After a rule that came down from the Christmas Parade committeebanning horses and all-terrain vehicles, the local equine communityhas mixed views on the subject.

Valerie Oglesby, who is very involved in 4-H with her children,said she has never allowed her children to ride in the parade forsafety reasons.

“From a safety standpoint, I just don’t want them to,” she said.”I know a lot of people who trail ride and things, and enjoygetting together and doing that, and it’s a fellowship that theyhave to ride together in the parade, but we don’t do that.”

It goes beyond just the safety of the riders, Oglesby said.

“When a child or adult is on a horse, they have to concentrate,because even the best trained horses can get spooked,” she said.”If people in the community aren’t used to being around the horses,if they spook an animal someone’s going to get hurt, and we’re notwilling to take that chance with kids or horses that we ride.”

Meanwhile, Vicki Kinsey, of Kinsey’s Quarter Horses, said sherode in the parade every year until two years ago, and then quitbecause it was cold. It wasn’t anything to do with worrying abouther own safety, she said. Yet she stipulated that care needs to betaken with horses and other animals around the crowds.

“I don’t think it’s a good rule,” she said. “It should be up toan individual to make that decision or not. There are a lot of kidsthat shouldn’t be riding, or people on dangerous horses, but if aperson is old enough and experienced enough, they should beallowed.”

Most of the danger that comes from the horses and their riderseach year comes from a lack of experience, whether it be thehorse’s or the rider’s, Kinsey said.

“So many of the people that ride are not horsemen and are notriding safe, dependable horses,” she said. “Actually I think thatmight be somewhat of a hazard.”

Kinsey said there should be some standards on who is allowed toride in the parade, so that horses can still be a traditional partof the event, but danger is less of an issue.

“I don’t think it’s right for them to not allow them, maybe youshould have some kind of rules as to an age limit or something,”she said. “I just think that if anybody’s old enough and wiseenough and can ride good enough, they should be able to.”

Patricia King Jordan said in a letter to the editor in today’spaper that if the Budweiser Clydesdales were allowed on thestreets, it would seem that normal-sized horses wouldn’t pose aproblem.

“… No one complained last year when the Budweiser Clydesdalescame to town (except those who had a negative association to thehorses because of the company) and those horses are three times asbig as the horses usually seen at the end of the parade,” shewrote.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Cliff Brumfieldsaid the Parade Committee sees the danger coming in that the crowdsare milling around more than usual when the horses go by.

“Horses come through signaling the end of the event, and peoplebegin to leave. Some riders are less experienced than others, andwe’ve had some near tragedies where horses were scared by crowd,and there were riders that almost lost control of their animals,”he said. “As much of a tradition as it’s been, safety trumpsnostalgia.”

Still, Brumfield said, the choice to rule animals out of theparade is not one that was easily made.

“This decision was not made lightly, and we’d rather handle itappropriately than have a child stepped on or kicked by an animal,”he said.

Jordan said tradition is just as important as any other part ofthe parade.

“Don’t let the Christmas Parade become a fad of modern times andwhat very few people want it to be like because it is cool, fancyor like their hometown parades were like,” she wrote. “This isBrookhaven, Mississippi, a Southern city in a Southern state andcountry, set in Southern tradition is what we are!”