louie traub/viewA pair of horses pull a carriage down First Street. The rides are available on Fridays and Saturdays.
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Carriage rides, like those famously available in New York City's Central Park, are now available in downtown Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Carriage, a company that has long provided carriage rides in Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs in addition to riding lessons, carriages and a covered wagon for special events, has teamed up with a downtown chapel to begin offering the rides on Fridays and Saturdays, roughly between 6:30 and 10 p.m.
A 15- to 20-minute ride along a set route through the downtown area costs $30. The cost of a ride can go up to $90 for a 50-minute trip. For licensing purposes, Las Vegas Carriage is unable to pick up passengers from anywhere and drop them off at a location of their choosing.
The mainstays of the route will be tree-lined 6th and 7th streets, which run through one of the most historic residential neighborhoods in downtown. There will be a pick-up spot at 8th and Fremont streets and also at several of the downtown wedding chapels.
Las Vegas Carriage owner Robert Humpherys and business partner Stephen Smith are starting small at two days a week, with two carriages and four draft horses, but they said they would like to expand the schedule and the fleet if all goes well. For the time being, Smith suggested that until the business really gets under way, it would be best to call ahead to catch a carriage.
Originally from Star Valley, Wyo., Humpherys has been running Las Vegas Carriage for five years. He has long wanted to start a carriage business downtown. The turning point came on the day he saw a carriage parked outside of Smith's Downtown Community Church, 901 E. Ogden Ave., run by Smith. The nondenominational church does some weddings. Smith had access to a stable downtown and was himself working toward starting a carriage business.
Smith, who works in insurance, on top of his responsibilities as a minister, said his main role in the business is marketing, while Humpherys will focus on such things as training the drivers.
The drivers, who will wear Western attire, are trained under high-traffic conditions with young horses to prepare them for working in an urban environment.
"Robert is the professional horse man, but I've been around it all my life," Smith said.
The stable was crucial because the horses are not permitted on the streets between the high-traffic hours of 3 and 6 p.m.
Among other safety precautions for both passengers and the animals themselves, the horses cannot work unless the temperature is under 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so Humpherys is looking to spring, fall and especially the holidays as peak times for carriage rides.
"For the bulk of the summer, it won't happen," Humpherys said.
Making sure the horses are well cared for is part of his contract with the city, but Humpherys said he wouldn't have it otherwise.
"All those things are common sense that I've had in place for years," the entrepreneur said.
Still, he admits that while that city has been willing to work with Smith and himself, it was a long process to get approval.
"Every department that the city has, we've been to," he said.
"We just didn't see any reason not to have carriages. We just simply laid the cards out on the table. There's a carriage ride business in every major city," he said.
Las Vegas Mayor Pro-Tem Gary Reese of Ward 3, which encompasses the downtown area south of Fremont Street, where the carriages rides will run for part of their route, said that while he was concerned about safety and the well-being of the horses, he was satisfied that it would be a safe operation when he voted to approve Las Vegas Carriage to operate downtown. He also said he thought it would be a good thing.
"We're building a downtown. Gambling is our livelihood, but there should be other reasons why people would want to come downtown," he said.
For more information on Las Vegas Carriage, call 596-6715 or go to www.lasvegascarriage.com.
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