At a time when similar events in the South have been declining over the past few years, the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage continues to grow and prosper.
The 76th Pilgrimage ends with a flurry of activity Saturday. It continues to be the city’s biggest tourism event. Nancy Carpenter, executive director of The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau, says that success is based on efforts to keep the event new and fresh.
“Like all pilgrimages, our event is based on a tour of all those beautiful old homes and buildings,” she says. “But we have so much more to offer. This year, we had 21 separate events and so many things to offer.”
From the tours to the Arts Walk, Catfish Alley, Downtown Open House and Tales from the Crypt, the Columbus Pilgrimage is built on variety, adding new features along the way.
One of those newer additions are the horse-drawn carriage rides.
“This is my fourth year with the Pilgrimage,” says Xavier Fairley, who operates the horse-drawn carriage rides from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. throughout Pilgrimage. “I do the rides at other times during the year, especially around Christmas, and when there are other things that draw people downtown, but the Pilgrimage my busiest time.”
It is so busy, in fact, that Fairley has two carriages in operation.
Fairley and his partner, Willie Shumpert, are particularly busy during the Pilgrimage weekends, when long lines of visitors wait patiently for their short tour around the Southside.
The appeal of the rides, Fairley said, is based on two factors, according to his customers.
“Listening to what they say, I just think it gives people an opportunity to slow down and little and really pay attention to all the details. You can smell the flowers, see the trees. We’re in no hurry; I’ll stop at places along the way and tell them a little about the background of what they are looking at. I think it’s really a way for them to see how charming Columbus really is.”
The second factor is, of course, the horses who pull the carriage. There is his mare, “Bonnie,” a Quarter Horse/Percheron mix, and “Sergeant,” a Tennessee Walker gelding. Both are 9-years-old and old hands at the carriage ride business.
“Everybody loves the horses, especially the kids,” Fairley, 56, says. “They all want to touch the horses or, at least, get close to them and look at them a while before they decide whether or not they want to touch them. It’s a funny thing. I grew up out in the New Hope area and my grandfather farmed so I was always around horses and mules. But even though Columbus isn’t a big city, you would be surprised how many kids have never been up close to a horse. To see how much they enjoy petting the horse or just seeing a horse up close, that’s one of the things that makes it all worthwhile to me.”
After four years of clop-clop-clopping around the familiar route on the Southside, the horses are pretty much on autopilot.
“They are well-trained and it’s very rare that they get spooked by anything anymore,” Fairley says. “They are pretty used to everything now. Back at the start, though, there was one thing that really bothered Sergeant – that double-decker bus they use in the Pilgrimage Tours. For whatever reason, he just hated that big red bus. It took him a while to get used to it. It doesn’t bother him any more.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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