Just hear those sleigh bells jingling …

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2017 (2901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEEPAWA — In the slumber of a late afternoon in rural Manitoba, “Jingle Bells” comes to life.

Dashing through the snow

In a one-horse open sleigh

O’er the fields we go

Laughing all the way

“You just lived it,” said Art Gibson, who has transposed people into the lyrics of one of the most well-known Christmas songs for the better part of three decades.

The only difference, perhaps — his sleigh’s carried by two horses rather than the one prescribed in the song. Red roan Belgian horses, in his case.

The experience harkens back to yesteryear for Gibson, who lives outside Neepawa.

“You think of the ancestors, way back then,” he said. “They’re going to town, going to visit somebody or even going anywhere, you went with the team. There were sleigh roads all over the place. It didn’t matter where you went.”

He romanticizes the time period, he admits.

“You should have been born two generations ago,” said his wife, Lori Brooking.

“I always say, ‘Anybody that’s got anything to do with horses, I was born … too late,’” Gibson said with a smile.

It’s a process to connect a team of horses to their wooden sleigh, but understanding the method has become second nature to Gibson. Like pieces of a puzzle, he slips on the collar and harness over each horse, uses a neck yoke to keep the team of two running together and employs a web of leather straps to hold the horses in place and beholden to the driver’s commands.

The horses are later connected to the sleigh. Gibson and Brooking place bales on their sleigh to provide seats.

In the bush in the back of their 40-acre property, a trail snakes through powdered snow. It is their first ride with the sleigh this winter, but the horses, named Misty and Jack, know the motions.

A seasoned pro, Gibson stands firmly on his sleigh, not bound to the jerks of the sled traversing its path. “I’m used to surfing,” he wisecracks. Though the horses are aware of the path ahead, they’re sensitive to the reins Gibson holds.

He has long enjoyed giving family, including their kids, and visitors a ride on the sleigh, which many consider a picture-perfect representation of the holidays.

Brooking said they don’t connect the horses and sleigh too often nowadays, but she looks back at the occasions they do fondly.

They would often do sleigh rides for work Christmas parties.

“What I used to enjoy about doing the sleigh rides was when people would start to sing and they would sing Christmas carols,” she said. “It was so nice to hear.”

Sometimes, the two of them would go for a sleigh ride themselves once the moonlight in the sky was just right.

When the snow melts, their team of horses is kept busy. They’ve joined plowing competitions and rode in parades. They have pulled their new covered wagon, complete with running water and a port-a-potty, out for a few days of camping.

In Austin last year, they were vis-à-vis with the Queen and Prince Philip — or at least, good impersonators of them who got a ride on their wagon.

When they get a chance to sleigh ride today, the leisurely ride even sounds like Christmas. You can hear the ring of sleigh bells with each step of a hoof.

“It’s Christmastime,” Gibson said. “You have to have sleigh bells.”

» ifroese@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ianfroese