Newport Life magazine It seemed like a great idea at the time. It was the late 1980s, and Newport was hosting the St. Patrick’s Day parade, as it had every year since 1957. One of the sponsors brought along a half-dozen miniature Clydesdale horses. Prancing proudly in the middle of the parade, the diminutive equines did indeed charm the spectators — if not the marchers who followed. “The people who came after had to tiptoe the rest of the route,” says James Mahoney, Grand Marshal of the 2008 parade. Lesson learned. “After that year, all equestrian mounts were placed at the end,” he says with a chuckle.