Frey Carriage Co's Sprint Carts: Smart, Sexy, Slimming and On Sale

Breed Groups!  Here is a nifty idea from our friends at Frey Carriage Co: Sprint Bucks.  If you buy a Sprint Cart before May 31st, 2012, you get $100 off.  If you and a friend both buy Sprints before May 31st, 2012, you both save $200.  If you and a friend and another friend buy Sprints before May 31st, 2012, you each save $300.

 VSE Sprints Now Available

Sparky modelling the Frey Carriage Co's VSE Sprint Cart: comfort for the wee ones and their full sized whips.

As opposed to what we are all used to...while the lovely and delightful 70lb Jillian Lawrence looks as if she's only just about outgrown this vehicle [her knees almost interfere with her hands], I am 5'7".  Where are my legs?  Sometimes those yoga asanas really come in useful.

Very Small Equines!  Finally!  A serious vehicle for your horses!  Not made of re-purposed folding chairs!  Not a toy Meadowbrook!  A Real Vehicle!  Engineered and scaled to fit both horse and human!

If you are just joining this bandwagon, get the full story at: http://hossbiz.blogspot.com/2011/01/frey-carriage-companys-sssc-smart-sexy.html  or contact Frey Carriage Company:
http://www.colonialcarriage.com

If you tell them I sent you, you might get the special 5 week production rate so you can be hooked and on the road yet this spring, enjoying driving in style.

Oh, joy!

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Sleigh Bells Ring: Columbus Sleigh Rally

A Beautiful Sight: Martha Stover of Here Be Dragons Welsh Ponies of Incomparable Wonderfulness, Mattawan, MI gives us a preview of what's in store for the Columbus Sleigh Rally

Columbus, Wisconsin will host a Sleigh Rally on February 11, 2012 beginning at noon with a Currier & Ives class, cones course and cross country course.  Fireman's Park is the locale which also hosts Columbus Horse & Carriage Festival over Father's Day weekend.

What is deliciously exciting to me is that the cross country course will run both at the park and on the Golf Course.  I have always wanted golf courses to be multi-use, it is such a shame to waste all that open grass and landscaping on just golfers.  Golf carts are mulit-use: carriage drivers use them, too, why not the fairways as well?  My hat is off [I am full of puns this morning] to the organizing committee for introducing this excellent dual purpose idea to the golfing fraternity.

Columbus always puts on a good show for exhibitors and the Sleigh Rally should prove no exception.  It is an ADS sanctioned event with the colorful Mary Ruth Marks officiating.  Entry fees are $45 for ADS members, $65 for non members.  There will be plenty of cold weather warming comfort food: chili, pies, hot cocoa available through the Columbus Equestrian Club.  Need to know more?  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Columbus-Wisconsin-Sleigh-Rally-Weekend/227415907585?sk=info

Other activities include a Model Horse Show, live music, photo ops for kiddies in a mini sleigh with a Very Small Equine, bob sled rides for the public, cookie decorating contest, and more.  The event is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Horse Council Equine Foundation, whose HQ is in Columbus and some of the proceeds will go to the Wisconsin Equine Hay Bank Program which assists private individuals facing financial difficulties to feed their horses.  Need to know more? http://www.wshcef.org/

Columbus is a rocking little town and everyone should visit it.  It is full of wonderful people trying to keep Small Town USA viable.  Notable Columbutonians [yep, I made that up] Todd and Cheryl Fry have made a big impression on Main Street, not only with their business Frey Carriage Co, but also with groovy renovations of a number of properties.

Visit Hydro Street Brewing company, located in Frey Carriage's former showroom, for a Bitter Woman with some Loaded Pots.  Seriously, where else can you get that?  Need to know more?  http://hydrostreetbrew.com/our-menu/

No sleigh, you say?  No problem.  Todd Frey can fix you right up in style.  Frey Carriage Co currently has, among others, a  Kimball Bros [Boston] Portland Cutter, Two Park Bob Sleighs one by Kimball Bros [Boston], the other by Edward McGraw [NY],  an a-dor-a-ble Hooded Cutter, and a Frey Portland Cutter for sale.  Need to know more?  http://www.colonialcarriage.com/category.cfm?id=4&start=1

Kimball Bros [Boston] Portland Cutter:  buy this!

[Whatever you do, though, Do Not buy the Albany Cutter.  That is all I'm saying: Don't do it.]

Albany Cutter:
Do Not Buy

No snow?  Still no problem: just bring the carriage instead.  Carriage all packed away for the winter?  You guessed it: no problem there either!  Stop in at Frey Carriage Co and get yourself a new one: order a Frey Sprint Cart for a spring delivery.  The Frey Carriage Co's Dos A Dos will look lovely put to your horse, you know it will.  Or how about a new old one: nothing says Arriving In Style like a Skeleton Boot Victoria.  No coachman?  Removable seat turns this beauty into a George IV.  [That C P Kimball  & Co Tandem Gig?  Forget it.  Walk away.  Or I will never speak to you again.  OK?]  Need to know more?  http://www.colonialcarriage.com/category.cfm?id=3&title=Antique%20Carriages

JB Brewster Skeleton Boot Victoria: with bloodlines like that, you  barely need a horse.  Buy This!

What did I tell you? Walk away. Do not buy.  Nuff said.

