Miniature Horse

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - If any of the creatures at the ChambersFest Pet Parade had a lock on a prize Monday evening, it was a beauty of a beast of burden named Daisy. "She was an Amish plow horse," Nina Hill, president of the board of directors of the Franklin County Therapeutic Riding Center, said of the gentle 1,800-pound animal. Daisy, decked out in beachwear for the event, won the Biggest Pet prize at the parade. The horse now pulls a carriage or gives rides to handicapped people who use the center on Franklin Farm Lane, Hill said.

katec@herald-mail.com Suzie Binns rode in the Parade of Horses through downtown Charles Town, W.Va., during the first six years of the equine holiday event. The holiday-on-hoof procession, started by local horse enthusiast Betsy Wells, will reach its eighth annual installment Sunday, Dec. 14. Binns started helping out last year and has continued in 2003. Binns, who plans to ride one of her horses and carry the flag at the front of the parade, expects more than the 150 horses who paraded through the town's business district and residential streets last year.

By SCOTT BUTKI / Staff Writer photo: MARIA BROSE / staff photographer Some Washington County students had a chance to see some riding, roping and other skills of the old West during a Thursday field trip to Antietam Recreation. One student said the 1999 Antietam Recreation Horse, Dog and Roping show was "awesome. " Students from Smithsburg Elementary School, along with some youngsters from Hancock Elementary School, were on hand for the show, featuring young cowboys Andy Rotz, 14, and Billy Rotz, 6. The Rotz boys, along with a boxer, Sparky, an Arabian horse, Idja, and a miniature horse, Trigger Jr., entertained the crowd with tricks and demonstrations of life in the Wild West.