For years, Christmas decorations have been being crafted out of a variety of items, food, craft products, etc. However, have you ever seen a Christmas tree built out of horse shoes? Well, two Chestermere men have done just that!
Anne and Rick Donhauser live on an acreage close to the waterslides in Chestermere and their neighbour and good friend is Jesse Caldas. Jesse’s girlfriend’s Dad owns Brewster Adventures, (www.brewsteradventures.com) and she had stumbled across a photo online of a Christmas tree made of horseshoes and loved the idea. Brewster Adventures is a very well-known adventure company that runs Sleigh rides, Horseback riding and BBQ’s in their big Dance Barn at Chateau Lake Louise to people from around the world.
So Jesse enlisted the help of neighbour and good friend, Rick, to help build the horse shoe tree. With Donhauser being a pipefitter by trade and owning his own welding equipment, his garage was quickly turned into the birth place of the unique Christmas tree. After 89 hours of work, 1350 horseshoes (that the Brewster family has saved over the years from their own horses), 44 pounds of welding wire the completed tree is a thing of beauty and stands at an impressive 14 feet and 8 inches tall.
The Horseshoe Christmas tree was transported in three sections and is now a permanent fixture in the Dance Barn in Lake Louise.
Jesse has registered their Horseshoe Christmas Tree with the Guinness world book of records as the largest sculpture made out of horseshoes. He has not heard back from them but the largest sculpture listed online is listed as follows… “The largest horseshoe sculpture contained 1,071 horseshoes and was created by Donnie Faulk (USA) in Pulaski, Tennessee, United States, with the final measurement being made on 4 September 2006.”
