There’s a new way to experience the Riverfront Trail on the Riverview side, you can ride in an old-fashioned horse and carriage.

Ryan Hicks of Spirit Ridge Farms helped come up with the idea, “I brought it to the Town. Since COVID we’ve been slowed down a lot. I was trying to think of a way to bring something to Riverview to offer an experience that they don’t normally get to experience. We have a couple of the antique carriages that they used in the olden days and people don’t normally get to see them. I came up with the idea that our Riverfront Trail would work well with the carriage and I brought it to the Town and they were willing to help us get started.

He says through Spirit Ridge Farms, they’ve always done weddings, proms and birthday parties in places including St. Anselme, Memramcook, Dieppe, Amherst and Salisbury.

Rides started the week of July 17, “We got a pretty good response. Now it’s just a matter of getting the word out,” Hicks says.

(Photo: submitted)

The 30-minute rides are on Wednesday evenings and need to be booked online in advance on the Town website.

The ride starts down from the bridge on Hillsborough Road and it goes to Lookout Point, just past Transaqua.

“We’re using our horse, Gus. He is a black Percheron horse and he weighs around 2000 to 2200 hundred pounds. He’s a big strong healthy boy and has no trouble pulling the carriage. You can either put the top up or down depending on the weather,” Hicks says.

The carriage fits four adults comfortably, and children.

The cost is an $80 flat rate, and they do six bookings on Wednesday evenings.

“I’m going to go as long as I can this summer. Once the snow starts falling, we might have to look at doing something different because you can’t have the carriage out in the snow, unfortunately,” Hicks adds.