Rural Heritage June/July 2025

A lovely carriage for upper-class drives, this green Brougham was acquired in the United States.

So, how does one get from selling furniture to owning a carriage museum? Well, it all started as Christmas season approached one year, and one of their daughters suggested that the old cutter which was stored in the attic of one of their farm buildings, might make a nice addition to the seasonal decorations in the display window of the store. As it turned out, the little cutter was in rather rough shape after years of storage, and there was not enough time to get it ready for that year. Dale, however, took on the repair job, and by the next Christmas season, the cutter was looking very dapper, all repaired and painted up nicely. It looked lovely in the window, decorated and piled high with gifts. I don’t know who’s idea it was to use the cutter in the filming of a seasonal TV commercial for the store. The cutter was brought out onto the snowy street, hitched to one of Dale’s horses – a retired Standardbred racehorse mare named Oh La La –

and with passengers and gifts aboard, the mare was given the go-ahead. What the driver didn’t realize was that a fixed-runner cutter has a much different turning radius than a buggy or cart, and as the mare turned, the cutter tipped over, dumping passengers and packages onto the sidewalk. Of course, the mare panicked and pelted off for home. Dale recollects that what flashed through his mind was the image of his wife’s brand new car parked in the driveway between the street and the barn. The camera continued to roll as people picked themselves up and dusted off the snow, and headed off after the mare. Fortunately, the mare had managed to get past the car, leaving it unscathed. She was trembling with fright, but was fine, too, as were the passengers. The cutter, however, had to be rebuilt again. During the course of this endeavor, Dale discovered that he enjoyed doing this kind of work. He began

June/July 2025

41