Go to Columbus, WI on February 11, drive your horse on the GOLF COURSE, have a Bitter Woman and Loaded Pots at Hydro Street and buy a vehicle from Freys.  [Just not the Albany Cutter or the Tandem gig, or you'll have to deal with a Bitter Blogger.]  I will be here in spirit, [just to make sure] with bells on, wishing you a marvelous rally hosted by even more marvelous folk, in an equally marvelous town.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Brewster & Co Courtesy Carriage Association of America, Frey Carriage Co & NY Times Archive

In keeping with the Carriage Association of America's Winter Conference this weekend in Minneapolis and Frey Carriage Co's recent acquisition of a Brewster Phaeton, I include a link to the New York Times Archives detailing Messrs. Brewster & Co's Annual Exhibition, where vehicles like the one below would have been on  show.

Frey Carriage Company's Brewster Peters Phaeton: polished like a cherished archive of excellence.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F7071FFB3D5910738DDDAE0894DB405B8284F0D3

Brewster made award winning carriages from 1810 and in 1905 morphed into making auto bodies for Rolls Royce and others until 1935 when the company, ravaged by the Great Depression and despite continually winning accolades for their body designs, closed in bankruptcy.  For years the Brewster Trophy was the most coveted harness prize at Madison Square Garden Horse Shows.  Edward King, manager of the New York National Horse Show referred to Tiffany & Co as the "Brewster of jewelers".  Cole Porter Sang" You' re the top!  You're a Ritz hot toddy!  You're the top! You're a Brewster body."  Ironic that Brewster should be named in a song from Anything Goes, as James Brewster was teetotal and payed his employees with high wages as long as they would not drink on the job.

The Hallmark of a Carriage Builder: Brewster Oil Cap stamped with Vehicle Serial Number.  Photo: Frey Carriage Co

Brewster was a sign of quality in workmanship, design and detail.  For every carriage Brewster built, detailed records were kept: customer order information and vehicle description and specifications.  The CAA has an online record for members of all the transactions in the Sales and Specifications Books.

It is with gratitude to the NY Times for archiving our history through news stories, Frey Carriage Co for restoring our history through carriages, and the CAA for preserving the relevance of a business  forced to reinvent itself after 90 years.  And to the Brewster carriages, themselves, which prove, quality never goes out of style and just gets better with age.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation Company.

Frey Carriage Company's SSSC: Smart Sexy Sprint Cart

Frey Sprint Carts are Smart.  Smart Carts are Sexy.  Therefore: Frey Carriage Co's Smart Sexy Sprint Cart.

If you are in the market for an entry level vehicle that will help you train and condition your horse with enough style to take you down the road or up to preliminary CDE's, Frey Carriage Company has Smart Sexy Sprint Carts for $2495.  [Well, yes, I may have taken a liberty with the name of the vehicle...]  Frey Carriage Co has put a lot of research and development into this vehicle and it shows: American made in the tradition that once made this country great.  In fact, that is what I think really sets Frey Carriage Co apart from other carriage manufacturers: tradition infused with innovation.

Clean lines, precision in every detail.  If Coco Chanel made Sprint Carts, this would be her little black dress.  This vehicle is De Con Architecture of carriage building and design. 

Frey Carriage Co's king pin, Todd Frey, has a soft spot for traditional vehicles.  His engineering and architectural background mean that Frey looks first to form and function and then to fashion.  The old vehicles were powerful examples of engineering and beauty and Frey has studied them all from the unique perspective of the restoration process.  Yet, he has the foresight of a designer: innovation with modern materials.

If a Kentucky Style Breaking Cart and a Whiskey Gig were crossed and put in a time machine set for 2011, the offspring would be called Frey Sprint Cart.

The Sprint Cart is evidence of this.  It isn't a bench seat set on an elliptic spring bolted on an axle with two bicycle wheels and tubular steel shafts from a folding chair manufacturer.  I have written before about proprietors who go to enormous lengths to supply the finest products anywhere on earth to a discerning public.  Todd Frey is yet another example of the pursuit of excellence in manufacturing in an increasingly outsourced world.

Openly Bi-Functional: Swingletree has a Hook for Traditional Slotted Traces or an Eye for Marathon Shackles.  Frey Sprint Cart can take you from High Class to the Other Side of the Tracks. 

The Sprint Cart's seat sits sleekly above the wheels [where you should be, IMHO] on shock absorbers and has further height adjustment to accommodate different sized horses.  The toe board is at a graceful and functional angle.  So many modern carriage builders confuse the toe board with the dash and do not leave adequate leg room.  Modern bells and whistles include adjustable seat, axle and shafts, marathon wheels and tires then top it all off with an impeccable Frey Carriage Co finish and why would you want anything else?

Agile and quick but highly refined: a perfect marriage of form and function.  "Any color- so long as it's black." Henry Ford

Distinguish your SSSC with a custom package: Country Vehicle, Marathon, Presentation or simplly invest in a wedge seat to get you up where you belong...above all the competition.  Speaking of which, the nearest comparable vehicle has a ticket price more than $1500 above the Sprint Cart.  This is not accidental sagacity, the Frey Sprint Cart is smart and sexy.

I'm putting my name on the list for a spring delivery.  So I can be smart and sexy.  For more information on Frey Sprint Carts: http://www.colonialcarriage.com/item.cfm?id=1070
or follow them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frey-Carriage-Company/137070584654?v=wal
or do the old fashioned thing and call them: [920] 623-1998.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Acciental Sagacity Corporation company.