Deborah Burst
Countless little girls clamor for their own ponies, and a million more fantasize about riding to the ball in a jeweled pumpkin carriage. In Brandie Wilcox’s wildest childhood dreams, she had both the dazzling cart and the horse—and she was holding the reins.
A tall white Shire named Luke noses his way into our conversation beneath the shrouded oaks of the Pegasus Carriage Company farm; Wilcox stops to greet him, parting the hair from his eyes, before returning to her Cinderella story.
She had a rocky start. Of course, so did Cinderella.
For Wilcox, it was more about the horses than the carriage. She wanted to share a life with horses, but at the age of ten, she had already outgrown the jockey requirements. And then she watched the wedding of Princess Diana live on television. “That’s when my fascination with carriage horses began,” said Wilcox, petting Luke. “I was a city girl, the daughter of teenagers, and bounced from relatives to foster homes around Southern California.”
Wilcox admits it was a very rough time transferring from one school to another, but she found her saving grace—the school library. “I would spend hours sitting on the floor reading every book I could about horses,” she said. Her self-taught curriculum included periodicals and encyclopedia entries, anything remotely related to horses. “I escaped the realities of life [by] dreaming of a meadow, surrounded by trees and filled with horses of every shape, size, and color.”
When Wilcox turned eleven years old, her birth mother returned and the two made their home in Oregon. It was there she received her first horse, an elderly Arabian mare named Annie. “I played hooky from school with that horse,” she said with a smile. “Annie was my best friend, and we got into all kinds of mischief.”
Wilcox moved to Louisiana in 1996, got married two years later to her husband Bill, and soon founded B&B Stables. The Pegasus Carriage Company was born in 2006; in 2015, the family and business moved to their current location in Waldheim. The farm is home to six English Shires, four owned by Pegasus, and more than twenty horses on site, including the boarders and those used for the equestrian academy.
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Dedicated to making clients’ dreams come true, Pegasus offers brides everything from traditional church service to a grand plantation extravaganza. Mardi Gras krewes choose from wagons, carriages, or white English Shires saddled with the krewe’s royal court. Both the carriages and horses are dressed in the appropriate regalia—ranging from an antique-style hearse for jazz funerals to drivers suited in dinner jackets for the Cinderella coach.
It’s a huge responsibility—only one shot to make that picture-perfect memory—and Wilcox is quick to acknowledge she couldn’t do it without her Pegasus team. Husband Bill tends to mechanical issues, son Andrew is the farrier and specializes in equine hoof care, and the thirteen-year old twins, Billy and Emily, help with farm chores and are active leaders in the academy. Assistant Tyler Pigott manages the big farm chores and assists Wilcox with the gigs. And daughter Cady is always there for moral support. “Preparation for these gigs begins days in advance, charging batteries for the carriage lights, detailing and decorating vehicles,” Wilcox explained, “and packing my trailer with everything needed to stage the equine-assisted fantasy.”
Deborah Burst
Pleasing her clients is of paramount importance along with the safety and comfort of her animals, and Wilcox fosters positive interactions between the two species. Trust is a requisite trait when working with horses; as herd animals, they require a worthy leader that will protect them. “Once they learn this, they will follow fearlessly,” said Wilcox. “But trust is earned on the horse’s terms, not mine.”
According to Wilcox, each horse has a different personality and skill set; it’s her mission to know them well enough to assign work based on the individual. “Most of my horses have been with me for many years and we have personal relationships that are different from horse to horse,” she said, hugging Luke, the passionate one. “Luke will tolerate just about any kind of crazy stimulus you throw his way. Gianni, on the other hand, loves hard work and will pull and work his heart out.”
There’s a risk to getting to know the horses so well; Wilcox learned this with Abigail, or “Abby.” For ten years, they were inseparable. Abby was the queen of Mardi Gras, prancing down St. Charles Avenue at night. Clients would ask for her by name, especially during Carnival. She was a fearless warrior that loved the attention and believed everyone was there to see her, not the parade. “She was very fond of me, I was her favorite human,” said Wilcox. “Abby loved going to work and when she would get home she would throw her legs around her bale of hay and roll around like a kid with a teddy bear at bedtime.”
Shortly after they moved to their new farm in Waldheim, Abigail contracted a bacterial infection. Nothing could be done. “She died here at home with my arms around her neck. We fought for life together, [but] in the end both my veterinarian and I knew that she was ready to go,” said Wilcox with tears in her eyes. “It was hard and it hurt, but it was the right thing to do. The last thing she heard was my tearful goodbye.”
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One stormy morning in early April, Wilcox was awakened by tornado warnings on her phone. She did what any mother would do: put on her boots and headed out to round up her charges. Aside from the flickers of lightning, it was pitch dark in the torrential rain, so Wilcox called out to her Shires.
“They heard my voice and followed me into the barn like a pied piper,” she said. “Walked straight into the stalls, all five of them. It was pretty adorable.”
Today, the Pegasus Carriage Company is the spitting image of what Wilcox imagined reading on the library floor as a child. “I truly believe in my heart that God put me here to build relationships between people and horses,” she said. “They have contributed more to society than any other animal and deserve our reverence and protection.”
Pegasus Carriage Company
78261 Hwy 1083
Bush, La.
(985) 788-6890
