Yreka Holiday Parade

by N. Baker

What a great day Stable Hands had during the Yreka Holiday Parade! There are so many to thank for making this yet another successful day and a day of terrific publicity for Stable Hands.

Much work went into the planning and execution of today's parade. Once again we used Marcia and Jay's trailer for the float. Jay had painted the trailer and installed new decking. The trailer is looking quite spiffy now. The theme for the parade this year was the celebration of Yreka's 150 years.

With this in mind Cathy and her crew consisting of Autumn, Jay and JD decorated the trailer as the Stable Hands Livery and Blacksmithing est. 1857. They had a very old blacksmithing forge mounted on the tongue of the trailer, thanks to the hard work of Cathy’s husband John. Cathy made signing for both sides of the trailer out of wood that came from a house that was 150 years old. We had several pieces with various brands burned into the wood thanks to our Stable Hands farrier Ralph Dillon.

The trailer was further decorated with blacksmithing tools, an anvil, horse shoes, saddles and other items one would find in such an establishment 150 years ago. Again, we had straw bales on the trailer with several of our clients riding the float with Linda keeping a careful watch on everybody. Zeke worked the bellows on the forge and Andre did a great job whacking a wagon wheel on the anvil. The sound resonated throughout the downtown sounding just like a blacksmithing shop of days past. The float was again pulled by Marcia with her copilots and navigators Kathleen, Flowie and Sadie Jane. Flowie and Sadie Jane being Jack Russell terriers decked out in Christmas dog coats.

The horses and the clients riding were all decked out as well. Jennie and Jane came over to my house early this morning and we groomed up and tacked all of the horses. We were fortunate enough to have enough western saddles for all of the horses. We used all three of Stable Hands western saddles, used mine and borrowed two from Joann Akana and Jamie Nowdesha.

Once we arrived at the staging area the horses legs were wrapped in matching red polo wraps and had beautiful red and green fleece wreaths put around their necks. These wreaths were made by Kathryn Matthews. Kathryn did a great job on the wreaths and they are such that we can save them and use them again next year. We tied several Australian Outback dusters to the backs of the saddles to look like bedrolls. JD brought gun scabbards to tie to the saddles and we tied gold panning pans and other mining tools to the saddles.

Then we lined up the horses and banner to prepare to join up with the float. The banner was carried by Becca and David with Barbara assisting them. Barbara did an excellent job of keeping David and Becca moving and keeping the spacing safe between us and the entry in font of us.

They were followed by Pete- handled by Nolan. Nolan handled Pete completely independently this year! Pete was decked out with saddle bags carrying mining equipment. Pete generated lots of comments from the parade bystanders mostly I'm sure due to the cuteness factor of being a mini.

Next came Cody and Porky. Cody was led by Autumn with one of Marcia's client Gaige riding. Maureen was his sidewalker. Porky was led by Rita with Ryan riding and his sidewalker was Crystal. Porky demonstrated the most forward movement we have seen in him since he joined the herd.

Rita did an excellent job of keeping him focused and moving in circles when the parade was at a stop. One of the things we learned about the horses last year was that when the parade stops if we kept them moving they stayed much more relaxed. So, each time the parade stopped today we did circles. Many of the bystanders thought we were doing drill team movements.

Following Porky and Cody was Snoopy led by JD with Kealia riding dressed up as a girl from the 1800's. She was sidewalked by our volunteer Nancy. Next to Snoopy was Blondie led by Jennie with Cheyenne riding dressed as a cowgirl. Holding up the rear were Sharky and Hershey. Sharky was led by Philomena with Mary riding-dressed as the school marm and sidewalked by Cathy. Hershey was led by Jane with Isabelle riding-dressed as Ella Crabtree, a singer in Yreka from the 1850's, sidewalked by Jay. Isabelle was sporting a very pretty hat donated to Stable Hands by Charlynne of Miss Lyn's Teahouse that was typical of the day in the 1950's. My husband, Gregg, took about 50 pictures of the event.

I feel everybody, clients, volunteers, staff and the client families enjoyed today's parade. We did receive many positive comments from parade bystanders-I was stopped and asked several questions about Stable Hands, was told how great everybody looked and frequently told what a wonderful program we have. Stable Hands had a very positive presence in our community today.

After the parade all clients were returned to their families, the float was torn down, horses transported home and the truck unpacked. We had warmer weather for the parade this year. It was 30 degrees when we started and 30 degrees when we ended. As they did last year when I brought the horse's home they all rolled and went out to the pasture looking like mud balls. I think we should all be proud of our wonderful program and the excellent team effort that was shown today.

For more information about enrollment, donations or volunteering, call the Stable Hands office at (530)842-3082 and leave a message.

Photos by Greg Baker