.

Tuesday February 3, 2009

By Cookie Steponaitis

   For most of us, Sleigh Rides are images from Currier & Ives Prints and bring to memory songs we sang as children in Christmas Concerts. One horse sleighs, draft teams, and people caroling as they pass by are images from film and magazine. However, here in Vermont, where traditions are often as constant as the changes in the weather, sleigh rides are still a part of the scenery and prevalent in the minds of generations who grew up with them as a necessity and not a novelty.

   This Saturday morning, January 31st, dawned clear and bright, just days after two feet of new snow blanketed the valley. The students were dressed in long underwear and layers on top, waiting for the sleigh to appear around the barn. Suddenly, the sound of bells and hooves crunching the crust of new fallen snow gave notice to the arrival of the sleigh. Pulled by a matched team of Shire draft horses, the sled appeared and the journey began. This scene happened not in the past, but just this last weekend at Clay Country Farms on Satterly Road in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Owned and operated by Karen and Al Myers, the teams of draft horses are just part of the growing operations of the family and their plans for breeding, raising, showing and exposing the valley to this rare breed of draft. Joining the Myers for this sleigh ride were ten teachers and students from the VUHS history club who wanted to experience winter Vermont style and heard stories of sleigh rides past while they traveled the snow covered roads.

   Ferrisburgh resident Arland Steady recalled “used to go on sleigh rides when I was a kid. My uncle transported two or three of us back and forth between houses using a one horse open sleigh. I also took a sleigh to school every day when I went to the Quinlan School in Charlotte. My teacher, Susan Preston would pick up four of us on the way to school in the sleigh. It was a bit crowded, so I had to sit down there the feet went in the front. We were covered up with bear skin rugs. When we got the four miles or so to school, the older boys would ride the horse up the road to the Quinlan farm and put him in a stall. He would brush and feed him so he could rest and make the trip back at night. You see, horses then were transportation not a luxury. Even in the summer we would ride in the horse and buggy to Walter Ball’s sawmill in Charlotte for July 4th picnics down by the creek. There would be buggies all over the place on that day, sure enough...”

   Addison farmer and woodman Art Grant recollected about a different sleigh ride, in his youth in Chelsea, Vermont. “Just last year, when I went back to Chelsea I saw four or five people step outside of the church. Wait I called down. I might know you. Now, the younger folks took right off, but one old man stood and waited for me. As soon as I approached I knew he was Charlie Haywood and told him so. While he couldn’t place me right away, he remembered the sleigh ride I was talking about.  We started out from his place around 8:00 pm and came back that night about 11 or so. It was a double sled and he pulled it with a team of work horses. There must have been 12-15 of us raising our voices and having fun. The moon was full and beautiful that night. Icicles hung from the trees and reflected on the snow. The horses were shoed good and sharp and you heard each step of their feet. I told Charlie that I bet each of those boys who went that night still carried that memory with um as sharp as I did, because it was a night of fun.”

    Vergennes resident Irene Thomas shared a story of a Christmas Eve sleigh ride family tradition. “We had a team of horses and we always went up Pea Ridge Road, over past Early Bessette’s farm and back again. The family that lived next to us always came too. We were bundled up in robes. We all had scarves. Sometimes we trotted and other times we let the team pick its way. My dad drove the team and my brother Leonard would bring his guitar. We all sang, but really didn’t carry a tune. But, no body minded. We always had hot cocoa before we went on the trip, which was about five miles, and we piled on the blankets.”

    Another Addison resident Patricia Derrick remembered having a horse team and sleigh on the family farm when she was little. “We would ride and ride in the fields, she remembered. The horse was a Morgan and the fields went on for miles and so did we.”

    Not only a family tradition, sleigh rides for decades were closely linked to Vergennes Union High School. After discussing the topic with VUHS historian F. Ann Sullivan, it became apparent that sleigh rides were an annual event from the 1920’s-1930’s at Vergennes. “Back then,” she commented, “grades were not referred to as freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. They were called 9’s, 10’s, 11’s and 12’s. The old yearbooks, annuals and articles show annual destination rides where each grade would go out individually with horse drawn sleighs and make stops at peoples homes. There they would have hot chocolate, play Blind Man’s Bluff and sing songs or play other games. Some articles boasted of the classes ride was something to contend with and would challenge the other grades to beat them. The standard thing was to leave before dark and go about 1-2 miles outside of town. Sometimes it was for supper, sometimes a bonfire and even cider and donuts. The kids would be back in a couple of hours, because most had chores to do. And you have to remember that most families had sleighs and most had horses. Even when I was in school, the FFA would run fall autumn hay rides by moonlight. We could cuddle under the hay….”

   Trotting along the snow covered roads of Ferrisburgh, theses modern sleigh riders are all but one, first timers to the experience. Comments on the size of the horses’ feet; to the ease of the sleigh’s movements and comments of happiness and joy made the ride pass quickly. Stories of long ago rides warm the heart of all there, but the stories only heighten the experience of being on a sleigh, moving through roads and tree lined drives that have heard the echoes of these hooves over the past two hundred years.

   While times are hard and the economic trends force many of us to stay inside or stay at home, this reporter encourages you to visit the Myers Family on Satterly Road, or call them at (802) 877- 2820  to make an appointment to join one of their rides. As the old song goes, “Sleigh bells ring, are you listening. In the lane, snow is glistening, Beautiful sight, happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.” Take a ride and link yourself to yet another tradition and part of Vermont’s unique heritage.

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