Texas Ladies Aside
News letter
Jan 2010 Board Members
President - Bethann
1st Vice President - Eileen
2nd Vice President - Clare
Secretary - Micky
Treasurer - Laura E.
2009 Texas Ladies Aside Holiday Parades
by Laura Ellis
TLA rode in two Holiday Parades during 2009. The 44th Annual Tomball Holiday Parade “Holidays Around the World” with TLA celebrating “Christmas in Peru” by wearing our red jackets with black turtleneck sweaters, black skirts, and our black Spanish hats. For the 6th Annual Lighted Horse & Carriage Parade in The Woodlands the TLA wore our Purple Winter outfits with our white Alpaca hats and white shoulder stoles.
The day of the Tomball Parade, Saturday, November 21st, started out with cold weather and heavy rains. By the time the parade riders arrived in Tomball, about 9:00 a.m., the rains turned lighter but never stopped. Braving the weather and riding the parade with me were Eileen Craig and Bethann Bilke. Two young ladies, Laura and Alex, were our safety officers and walked the parade with us in their matching red and white jackets. Bethann’s horse and my horse were a little anxious during the time waiting for the parade to start, and Laura and Alex did a wonderful job helping us calm our horses and keeping us safe. Of course Eileen’s horse was perfect and showed us how a well mannered horse should act.
The three riders walked the complete parade due to the very wet streets. But, the parade sidewalks were lined with spectators and they interacted with us all during the parade. There were shouts of “ride a circle” from those remembering us from last year’s parade. We had to give our apology that the streets were too wet to gait our horse for fear that they would fall. We could overhear comments about “look the horses are dancing” or “look the horses are matching”. What fun we had interacting with the many people that endured the weather and lined the streets to watch the very long parade of over 200 entries.
TLA also rode in The Woodlands Parade which was a lighted evening parade on Sunday, December 6th. Again, the day was heavy rains and very cold. For this parade Bethann again braved the rain and cold to ride with me.
We arrived at the parade about 3:30 p.m. and the rains stopped by the time we parked our rigs. When we got into saddle the temperature had warmed and the evening parade was perfect. This parade was mainly carriages and each parade entry lined up in what ever order they wanted. Bethann and I decided that we wanted to be the last entry in the parade. It was a perfect position for interacting with the spectators and we did not have to worry about any parade entry behind us pushing us to move faster.
The Woodlands audience loved us, of course!! They thought we were beautiful sitting aside on our lovely Peruvian horses.
These two parades turned out to be exceptional parades and we are in hopes that 2010 will bring us better weather for our holiday parades. Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.
May 2, 2009
The TLA performed with the utmost precision at the Lone Star - South West Peruvian Show held at the Expo Center in Bryan, TX. They wowed the crowed with their spectacular drill composed by Eileen, and riding to music prepared by Barbara H who are also the teams most valuable coaches! Barbara B. and the husbands who assisted were also most valuable in this production and deserve a big thank you as well!
What a great Team of riders this group really is, coming together from all over Texas to practice, practice, practice. Along with the members who loan out horses and tack to others to help the team out. This is one special group of ladies - well done.