Horse Tales
Documentary Captures Mackinac Island's Horses on Film
by Candice C. Dunnigan

Kudos to Jenifer Silvernale and Mark Rensel for capturing horses on Mackinac. Perhaps I had better explain how it was done. I use the term "capture" in the preservation sense, for they did so on film. Earlier this summer on Mackinac, Ms. Silvernale and Mr. Rensel (with the help of Rob Jerstrom) premiered a new film they produced entitled "Ice Bridge."

"Ice Bridge" is a beautiful and sensitive movie that took the husband and wife couple several years to complete. "Ice Bridge" is a naturalist's journey through the seasons of the Island, with emphasis on the off-seasons, but the equines play a role throughout and the footage of equines is unique.

It's not too hard for any Mackinac film maker who wants horses to find them. The count has to be infinite for the number of times teams of them can be found on home movies, especially those from Mackinac Island Carriage Tours wagons and taxis. Most people who want to film something about Mackinac Island to bring back home start when they see the horses standing in harness in front of the freight drays, ready to off-load or load incoming groceries or supplies. The next logical progression is the traffic on Main Street, and the awaiting hourly carriage liveries at Doud's corner, below Fort Mackinac. Add the rental buggies and saddle horses going up and down Cadotte Avenue and you come away with a fairly good sense of much of the daily horse traffic that helps to make Mackinac Island distinctive from other summer resorts and communities.

Buck Sharrow removes a blanket from his team on Main Street. The community Christmas tree is in the background. (Photograph courtesy of Mark Rensel)

What "Ice Bridge" has, however, is some of the best footage of horses in harness in the winter. It is what Currier and Ives painted, except it is the real thing. Not since the MGM Studios came here in the 1940s to film "This Time For Keeps" have the winter sleighs, complete with jingle bells, been documented.

When Hollywood came to the Island in the winter of 1946, its focus was on a dandy Hackney horse pulling a one-horse open sleigh in the interior roads and near the boardwalk. The snowy footage included Esther Williams, Johnny Johnson, and a child actress in tow, singing merrily along the route, just like in a holiday carol. The movie may be more than 60 years old, but those winter scenes can move an audience to oohs and ahhs when they see it. It still works for me, too.

Buck Sharrow with his prancing team and cutter sleigh in front of Grand Hotel, silent under winter's snow. (Photograph courtesy of Mark Rensel)

"Ice Bridge" does the same thing, but it goes beyond. In several segments, it captures not a single one-horse open sleigh but several. The horses are Hackneys, but the difference is that the segments of them in "Ice Bridge" were not staged for the camera. Mr. Rensel was fortunate enough to be on hand to document some wonderful sleighing weekends. Not only did he film them, he caught them being driven by three of Mackinac Island's best drivers, Dr. William Chambers, Danny Mitchell, and Buck Sharrow.

In the scenes, "Snow Globe" combines the essence of the quiet charm of horses being driven across snowy streets, pulling sleighs and then sliding next to the parked snowmobiles in town. It show them almost effortlessly gliding down Market Street, rounding the corner down Hoban Avenue, and turning onto Main next to the Island's Christmas tree in the middle of the street.

It was a great winter the year Dr. Bill brought out his rare, antique fire-engine red large passenger sleigh and hitched four dancing and dashing horses to it. All the horses pranced that afternoon. A young Hackney, in the capable hands of Dano Mitchell, even got so excited, he reared. Mark Rensel captured that, too.

The DVD, which runs a little more than an hour, helps to beat the heat and slow the heart rate. Even the horses would agree.

Candice Dunnigan is an active member of the American Equestrian Association, the Waterloo Hunt, and the Mackinac Horsemen's Association. Seasonally she resides at Easterly Cottage.