Horse-Drawn Nostalgia : Old-Fashioned Wagon Ride Fills With Carolers and Cheer

It just sounds like Christmas in the orchards off Moorpark Road.

On cold, clear evenings, strains of “Jingle Bells” and “O Holy Night” waft on the cold wind through the Tierra Rejada Valley. The tunes are accented by the clomping hoofbeats of two giant Belgian draft horses, their harnesses jingling with each step as they haul a load of carolers through the night.

Top that with a fresh pine scent drifting from the Tierra Rejada Ranch Christmas Tree Farm, the sweet smell of hot cocoa, and the smoky aroma of a roaring fire, and you have a Christmas wonderland, Ventura County style.

That’s just what Krissie Breck, 20, was hoping for.

Breck and her boyfriend, Evan Mackey, 24, run Party Animals Farm, which takes groups on nostalgic Christmas caroling wagon rides on the rural outskirts of Moorpark.

“People really seem to like it,” she said. “It’s an old-fashioned way to have a good time.”

The pair began to build a business around their love for horses last January, after touring around the country in separate horse shows.

Originally from South Dakota, Breck spent time in Alaska and Florida traveling with her trick horse Magic, who can tap out with its hoof the solutions to simple math problems.

Mackey worked with horses on his father’s ranch in New Mexico.

“We’re both horse people and when we found this place we decided to stay,” Breck said.

When they bought the pair of draft horses--Daubin and Rowdy--the fledgling business branched out from pony rides and birthday parties to include fall hayrides. And when the Christmas season rolled around, Breck and Mackey looked for something else to keep the business going.

“We just sat down and brainstormed ideas until we came up with this,” Breck said.

Since the beginning of the month, the couple have booked nine twilight caroling trips.

While business is not booming, a steady stream of people have come in for the trip each week.

Friday evening, it was a youth group from the Simi Valley Bible Community Church. About 25 teen-agers and a sprinkling of parents spent an hour belting out all the Christmas tunes they knew. Occasionally they would substitute a few lines in a song, as in “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I’ve never known.”

When the long, slow ride over dirt roads and through Christmas tree farms was over, the group warmed up around a fire with some hot chocolate, talking with their youth minister, Tony Marotta It was Marotta who first thought of taking the group on a wagon ride.

“We thought this would be pretty fun,” he said. “And it sure turned out that way.”