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Horse riders' views mixed on parade rule
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| By: THERESE APEL, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
November 09, 2009 |
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After a rule that came down from the Christmas Parade committee banning horses and all-terrain vehicles, the local equine community has mixed views on the subject.
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Valerie Oglesby, who is very involved in 4-H with her children, said she has never allowed her children to ride in the parade for safety reasons.
"From a safety standpoint, I just don't want them to," she said. "I know a lot of people who trail ride and things, and enjoy getting together and doing that, and it's a fellowship that they have to ride together in the parade, but we don't do that."
It goes beyond just the safety of the riders, Oglesby said.
"When a child or adult is on a horse, they have to concentrate, because even the best trained horses can get spooked," she said. "If people in the community aren't used to being around the horses, if they spook an animal someone's going to get hurt, and we're not willing to take that chance with kids or horses that we ride."
Meanwhile, Vicki Kinsey, of Kinsey's Quarter Horses, said she rode in the parade every year until two years ago, and then quit because it was cold. It wasn't anything to do with worrying about her own safety, she said. Yet she stipulated that care needs to be taken with horses and other animals around the crowds.
"I don't think it's a good rule," she said. "It should be up to an individual to make that decision or not. There are a lot of kids that shouldn't be riding, or people on dangerous horses, but if a person is old enough and experienced enough, they should be allowed."
Most of the danger that comes from the horses and their riders each year comes from a lack of experience, whether it be the horse's or the rider's, Kinsey said.
"So many of the people that ride are not horsemen and are not riding safe, dependable horses," she said. "Actually I think that might be somewhat of a hazard."
Kinsey said there should be some standards on who is allowed to ride in the parade, so that horses can still be a traditional part of the event, but danger is less of an issue.
"I don't think it's right for them to not allow them, maybe you should have some kind of rules as to an age limit or something," she said. "I just think that if anybody's old enough and wise enough and can ride good enough, they should be able to."
Patricia King Jordan said in a letter to the editor in today's paper that if the Budweiser Clydesdales were allowed on the streets, it would seem that normal-sized horses wouldn't pose a problem.
"... No one complained last year when the Budweiser Clydesdales came to town (except those who had a negative association to the horses because of the company) and those horses are three times as big as the horses usually seen at the end of the parade," she wrote.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Cliff Brumfield said the Parade Committee sees the danger coming in that the crowds are milling around more than usual when the horses go by.
"Horses come through signaling the end of the event, and people begin to leave. Some riders are less experienced than others, and we've had some near tragedies where horses were scared by crowd, and there were riders that almost lost control of their animals," he said. "As much of a tradition as it's been, safety trumps nostalgia."
Still, Brumfield said, the choice to rule animals out of the parade is not one that was easily made.
"This decision was not made lightly, and we'd rather handle it appropriately than have a child stepped on or kicked by an animal," he said.
Jordan said tradition is just as important as any other part of the parade.
"Don't let the Christmas Parade become a fad of modern times and what very few people want it to be like because it is cool, fancy or like their hometown parades were like," she wrote. "This is Brookhaven, Mississippi, a Southern city in a Southern state and country, set in Southern tradition is what we are!"
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©The Daily Leader 2010
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