While there were a few interesting moments along the way, Conner Prairie’s first Headless Horseman, Bruce McMahon, did go home from the experience with his head intact. (Photo provided by Sharon McMahon)
By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Halloween is just around the corner. Kids are looking forward to costumes and candy. Young adults are haunted house hopping. Families are going to try the terror of the trail in Cicero this coming weekend. And at Conner Prairie, the Headless Horseman rides again!
The Reporter’s own columnist, Sharon McMahon, donated a horse and a husband to Conner Prairie’s first Headless Horseman event. Sharon and Bruce McMahon were kind enough to speak to The Reporter and tell us their tale of terror.
According to Sharon, in the summer of 1983 the McMahons donated their Morgan horse, Strategy’s Fate, to Conner Prairie.
“The Morgan horse [breed] was historically used in 1836, the timeframe that Conner Prairie specifically portrayed at that time,” Sharon said. “Morgans were also used extensively as cavalry mounts and artillery horses during the Civil War. We also believed that he would get more exercise as he was high-spirited and could use the additional attention.”
Sharon was part of the Programming Department at that time, and when the staff began discussing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, she suggested a rider for the Headless Horseman role: her husband, Bruce, who had ridden since childhood, and of course was familiar with Strategy’s Fate.
The truth is, she “donated” Bruce’s service before approaching him, a typical approach that they say has worked well over the years.
“Sharon just said, ‘Hey, we were talking about Halloween out at work, and we decided that you’re going to be the headless horsemen,’” Bruce told The Reporter “I said, ‘Who is we?’ I was included in the we, but I think it was just Sharon. She just ‘voluntold’ me I was going to do it. And we did it. But it was fun. It was kind of neat. It was a good thing for me to see the horse again, because I hadn’t ridden him probably since he’d gone out there.”
The Programming Department did not own a Headless Horseman costume, so creative minds went to work to make it happen on a non-existent budget.
According to Sharon, since it was football season, they decided some of the equipment available might be just the ticket. Bruce was outfitted in shoulder pads with Styrofoam blocks duct taped to the shoulders and a red cape attached to that. He also wore a football helmet with a second red cape duct taped to the top of the helmet. Wearing this apparatus, he was expected to ride through an apple orchard in the dark carrying his “head” as a pumpkin with a flashlight inside. He did this for two nights as Strategy’s Fate ran wild through the orchard and a wagon load of kids tried to keep abreast.
“They did all the work, and they did everything for the little accoutrement that I had to wear,” Bruce said. “I had my little orange pumpkin; I think somebody bought it at Dollar General. They probably didn’t have a Dollar General then, just probably at one of the cheap stores. But it was just a little plastic pumpkin that I was holding under my arm with a flashlight inside it. So there wasn’t a lot of light out there. It was dark in the orchard.”
Bruce rode at night, one-handed, while tucking a pumpkin and looking through the neck of the headless man’s outfit.
“There wasn’t a lot of light, and there wasn’t much space for my eyes to see,” Bruce said. “The horse was pretty much doing it all, and he went under a couple of the trees out there. I don’t know if they’ve still got that orchard quite the same way, but they were pretty low-hanging branches. So we went under a couple of those, and the first round, the horse was a little bit nervous about it. But he wasn’t mad. He was a pretty calm horse most of the time.”
After the first wagon passed, Bruce had a little time to get off Strategy’s Fate, stand on the ground for a bit, and get a little help straightening out the outfit because one of the low-hanging branches had caught him off guard.
For the first wagon, there was a bit of daylight remaining, which made things easier than they would become after sunset.
“Then it got dark, and I think the second one that came by, I tried to get up close to it, and some kid threw an apple, and then another kid threw something, and the horse kind of went a little bit weird,” Bruce said. “I tried to get away, and I didn’t get up as close after that. I don’t know how many times they came by, but I was worn out by the time it was over with.”
Somewhere out there are a couple people who still get to brag about saving the other kids on their hayride from the Headless Horseman by throwing apples.
“Yeah, because the horsemen ran away – because we did!” Bruce said. “We tried to get out of there. They were all kind of yelling, and it was fun, kind of interesting. But I was glad I only did it a few years. I think I did it two or three years maybe. Then I think they upgraded to a better horse, a better rider, and a better outfit.”
In case you are wondering about the (clears throat) fate of Strategy’s Fate, Bruce told The Reporter he thinks the horse went off to an Amish farm.
“Maybe later on and was maybe pulling a buggy until he died,” Bruce said.
If you’d like to experience the modern version of the Headless Horseman Festival at Conner Prairie, tickets and information are available online at connerprairie.org/headless-horseman.
