CARIBBEAT: Veteran NYC carriage driver expands business — to his native St. Lucia

For close to three decades, St. Lucia-born Kiernan Emanus has been beaten down by cold, rain, and unbearable heat as a driver of a New York City horse-drawn carriage. But after 27 years, he still loves his job and the horses and he’s enthusiastically undertaking an equine-connected business venture by opening a horse and carriage company in his tropical Caribbean homeland.

In St. Lucia, hopefully by the end of this year, Emanus will open one of the few horse-and-carriage attractions in the Caribbean region for tourists and locals. St. Lucia has already gained fame for its proliferation of stables offering horses to trot and gallop through the surf of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Once his carriage riders — and their horses — are properly trained, Emanus hopes to make a big splash on the island nation with his new company.

“It could be a major, major attraction,” Emanus said excitedly. “I saw the need for it [horse and carriage] in St. Lucia, because horseback riding is a very big thing down there now. Especially, the horseback riding in the water thing,” he said. “The only problem I face is there aren’t enough carriage drivers, and I don’t take chances,” said Emanus, who’ll be traveling to St. Lucia soon to conduct training for the carriage drivers and their horses. Emanus is also in the process of setting up his online and social media presence for the business.

Meanwhile in New York, Emanus continues to be an enthusiastic member of the city’s heavily-immigrant horse and carriage industry. Over the years, he’s introduced a couple of Caribbean folks into business, which he says is about “95%” immigrants — Turkish, Irish Italians, and others. Emanus estimates he could count the number of Americans in the business “on the fingers of one hand.”

His St. Lucia venture is part of a decade-long, serendipitous journey that started when he was as a youngster. Back then, he would often ride a family friend’s horses. As an adult, Emanus owned a manufacturing plant, making chow mein noodles for restaurants and grocery stores. Five months after he came to New York in 1996, his luck while he was sauntering to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan’s West Side — he passed a horse stable where workers were struggling to unload a massive truckload of hay.

“I stopped there watching, because once you’re into horses, you’re into horses. So a gentleman asked, ‘you want to give us a hand, and we’ll pay you.’ Emanus helped, and “within the week,” he had a job offer, along with a hearty recommendation from the laborers he assisted that day. “So, I took the job” — first serving as a stable worker, learning about carriages over a few months, and eventually becoming a carriage driver.

“Years later, when they decided to go out of business, I decided to go on my own.”

Today, in addition to setting up his St. Lucia business, Emanus is prepping in New York for the upcoming holiday seasons. “The busiest time for bookings is Thanksgiving to the second week in January,” he said. “It’s really booked up.” Visit centralpark.com/tours for horse and carriage rides or call Emanus at (917) 705-0952.

It’s ‘Dance Grenada’ time

Under the theme, “The Time is Now: Unification under the Grenadian Sun,” Dance Grenada Festival — an event featuring “Grenadian and international dance artisans” — is returning for its fourth season, from Oct. 20 through Oct 23.

The four-day festival features performances and workshops in “Caribbean Contemporary, Afro-Cuban, Soca, Traditional Grenadian Folk Dance, and Hip Hop” taught by experts from the Caribbean and the U.S., cooking demonstrations, an international vendor’s marketplace, and special celebrations of the “the island’s renowned cultural practitioners.” To purchase dance festival tickets and get more information, visit dancegrenada.com.