Horse-Drawn Garbage Wagon in Vermont

By Jim Johnson | WRN senior reporter

Nov. 29 (Bristol, Vt.) -- Pat Palmer´s trash collection vehicle runs only on two horsepower.Real horsepower, that is.

Their names are Jerry and Jake, a pair of dapple gray Persheron draft horses that wind their way through Bristol every Friday morning, pulling a wooden trash collection wagon designed to look like a sleigh.

Clip-clop, clip-clop – the sound of the horses´ shoes hitting the asphalt serves as a rhythmic soundtrack to what has become a 14-year tradition in this quiet town of about 3,750 people.

Palmer and helper Lynda Malzac are familiar faces to those along their route, where residents put out an average of about 150 bags of trash each week for collection. But they are not the stars of the show.

On a recent Friday, a woman from California was out snapping photographs, saying that there´s no such service where she lives – hardly a surprise.

At another point, a father and infant daughter waited patiently by their bags of trash with a bribe.

Would a plate of cookies be enough to allow them to jump on board for a little ride along the trash route? Sure enough.

"A lot of people just want to ride for the fun of it. A lot of townspeople do it," Palmer said. "It´s fresh air. I think it´s very calming. The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person, and that´s not an original quote."


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