Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

DAYTON–Visitors and locals attending Christmas Kickoff lined up to enjoy a horse- or mule-drawn wagon ride around the neighborhoods adjoining Main Street here last Friday, embarking from the Historic Dayton Depot for a short, enjoyable jaunt on a chilly but windless Kickoff Friday.

Teamster on the Darrell Hopson wagon was 14-year-old Cassidy Pruiett, of Anacortes, Wash., in town to visit her grandparents, Doug and Margie Krueger, who were driving the other of the two wagons giving Christmas Kickoff visitors clip-clopping scenic rides around town.

Hopson, of Walla Walla, brought his team of three Percheron-Friesian cross horses, Donald, Captain and Herschel, to help out with the demand for those wanting to experience the antiquarian mode of transportation.

Passengers lined up at the Depot, patiently waiting for their turn to take a wagon ride.

The wagons would load up a dozen or so passengers, then, after checking with Hopson that all is ready, Pruiett first makes a squeak noise with her lips, like a big air kiss. Her voice assumes a commanding tone, firmly and loudly saying "Step up! Captain, Herschel, Donald, walk up!" followed by a couple clicks of her tongue, another air-kiss and two more tongue clicks and a loud "git up there!"

After the horses pivot out of the parking spot and into the street, Pruiett praises them loudly with "good boys!"

The horses are pulling a full load of passengers, and they strain a little getting the wagon moving up a slight incline that exists from the Depot to the 2nd and Main Street intersection. Once everything is rolling, Pruiett again gives praise with another "good boys!"

The team seems to be leisurely walking along and as they approach the Main Street intersection, Pruiett gives the "whoa" command, for a moment of slowing, and with a green light, she says "Trot up! Donald, get up there!" and the team picks up the pace to trot through the intersection while the light is still green.

Once across the intersection, the team hears "waaaaalk" from Pruiett, and they drop out of the trot and back into a steady walk. A few seconds into the new pace, Pruiett gives praise with "good boys!"

Hopson's team are half Percheron, half Friesian, a good cross for the teamwork necessary for the task at hand. "A Percheron is a full-blooded draft horse," Hopson said. "They're a work horse for a lot of people. They're (full-blooded Percherons) bigger than these ones; they're probably too big for what I want.

"The Frisians are seen in Europe a lot," Hopson continued. "They're kind of fancy; they don't really look 'western.' They don't look like they would be with covered wagons. That's not what they're for. They look like you would be driving them past Buckingham Palace."

A fourth horse, Jim, a lead horse, wasn't brought to Dayton. Both Jim and Herschel are lead horses, smaller but more energetic, Hopson explained, and when in a four-horse set up, they would be in front, lending their energy to the pulling power.

"When you're driving four and you have those two out if front," Hopson said, "all you have is your voice. The back horses you can tap with the lines, but the lead horses, all you have is your voice."

Approaching the Post Office at 2nd and Clay, Pruiett commands "gee" and the horses' heads angle into the right turn. "Good boys" she says again.

At 1st and Clay, the team takes an easy left turn, without a command from Pruiett. Hopson comments that the team made the turn on their own; however, "they don't have a vote. They do what we tell them to do," he said. "Once they think they've got things figured out, we change it up on them."

-Chronicle photo

After making a u-turn in the intersection of 2nd and Commercial, and parking alongside the Dayton Depot, driver Cassidy Pruiett and team owner Darrell Hopson, at head of the team, await the loading of passengers for a horse-drawn ride through Dayton neighborhoods.

About a block along 1st, the team is commanded to "trot up" and they speed up slightly with the harnesses, posts and a set of bells adding to the jangling of the quickened pace. Donald and Captain, the eight- and ten-year-old horses, respectively, fall into a nice, coordinate syncopation, something that Hopson comments isn't widely known outside team driving circles.

"That's important," Hopson said, "very much so. These two are full brothers, so they'll be what's called 'in step.' They're the same height and same length, and you'll see them in stride or in step." Herschel, on the right, is a different size so not as apt to be in step with the other two.

Near the City Park, Pruiett has the team hang a left and another left onto 2nd, and people walking on sidewalks smile and wave as the wagon passes.

Again through the traffic light and down to the Commercial Avenue intersection, where an easy u-turn is made right into the loading spot by the Depot, where Pruiett brings the outfit to a halt with a firm "whoa."