A new horse-drawn carriage service could be riding onto the scene.

Niagara-on-the-Lake currently permits five carriages to operate and industry veteran Ronda Cave hopes to operate the town’s sixth. 

After Cave appeared before council April 11 requesting a licence to operate her service on town property, council deferred the matter to staff for investigation. 

Cave said she feels a little in limbo while she waits for the town to decide the matter.

The town’s five carriages operate under Queens Royal Tours Inc. and Sentineal Carriages Inc. respectively. 

If the town permits her to operate, Cave’s will be the third horse carriage company in town. 

She told The Lake Report in an interview she wants to be “captain of my own ship.” 

Cave has been operating horse-drawn carriages with Queens Royal Tours since 2005.

Since first joining the industry as a part-time driver, Cave said she has slowly been acquiring her own equipment.

She said she was often providing her own equipment and horses while working with Queens Royal Tours.

In 2022, she decided it was time to take the reins and start her own business.

Her company is still young, having no official name or website.

“I might take a dramatic name,” Cave said.

In her time with Queens Royal Tours, she said she found the need for an additional carriage. 

“There were days out there when five carriages, you know, could not provide all of the service required,” she said.

Operators need to consider the age and ability of the horses, Cave said, and take time between rides to rest them.

“It can’t be a merry-go-round,” she said. 

If she receives a licence, this sixth carriage will operate in Old Town.

However, Cave said there are opportunities to do something new, too, like running “specialized tours.”

She suggested one such tour could explore the town’s Black or Indigenous history. 

Cave said she sees the horse-drawn carriage as a unique piece of heritage worth preserving. 

“The nicest thing out there is working with the children who have never seen a horse,” she said. “I have literally been asked how you turn it off.”

The job is a labour of love, she said.

“I don’t know anybody that just says I’m going out there to make money from tourism,” she said.

Cave isn’t sure how many carriages she’ll be able to run. 

That much depends on whether the town permits her license.