Mardi Gras Horses

A golf cart is bearing down on a horse, siren blaring. That's no cruel game...that's a crucial test...of how controlled a horse will stay surrounded by mayhem...surrounded by a noisy parade-watching crowd.
The driver of the cart is Bill Adams, who owns Lakewood Stables in Summerdale, Alabama.
After testing the horse, he declares, "Mardi Gras...that's a lot of hard work but we enjoy it. This is our twenty-fifth year supplying horses for Mardi Gras."
They supply the horses for twenty-seven parading groups, a challenge on many levels.
Adams says, "I offer all marshalls that want to ride to come out here and ride twice at no charge. It does them good and does me good. I can see what size they are and see how they ride, then I know what kind of horse to put them on."
All the horses conditioned to ignore distractions: parades are really noisy, people throw things at them, and from the floats, trash bags...
Adams gestures as he explains, "And when they throw them bags off, big old garbage bags, and the wind catches them just right and they come floating down the air, that kind of spooks them a little bit."
Adams daughter, Kim, and his wife, Sharon, make Mardi Gras themed accessories for the horses to wear. Those can be a distraction too...the plumes waving in and out of vision and the long fringe on the drapes tickling their ankles.
But what worries Bill Adams the most?
"The riders" Especially the ones who party before the parade. He continues, "That's been a big issue. There's a lot of things that happened in those (first) twenty years...they'd fall off all the time."
And then the search for the riderless horse was on.
"Over the past twenty years," he says, "I've had to get one out of the Bankhead Tunnel; I've gotten one off the front porch of a house; we found a horse over on St. Louis St... And about five years ago I told them we're not going to drink anymore...That helped us 100%. Everybody's real cooperative with us now...We got a good group of marshals now, they all take an interest in what they're doing. They do anything we ask them to."
Do the horses like to parade? Adams says some actually show off for the crowd, others just walk the route quietly.
He laughs, "I've got two horses that will reach around and bite you on the foot if you don't feed them a moon pie now and then."
Not all horses here make the cut. "Some horses," he says, "you can never get to do Mardi Gras, but you can bring them out here and a four-year-old can ride them."
Incidentally, his new horse performed very well in the "assault by noisy golf cart" test. The rider was espcially pleased he didn't bolt!
Meteorologist Jere Hough rides up. "Meet Fancy. All we need is the parade. Come on Fancy, let's go for a ride."
They turn and walk away.