Hello neigh-bors! My name is Redd and I'm a carriage horse from Kansas City. Today I would like to tell you about my half-sister Reddie and our life. She is a wonderful Belgium/Quarter-horse mare. She also pulls a carriage and is just the sweetest sister you could ask for.

Reddie and I were discovered on a farm by Mary when she was looking for more horses for her business. Mary really liked me and when she found out that Reddie and I were related she didn't want to break up our family. We were really grateful for that! Even though Reddie isn't as large as I she is a strong and stocky horse and has a sweet way about her.

Well Mary brought us home to the ranch and introduced us to the rest of the horses, Cheyenne, he was the biggest Belgium I've ever seen! Cisco, a spirited beautiful black warm-blood. Tango a beautiful Shire with a very proud look about him. Old Blue a dapple gray, he was retired and just hung out in the pasture. Of course I can't forget Judy, another Belgium. She was a pill, she had a temper! But if you didn't get to close to her while she was eating because she would kick, everything stayed pretty calm.

Our first day of work, Mary's ranch hand loaded us all up in a large trailer and hauled us to the Country Club Plaza, it was a pretty smooth ride down there, but when we arrived we were unloaded in a strange place they called the "barn" it really wasn't a barn, it was an old building that had housed delivery horses way back in the day. It had a fence around it and really wasn't very big. We were unloaded and tied to the fence to be prepared for hitching. First we got hooves washed and cleaned, then a good brushing. Boy did that feel good! Then they would get out the ribbons and do all this foo foo braiding of our manes and tails. I really thought that was just too sissy but we really did look nice once it was done.

Then we would be hooked to the carriage and driven down to our corner on the Plaza which was about a mile down the hill from the barn. One time they hooked up Reddie to the carriage and forgot to tie her up and when other carriages headed off to the Plaza, Reddie thought it was time for her to go too. She got all the way down there by herself and showed up at the proper corner to pick up riders, but didn't have a driver on board! She told me, she was ready to work. I guess that's why they called her Reddie!

All the kids loved us horses and sometimes they fed us treats, sometimes Mary would send one of the drivers over to McDonald's across the street and they would bring back a whole bag full of pies. Cheyenne was the worst about the apple pies, as soon as he saw someone carrying a white bag with arches on it he would start dancing and if someone didn't have hold of him, he would go to meet them just to get the first pie! I really liked peppermint candies but Reddie preferred the cherry pies.

We would get to work for no more than 6 hours a day. If it was too warm, too cold, rained too hard or there was ice on the ground, we stayed in the barn. They really took good care of us and we always felt loved and safe. One thing I really liked about working as a carriage horse was that I got to meet a whole bunch of folks and make them happy by giving them a warm nuzzle and a slow smooth ride around the Country Club Plaza. Once we were done with our work for the day we would return to the barn, get unhitched, brushed and fed. We really had a good life.