Horse & Buggy Rides at BTC this Holiday Season

BAYONNE, NJ – December 2, 2008 - The Bayone Town Center is once again hosting Horse & Buggy Rides with Santa this Saturday at 22nd Street & Broadway from 11am-3pm.  This event is FREE to the public and reservations are not necessary.  This year as well as in past years, A & T Stables in Jackson, NJ are supplying the horse & carriage.  Our horse this year is named Bubba and he is a large Percheron work horse.  The following is some information about this breed of draft horse:

The Percheron is expected to be of good temperament and be an easy keeper. The breed is reputed to be proud, alert, and intelligent. They are generally very gentle horses, well-suited for driving, and are strong and willing workers. The Percheron is readily adapted to varying climates and conditions. They have the strength to pull heavy loads and the graceful style to pull a fine carriage. Percherons can be ridden and some have even been trained to jump.

Percherons are generally black or gray.  Some Percherons have white markings on the head and feet, but excessive white is undesirable.
Percherons are noted for heavy muscling and for an aspect of ruggedness and power. Also characteristic of the Percheron is clean action and quality conformation of the feet and legs. The breed is close coupled, wide and deep through the chest, with plenty of back rib. The muscles of the forearms, croup and gaskins are especially emphasized in a good drafter, and ease and balance of gait is essential.

The Percheron head and neck is typical of the correct draft horse. Good Percherons have a large and full prominent eye, a broad and full forehead, and straight face. A wide jaw and refined ears attractively set and carried with animation are visible evidence of the Percheron's Arabian ancestry. Stallions should have a ruggedness about the head and mares should have a feminine look. The neck is well-shaped and powerful. The mane is thick, though the tail is usually cut short. Percherons have withers well defined, a short back, a deep girth, long, somewhat level croup, big, well-rounded hip, and powerful muscling in the lower thigh.

Percherons range in height from 15 to 19 hands high.  They can weigh up to 1,200 kg (2,600 pounds) with the average around 860 kg (1,900 pounds). One of the tallest horses on record was a Percheron named Dr. Le Gear. Foaled in 1902, he stood 21.1 hands (7 feet) at the withers and weighed just under 1,370 kg.  Percherons can be long-lived horses, living over 25 years.