Sleigh Bells Ring...where snow is glistening at Thornapple Farm

Pat and Cathy Palmer, owners of Thornapple Farm in New Haven, Vt., didn't exactly plan to get into the business of providing old-fashioned sleigh rides in Vermont. When the couple purchased a high-maintenance draft horse in the late 1970s, they needed a way to keep the newly acquired critter in hay—thus was born Thornapple Farm Horse Drawn Services which includes everything from winter sleigh rides to one of America's few horse-drawn garbage and recycling curbside service. Thornapple Farm is a 55-acre farm a few miles north of Middlebury. The Palmers' spread is located on a gravel road in New Haven where they have provided intimate setting for visitors who enjoy horses and the rural Vermont landscape. "We love to share our experience with—and affection for—the horses we raise, train and work," Pat Palmer says. According to Pat, he and his wife Cathy have either farming or horses in their family blood streams. "Cathy grew up with horses of many types and learned to ride and drive as a youngster.," Pat notes. "Her father was a popular farrier with a superior eye for good horses and taught her how to step back and evaluate each of the horses she fell in love with, which was pretty much all of them." Pat likes to say that he "married into horses"and at first was content to be "a cheerful observer." "For several years Cathy bought horses to school and resold them," Pay says. "Pat was an interested helper but it wasn't until the fall of 1979 when we acquired a two-year-old Belgian, along with two saddle horses that Pat got the bug—hard. Since then we have never been without draft horses," Cathy adds. As Pat tells it, "In Vermont nearly everyone with draft horses has Belgians, but we were fascinated by the beautiful dapple gray Percherons we saw at the Champlain Valley Fair and decided to purchase Percherons. It didn't take us long to realize that the horses were going to have to help pay for themselves if we were going to keep them. It seemed a natural to offer wagon rides as a way to help defray the expenses. Soon, we added old-fashioned sleigh rides along with carriage rides for weddings. At first the rides were confined to our farm, but as word of mouth spread we got requests to take the horses to different locales and events. Suddenly, we were in business. so, we started to seek out more creative, money-making ways to use the horses." "In early 1979, we learned that the nearby village of Bristol was looking to contract out their trash and recycling pick-up," Pat says. "I had read about a trash collection business in Oregon and Cathy had seen the old rags and bottles"man on the busy streets of Lawrence, Mass., when she was a child. So I thought, 'why not horse drawn pick-up in Bristol?' The town manager was receptive to the idea and we were awarded the contract over three conventional bidders." "Our original pair of Percherons, Luke and Zac, were probably the most photographed horses in Vermont once they started that route," Cathy adds. "They were on ABC-TV's Good Morning America, in the Boston Herald, the New York Times and the Draft Horse Journal—to name a few." Pat adds that, "Chief and Spud have taken over the route since Luke and Zac were retired and are equally as good. They both work single and double and are at home hauling heavy trash loads or pulling a fancy carriage." To say that horse-drawn rubbish collection is an unusual thing in 21st century America is an understatement. "Seeing the well-behaved horses on the streets of Bristol has lead to many requests for training horses from around the state," Pat says. "The horses use round, pen-training and all our horses go single and double and are backed. In order to receive adequate individual attention only two horses are in training at a time." The Palmers sleigh riding services began on the old Nash Farm in New Haven in 1980. From 2000 to 2008, the Palmers gave sleigh rides at the Cortina Inn in Killington. "The economy tanked in 2008 and that was pretty much that—it marked the end of a lot sleigh ride services," Pat says. But slowly, the tradition has come back now with the Cortina Inn once again providing sleigh rides on Saturdays from mid December through February. Next, the Palmers began riding at Shelburne Farms. "It's a very long day when we give sleigh rides at both Shelburne Farms and our farm," Pat says. "We have to transport the horses, stop and give them water, and then pack 'em up again and return. Heck, we used to get about 6 or 8 tour buses at our farm each year with 45 tourists per bus. We were very busy. We even had a big tour bus stuck in the snow here and we pulled it out with the draft horses, that was pretty neat." Pat says there are a few sleigh-born marriage proposal each winter. "A couple might come on board and the guy proposes to his fiancee, but it's usually set up that way," he adds. Are marriages more likely to succeed if they are proposed on an old fashioned horse-drawn sleigh? "While I have no data about a couple's success if they propose on my sleigh," Pat says while breaking into a grin. "I can say that a horse-drawn sleigh ride in Vermont can be very, very romantic." In addition to being an expert horseman, Pat is also an amateur astronomer. His special knowledge of the heavens makes a cold, clear night-time sleigh ride—while passengers wrapped in blankets—exceptionally fun and thought provoking. He likes to familiarize visitors with the planets, stars and winter constellations. "When I point out the stars in the sky, I always point to the star Sirius," Pat says. "I then tell my passengers that this bright star is one of the closest suns to Earth and that it's 8.6 light years away. I also like to mention that if that star exploded tonight, we wouldn't know about for another 8.6 years. I remember asking a little boy on the sled how far he thought a 'light year' was, it being a measure of stellar distances. He replied, 'Is it more than a mile?' (In fact, a ray of light travels 186,000 miles per second or 5.8 trillion miles or 9.4 trillion kilometers in one year). Most people—young or old—simply can't fathom the distances between the stars." Thornapple Farm's winter sleigh was built by Pat Palmer but the sleigh used by Palmer at Shelburne Farms remains on site. "I used pressure-treated sleigh for our farm sleigh," Pat says. "It started out as a flat-bottom thing with hay bales and it wasn't fancy. We know have a sleigh with seats that's a lot more photogenic." The Palmers provide heavy blankets on their sleigh rides but they still recommend wearing heavy winter clothes on the trail. 'The rides can be more than 30 minutes in length, so you can get cold out there if you're not wearing layers," he notes. "We can warm you back up when we serve hot chocolate at our farm. While thawing out, they can also enjoy some old music on the player piano, too." According to Pat, Thornapple Farm is still growing with new trail systems are being added with plans for more rotational grazing. "Two new two-year olds are in the barn waiting for their moment to shine," Pat notes. "They've already been entertaining the many tour bus groups, who come for rides, with their antics in the pasture. We invite you to come and share our respect for the working horse." Pat and Cathy continue their sleigh rides as long as there's snow on the ground, although the peak time for tourist rides is in the weeks leading up to Christmas, just when visitors want to experience an old-fashioned, Vermont "White Christmas" upclose and personal. Check It Out: Thornapple Farm, located at 1772 Hunt Rd., in New Haven, is one of the leading providers of horse-drawn services in Vermont. No matter where you are located, farm owners Pat and Cathy Palmer are able to travel to you and provide you an elegant and wonderful ride back in time. The Palmers offer carriage rides for weddings, sleigh rides in the winter, wagon and hay rides, and horse training. Call the Palmers by telephone at 802-388-6232 (home) or 802-377-0921 (mobile). You can also email them at:Thornapplefarm@comcast.net

Signup for our newsletter

Sleigh Bells Ring...where snow is glistening at Thornapple Farm

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS