Gore’s Blair and Sue Lennon are looking forward to next year’s Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust cavalcade.
The Winding Trails to Waikaia cavalcade will converge on the town on March 2 after starting in different places.
The couple have been driving a covered wagon on the cavalcades for about eight years and enjoyed the experience, they said.
‘‘It’s a week of living with your horses,’’ Mrs Lennon said.
Clydesdales Flash and Harry pulled the wagon at about 6kmh.
The Waikaia area was a good place to hold the cavalcade.
‘‘It’s nice and handy and [there are] great places to go and great people up there,’’ Mr Lennon said.
The trip was always a social time catching up with people.
‘‘Sometimes you don’t meet them from year to year,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s good, it’s friendly — a lot of fun.’’
Prior to that the couple had ridden horses on the annual trek.
However, as they grew older they decided it would be easier to drive instead of ride.
They had sold Mr Lennon’s horse for 50 cents to a friend who knew the horse’s funny quirks.
When they told Dave Murdoch of Middlemarch they were looking for a horse to pull a wagon, he offered them one of his Clydesdales, Susie.
They knew they could not afford the mare but after trying her out, a deal was struck that involved bottles of whisky and home-made sultana cake.
Last year, for the first time, Mrs Lennon had driven a jump-seat buggy pulled by Susie.
‘‘She’s now teaching me how to drive,’’ Mrs Lennon said.
It was a lot of work taking the three horses away.
‘‘You’ve got three horses at night you’ve still got to feed, water and gear up.’’
It took about an hour to groom and harness the horses.
