It was a beautiful day for a carriage ride down Monument Avenue.
With the temperature on its way into the 70s on a clear day, Mike and Vicky Carlisle wouldn't have missed it for anything.
Draped in matching strawberry-print aprons, they took the drivers' seat yesterday in the third carriage in a line of nine for the annual parade that heralds the running of the Strawberry Hill Races. The 77th annual steeplechase extravaganza is today at Colonial Downs in New Kent County.
"It's a lot of fun," said Vicky Carlisle, who has participated in the parade since 1999. "Just seeing the looks on the faces is fantastic."
For several hours, the faces lined a route that stretched from Dogwood Dell over to Monument, downtown and back, with a lunch stop at Maymont outside the Maymont Mansion. All along the route, shouts and cheers mixed with the steady click of horse hooves hitting pavement as the caravan spread cheer and elicited looks of delight from children and adults alike.
Clomping past a crowd gathered around Stuart Circle, Mike Carlisle said the parade is always a good time.
"You've got to remember, a lot of people in the city have never seen a horse except on TV," he said as their horses, Ginger and B.J., pulled the 10-year-old carriage past blocks of 19th-century homes.
The Carlisles' son, Jason, agreed from his seat in the back of the carriage. "I grew up around horses, but for a lot of people, this is their first time," he said. "It never gets old."
A few miles later, as the horses were taking a break in a parking lot near the Commonwealth Club, Bill Norton and Bonnie Hines marveled at the sights they had seen on the first half of the trip.
"It's so wonderful to see the old buildings," Norton said. "It puts you back a hundred years."
"It's just a passion," said Hines, who added that he owns four horses and eight carriages.
Randy Hagan, one of four outriders who kept the parade moving astride their fox-hunting horses, said galloping down Monument was a rare treat.
"Where else in America can people look out their doors and expect to see this?"
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.
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