I wrote to Gerard Paagman to let him know that his story (and photos) on the Olympic torch relay across the frozen lake, with his Friesians and sleigh, has received more comments than any other post on this blog.

Here’s his response:

For sure we are very delighted by the mail you’ve sent us.

I started driving a little pony when I was 8 years old (sometimes the pony drove me in those days!!) and now I’m 53 years old.

The pony became a bigger pony, then a horse and then a pair and the multiples! And we have always done as many things as we could do: from trail driving (or driving on the beach when we were living near the ocean in The Netherlands) to competition driving, from parades to weddings, from taking the horses for a swim to racing with the horses. And so … we feel very fortunate that horses have been taking such an important part of our lives.

And from all those events, shows, performances we have done, our performance in the Olympic torch relay was the very best. What an experience and what an honor!

 Also, here’s a video clip I found on YouTube, which highlights the torch’s  progress and has short clips of the horses during the first half of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pz7iLn3nMI