Who Says Research Isn’t Fun?
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by Carol Pouliot
Not me! I recently had one of the most fun days I’ve had in ages doing research.
I’m currently working on the manuscript for RSVP to Murder, the 4th book in my Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mysteries. In the story, a wealthy New York City publisher invites my cop Steven to a Christmas party at his Great Camp in the Adirondack Mountains. He tells Steven to bring a guest. Naturally, he brings Olivia. When their host suggests a sleigh ride in the snowy forest, Olivia asks if she can watch him get the horses ready.
So...I know less than nothing about horses and how to harness them, let alone how they’re hooked up to a sleigh. But, I happen to live within an hour’s drive of the magnificent Highland State Forest, south of Syracuse, where they give horse-drawn sleigh rides in the winter. I called the lodge and explained what I wanted to do and why, and arranged to meet with the man who owns the horses and sponsors the rides. Then I called my friend Anna and invited her to come with me. She immediately gave me an enthusiastic Yes!
It was a gray winter day, well below freezing with Arctic winds whipping everything in sight at the top of the mountain—the forest sits in a spot where the Appalachian Mountain Range meets the northernmost part of the Allegheny Mountain chain. Believe me, in their heavy coats, the horses were the only ones really comfortable on this brutally cold day.
Who wouldn’t want to spend time with a sweet face like this?
We met Scott Case who, as far as I could tell, knows everything there is to know about horses and their paraphernalia. I explained the scene in my book and thanked him for letting me watch as he readied one of three beautiful animals—a Belgian draft and two Haflinger ponies. While Scott worked, hoisting the harness up over the horse’s back, I asked what everything was called. After several minutes of breeching holds, back pads, collars, hames, straps, bridles, and bits, I was lost. Then I heard Scott say, “Three buckles and four snaps.” Now that I can understand.
When these beautiful beasts, with their deep purple finery, were ready to be hitched to the sleigh, Scott drew my attention to the most wonderful part of all: 21 tone bells, likely from the very time my series takes place—the 1930s. He explained that each vintage brass bell, attached to a leather strap on one of the horses, was expertly tuned on a regular basis. As I rang each one from the bottom to the top I could hear the changing notes. I was thrilled to hear that classic sound of sleigh bells, and was reminded of the little boy in The Polar Express and the precious bell that Santa gives him.
21 Tone Bells
Talking while I watched Scott and his co-worker attach the side-by-side horses to a horizontal pole, then the pole to two long poles on either side of the sleigh, I noticed that one of the horses’ tails was much shorter. “Well,” they told me, “that’s a bob-tail like in the song.” They laughed.
Anna and I joined two families with their children and climbed into the sleigh, then we took off on a path into the forest. With each step that the horses took, the clear, joyful sound of ringing bells echoed along the trail and through the pines.
Of course, we had to end our ride with a song: “...and bells on bobtails ring, Making spirits bright. Oh, what fun....”
An exhilarating sleigh ride in the forest.
Photos by Carol Pouliot