Meet the horses of the Cape May Carriage Company

This article originally appeared in the August 2009 issue of Cape May Magazine. Text by Susan Tischler with Robert Morgan.

Who are those horses riding through Cape May? We see them pulling wedding carriages, pulling tourists through the scenic areas of town, and waiting for passengers at the carriage stop on Washington Street across from the Washington Commons shops. Beverly Carr started the Cape May Carriage Company back in 1983 with one horse and one carriage. She now has nearly 20 working horses in the “fleet” and, although she tried to retire in 2004 when she sold the company to an employee, it didn’t take, and since 2006 she is back at the helm, this time with her husband of two years, Bob Morgan.

But enough already about these humans, who are the horses? Bob took the time to introduce us to them. So, come along with us and “meet the team.” Click on any horse’s headshot for a full-size picture!

Jenny

Jenny is a Spotted Draft, brown and white Paint. Jenny was born around 1987. She is one of three that have been with Bev the longest. She, along with her sister Judy, who has since gone off to that Happy Hunting Ground in the great beyond, were purchased when they were two and three years old so they have lived at the Carriage Company their whole working lives. Jenny may have a few years on her, but when she works, she has a gait we refer to as the “Jenny Strut.” Now semi-retired, she only works a few days each week, but strolls around town like she was a seven year old. She shares a corral with Buck.

Buck

Buck is a Buckskin, Quarter Horse/Draft. He is also one of the three that have been with the Carriage Company the longest. He came from a horse trader named Billy Pope who hailed from Tennessee. Buck was a logging horse at one time, but briefly. Bev bought him when he was six years old. He is now in his 20s. Buck is semi-retired. He works one day every two weeks and has a tradition of pulling a carriage in the Stone Harbor Christmas Parade carrying Santa Claus. When it’s Buck’s day to work, you can see him start to get excited as he gets to go to town like the other horses. He will always have a home at Cape May Carriage Company’s farm.

Duke

Duke is a beautiful Belgian, with flowing mane and forelocks, sort of looks like the surfer dude of the herd. He is in his upper 20s and is the third of the long term horses on the farm and is on full retirement. He is usually in the front pasture along Sunset Boulevard where his fan club (most of the horses have one) visit occasionally to bring him apples, carrots, or to just say, “Hi.” Duke can often be seen gazing at the other horses as they leave for work probably saying to himself, “I remember when I was one of the working horses, and gee how I miss it.” The Carriage Company has been his home for the past 19 years. Until recently, his primary job was to train all the new drivers.

Knight

Knight, aka Knight to Remember, is a Bay with a blaze face and four white socks. He is a Quarter Horse crossed with possibly a Clydesdale. Knight is one of Bev’s personal favorites. He is one of the select horses that works weddings. He carries himself very regally and lends an air of elegance to any wedding. This is one of the reasons Bev and I selected him to pull our carriage when we got married July 4^th, 2006. We chose July 4^th because it is the only day in the summer that the horses do not work. All those loud fireworks spook the horses. Knight came to be a Cape May Carriage Company horse when Bev got into a bidding war over him at a select auction. He’s about 17. Since he can saddle up, I used to ride him from time to time. Knight shares his pasture with Simon. Knight is looking very handsome in his tartan plaid blanket on this particular September morning. He wears the tartans not because he is Scottish, but because he doesn’t like flies, but they seem to like him.

Simon

Simon, aka RU Simon, is a Sorrel (red) Quarter Horse, Belgian crossbreed. Simon came from Rutgers University’s equine program. He is a very sweet and gentle fellow who is easy going and loves attention. Simon is my number one favorite horse. The RU in his name stands for Rutgers University. There’s a program in North Dakota where they mate a Belgian mare with a Quarter horse and they take the pregnant mare’s urine for a drug used by menopausal women. Simon was the colt that came from that North Dakota mating. Each spring R.U. goes out and selects a horse from that herd, brings him back to the R.U. teaching program, and later puts the horse up for sale. Simon and his sister were from that program and came here, but his sister was too prancy and had to go back from whence she came. Simon, however, had the right disposition to be a carriage horse. Because of his personality, he is my absolute best, most favorite horse. Simon is 14. Because of his color, he’s not selected that often for weddings but when he is, he is terrific. He stands forever. He loves the well water here on the farm, but he hates city water. He will not drink it. When he’s offered a drink after a carriage ride, he refuses it. He only drinks Cape May Carriage Company water.

