Left Jim Sutherland proudly continues a tradition of offering sleigh rides that dates back more than a century in his family. Above Sutherland’s grandfather Herman Holtze and aunt Carol taking a sleigh ride.in 1946. | Photos courtesy of Jim Sutherland “I’d bring Santa in on a sleigh during the parade, and then return with the carriage to give horse-drawn carriage rides to people. They all loved it.” Sutherland’s background is rooted in the farm where he now lives. He has old family photos of grandparents with their horses, and his great-grandparents farmed there with horses before that, starting in 1869. “They all farmed with Percherons and, surprisingly, my team is Percherons, too,” Sutherland says with a chuckle. Percherons are large, muscular draft horses, bred to pull anything from a plow to a sleigh. They range in color from gray to dappled gray to black. “My current team is almost perfectly matched,” he says. “They are both black with white stars on their foreheads, and white feet.” But color doesn’t matter to Sutherland. Until recently, his team consisted of a black horse and a gray dapple. “Color doesn’t mean anything to me. For me, it’s all about brains. “When you’re doing things (like giving sleigh rides) with people around, you’ve got to be safe. You have to rely on their brains. Horses are like deer – they’re flight animals. When they are scared, they want to flee.” Sutherland said his horses have to have trust and knowledge to listen to his commands and don’t flee. “I’ve only ever had one incident when things got out of hand. It was in my own barnyard, and my chicken coop stopped it,” he said. Sutherland, however, didn’t grow up with sleigh rides and horse-drawn carriages. “When I was a kid, we were into snowmobiles,” he recalled. “We’d pull things behind the snowmobiles.” Things changed when his son was a toddler and a
friend gave the boy a miniature horse. It wasn’t long before Sutherland found tack, a sleigh and a buggy the mini horse could pull. As his son grew, so did the size of the ponies and horses, and it wasn’t long before Sutherland was hooked on the idea of having draft horses himself. There is a lot of history and even nostalgia involved for Sutherland. For example, he has two sets of sleigh bells that date back to his great, great grandparents, one set from each side of his family. His sleigh is more than 100 years old, but is well-kept with a solid coat of black paint and red seats. His bobsled belonged to his great, great grandfather, and at at least 120 years old, is used several times each winter. Each year, Sutherland and his Percherons attend sleigh and cutter parades in Waseca, Kenyon and in the Twin Cities. He provides sleigh and bobsled rides at wineries, church events and weddings. He looks forward to the first few snowfalls each winter, and enjoys every snowfall after those. As winter gets a bit long in the tooth, and ice forms beneath the snow come January and February, Sutherland and his team tend to decline invitations for giving sleigh rides. “When it’s below zero, or icy, I won’t take my team out,” he said. “If a horse slips, falls, and breaks a bone, it can be the end of the horse’s life. Always, safety comes first.” Sutherland also gives sleigh rides on a trail on his farm near Courtland. He rents out his barn for family Christmas parties and he provides the rides. “I turn on the heat in the barn, put up a tree, and people come with their families, plug in their crock pots and have a pretty good time.” M MANKATO MAGAZINE • december 2013 • 35