Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Davie prepares ‘electric’ horses to lead Santa’s parade into town.
The town of Davie takes many opportunities to highlight its equestrian roots but none show the town’s strong ties to its four-legged friends like the Electric Light Parade.
The nighttime procession features as many as 30 horses draped in batterycharged bright lights, leading the way for St. Nick.
“It’s really a very special and unique thing we have been doing for more than 20 years,” said Jeff Pohlmann, the town’s assistant director of parks, recreation and cultural arts department.
The event can be traced back to a tradition by the South Florida Trail Riders, who went horseback caroling from one home to another in the town’s Pine Island Ridge neighborhood.
One member, Kathy Cox, a former town council member, suggested they take an
idea from the 1979 movie ‘The Electric Horseman,’ in which actor Robert Redford wore a lighted suit atop a horse.
“That movie put the bee in my bonnet,” Cox said.
The group took their act to town hall in the early ’90s, melding one tradition with another that had just started — the switching on of holiday lights at town hall.
This year, the parade will be held on Saturday. The route is brief, starting at the town’s fire department building and ending at town hall, where Santa and the mayor switch on 50,000 holiday lights. The event runs from 6 to 8 p.m.
“It’s truly magical for the little kids, their eyes open wide when they see the horses all lit up,” said Virginia Cullen, president of the trail riders group.
Cullen and Homero, her Paso Fino horse, have participated in at least five Electric Light Parades.
It takes about 90 minutes to get Homero ready. Ribbons and bells and lights are braided into the horse’s mane and tail and wound around its body.
At least 15 and as many as 30 horses participate in the parade with their owners. The horses are selected for their ability to handle noise, lights and large crowds.
Several times a year, to get the horses more accustomed to the noise and commotion of the events, the club recreates scenarios with noisemakers and umbrellas, balloons and other possible distractions.
“The Hollyday Parade is a good starter parade. The road is wide and the crowd isn’t huge, it helps to get them desensitized,” Cox said, referring to a smaller parade through the Forest Ridge neighborhood earlier in the day.
The busy holiday season for the horses also includes an appearance on Dec. 3 at the Old Davie School for a special lunch with Santa.
Cox says she and other riders love to see children warm up to a horse.
“After the parade, we hang out, let the kids get up close, and that’s the best part,” she said.