Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510090086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Pity Daniel and Timothy Loope, Kyle Allen and Cody Wright. The four youngsters pulled the worst duty in town Sunday.
Their jobs: following 84 horses parading on city streets, shoveling up the inevitable trail of you-know-what left in the wake.
"It was hundreds of piles," Daniel Loope, 12, said at the end of the day, rubbing his sore arms. "I think I lost count at around 20."
The occasion was "Ride With the Mounted Patrol," a fund-raiser for the Roanoke Police Department's 2-year-old mounted patrol unit.
Scores of riders and their steeds - some from as far away as Maryland - met at Victory Stadium in the morning. At $25 per rider, the event raised more than $2,000 for the care of Cornbread, Trapper and Cinnamon, the unit's three horses.
The five-hour jaunt took riders somewhere around 10 miles - up and down Mill Mountain, through downtown and Old Southwest - before returning to the stadium and a fried chicken picnic.
It's probably been 80 or so years since so many beasts of burden clomped through city streets all at once. Thus, it's little surprise that drivers and passers-by were doing double takes all along the way.
"Dad, I want a horse," Jacob Pillis, age 6, said as whinnying echoed between City Market buildings and the clatter of hoofs briefly drowned out car engines on Campbell Avenue.
His father and mother, Steven and Robin Pillis of Roanoke, were taking their two boys to see the Roanoke Railway Festival at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. They briefly detoured for lunch near the market.
Their plans were delayed when Jacob and his 2-year-old brother, Zachary, spied the herd.
"The boys love horses," Steven Pillis said. "Not often do you see horses coming through downtown Roanoke."
"This is neat," said Kim Blanton, who moved here in July from South Carolina. "It's something they never did in Spartanburg, I can tell you that."
Bill Hart-Davidson, an Indiana resident visiting friends here with his wife, Leslie, said the sight of the horses along Market Street was their first impression of Roanoke.
"It's like the old West," Hart-Davidson said. "This is impressive."
By all accounts, the ride was a big success. Led and trailed by police vehicles, the group avoided any mishaps, save one broken bridle that was quickly fixed.
The horses got water stops at Mill Mountain Park and in a parking lot next to Sam's on the Market, a clothing store.
Participants - among them was Mayor David Bowers - gave the event high marks.
"It's been great," said Diana Mitchell, mounted on Feather, a horse owned by a friend. "I'll be sore tomorrow, though."
Lt. Doug Allen said the mounted officers have been planning the event for nearly six months, sending fliers to mounted patrol units and others in the horse community.
Although board and food are donated for the unit's horses, other costs have mounted. The Roanoke Foundation, an arm of the business coalition Downtown Roanoke Inc., has shelled out about $10,000 for veterinarian bills, horseshoes, and equipment for officers in the past two years, said Matt Kennell, Downtown Roanoke's executive director.
The police expected about 40 riders to show up. Expectations dimmed when the unit found they had scheduled the ride for the same weekend as a massive East Coast mounted patrol competition in Maryland. As it turned out, civilian riders more than made up the difference.
Mounted Officer John Loope turned the ride into a family event. Besides his two sons cleaning up after the herd, his wife, Judy, sold mounted patrol T-shirts on the market.
Loope's nephew, Catawba resident Wayne Ramsey, used his pickup truck to haul around an old bathtub and two giant buckets used for the watering stops.
Allen said the thing the patrol hadn't anticipated before the ride was the frequency with which the horses would answer nature's call along the way.
"They did leave a lot more of a mess than we thought they would," he laughed. "I'd say it was about every 10 feet along the whole way. The boys sure had their work cut out for them."
by CNB