Ulysses showing off his pearly whites!

Ulysses is a big black Percheron and is, by far, the tallest horse on the farm weighing in at 2,200 pounds and standing 18 hands tall. Ulysses may be the biggest, but he is also the gentlest and seems to think he is just a pony not realizing how big he is. He often pulls the public carriage around town. For a while he acted like a kid, but now he’s a refined gentleman who can do weddings and stand still for long periods of time. The 14-year-old Ulysses previously worked in a team pulling a stage coach at Batsto Village before the lady went out of business. He shares a pasture with Magic.

Magic

Magic is a white crossbreed who brings magic to the visit of many tourists who come to our town. She is a pretty stout girl who has a mind of her own. Here’s a little secret about Magic – she is a Seinfeld horse. Like the carriage horse on Seinfeld, who ate too many beans, if Magic gets into the wrong hay pile, she’s been known to have gastrointestinal issues. Like Princess, who calls out to the visitors when walking through town, Magic too calls out as well, but from a different end.

Sam

Sam, aka Big Brown, is a big brown Percheron crossbreed. He came to the farm in April of 2007 and spent a year in training before getting his chance to enhance the visit of guests to Cape May. Sam has pulled both public and private carriages and has recently graduated to weddings by completing his first wedding this past August. He got his nickname from the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner of the same name because he is big and he is brown. Sam, who stands close to 17 hands high, is a big friendly guy who shares his home with Stormy. Of the two, Sam is the more dominant or Alpha horse. On this particular morning he throws his ears back to tell Stormy to back off the hay. I took horse whispering classes from a Seminole Indian, GaWaNi Pony Boy, and I’ve learned a few things. To teach Sam to “share” I would push Sam away every time he tried to push Stormy out of the way. Eventually Sam “learned” to let Stormy in. Now they’ve settled in and get along fine. [And then Sam proceeded to push Stormy away from the hay.]

Stormy

Stormy is a big gray dapple Percheron. He is anything but stormy. He is such a friendly inquisitive guy, who came to the farm in February of ’08 and was so ready to work that he started doing tours as soon as the season started. Stormy has pulled both public and private carriages and soon hopes to graduate to the honor of wedding horse.

Princess

Princess is a white Percheron known for her calling to the other horses as she travels around town, letting everyone know that it’s her night to work and welcoming visitors to her town. She shares a corral with Fury. Around the farm, they jokingly say she must be from New York City because she’s loud and she’s fast.” Actually Princess does hail from New York and is in her late teens and shares her pasture with Fury.

Fury

Fury is a Belgian/Quarter Horse crossbreed. Fury is a very pleasant fellow who loves being in town and visiting with everyone at the carriage stop. He also has a sense of humor and likes to pick up his water bucket at the carriage stop and dumps it over to try and splash the horse tenders. Fury was sold last year to someone who wanted to do carriage tours in Smithville, but the buyer had some medical issues and sold him back to us. He was away for about six months, but is now back in the fold.

Baron

Baron is a big black Percheron. Baron is often chosen to pull wedding carriages since he can stand like a statue for long periods and he has such a royal look. Baron is very sweet, but is always concerned when he sees a puddle in the road or a manhole. He does not like to step into either of them for fear that the hole might be too deep and he’ll hurt himself. Baron shares his pasture with Duchess.

Duchess

Duchess is a stout Spotted Draft horse. She came to Cape May in August of 2006 from her job pulling carriages around Central Park in New York City and went to work almost immediately, enjoying the more laid-back lifestyle. I first saw her on the internet and was not so impressed, but Bev said she had a reputation for being a really good carriage horse. We bought her four years ago and I immediately fell in love with her. She worked the first year and then got colic. She looked like she was pregnant. We took her up to New Bolton Center [campus for the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine] found she had an impaction. They had to take out her whole intestines and 75 pounds of impaction. They put her back together and $8,000 later brought her back to Cape May. She spent a year of stable rest. After my regular job, [Bob is an analyst for the American Automobile Association (AAA)], I’d come out and spend time with her every evening just so she didn’t feel abandoned. Now she’s fine and you’ll see her prancing about town. Duchess is famous for the many mementos and souvenirs of Cape May that have her picture on them. She is in her early teens and shares her pasture with Baron.

Prince

Prince, a large white Percheron, is the second biggest horse on the farm and everyone’s favorite wedding horse. He pulls the private carriages, the public carriages and has worked many weddings. Many times Prince has delivered the bride to her prince and then carried them both off to celebrate their new lives together. He is 16 and shares a large pasture with Tucker and Sterling.

Tucker

Tucker is a large Bay crossbreed. He is one of the widest of the horses and easily pulls the public carriages. Before he came to Cape May Carriage Company, Tucker was part of an Amish plow team. He is a very laid-back fellow until it comes to meal time and then don’t get in his way. He is a big, quiet gentleman who does his job downtown, comes home and you never know he’s around.

Sterling

Sterling is a white Percheron. Sterling has worked many weddings and works regularly doing tours of Cape May. Sterling is a very keep-to-himself guy. He loves to do his job, but is not very social and would like to be left alone. He especially likes it when Bev gives him a massage and twists and turns to help and to tell her where to rub next. Sterling is a great employee who likes to be left alone. He does a fantastic job at weddings and a fantastic job at pulling the carriage tours downtown. He is also easy to harness, but he does not like to socialize. Sterling has “tasted” everyone of the drivers, including me. So, although he doesn’t have the sweetest of dispositions, he does a great job.

April

April is a beautiful big Bay Clydesdale/Thoroughbred crossbreed. She came to the carriage company in August of 2009. Her owner was studying for her advanced degree and no longer had the time to show her, take care of her or ride her. April’s owner had been to the carriage farm, seen the horses doing their tours around Cape May and knew of Beverly’s reputation for taking excellent care of her horses, and felt that the Cape May Carriage Farm would be an excellent new home for April. April is as sweet as the time of year she was named for. She was trained to be a riding horse, and will soon be sent off to school for a month of training to learn to be a driving horse so that she, too, can learn to enjoy the life of a Cape May Carriage horse. We don’t usually take Clydesdales because of the feathered legs which are so hard to keep clean, but April has thoroughbred-style legs. She’ll leave for school as soon as her brother, War Lord, comes back. War Lord looks like April, only darker, almost black.

War Lord

War Lord is a beautiful big dark Bay Clydesdale/Thoroughbred crossbreed who also came to the carriage company in August of 2009. He is the half brother to April and came to us under the same circumstances. He, too, was a riding horse and his owner could no longer keep him. He will soon be back from school and will probably be doing tours around the Christmas season.

Jag and Oreo

Oreo is Bev’s riding horse. He is a Gaited Passafino. For a little guy, he is surprisingly strong and can pull a small recreational carriage. He did not, at first, get along very well with my horse Jag, aka Delight’s Jagged Edge, a Gaited Saddle horse. Oreo, although seven years younger and much smaller, would chase Jag around the pasture, so [another horse whisperer technique] I started chasing Oreo around the pasture every time he chased Jag. And Jag would hide behind me and look over my shoulder. But now they are the best of friends and cry when they have to be separated. The two of them learned how to turn the handle where the feed is so we had to put a clasp on the handle.