Lebanon parade of horse drawn carriages

Saturday
One of my favourite events to go to at this time of year is the annual Parade of horse-drawn carriages in Lebanon Ohio, just about a 25 minute drive north of us. Lebanon is a lovely historic town. It’s perhaps best known as the home to the Golden Lamb, founded in 1802, and the state’s oldest continually operated business. Over the years it has hosted a wealth of celebrities and political leaders, including 12 U.S. Presidents, Ohio born astronaut Neil Armstrong, Charles Dickens and Annie Oakley. It can be seen in the background of a couple of my collage photos, with the white pillars and white balcony. They do the parade twice during the day, once at 1 pm and once in the evening at 7 pm, with the carriages illuminated. We went up for the afternoon, and we timed it perfectly. It’s a very popular event, so parking is the first problem, but having been on several occasions now, we have a good idea where to try, and we found a spot heading into town, leaving four or five blocks to walk. Then, just as we were approaching the junction where we were aiming for, at a spot where the parade turns to the right, so affording a little more time to capture them as they go by, they were just about to block off the road, so whilst the road either side of the junction were already lined with people, we were right in place to go stand behind the barriers as they put them up. It was also a good spot from the light point of view, since we had the sun behind us. It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool, but not too cold. Once we were in position, we had about 20 minutes to wait. I don’t think there were as many entrants in the parade as previous years we have been -:I think the cost of keeping a horse is getting too expensive for some people who’ve had them before. However, there was still a great variety from the big shire horses, pulling large carriages of different sorts, down to miniature ponies and donkeys, all decked out in their finery. It’s a really great festive event. After the parade, we walked through some of the stalls, and food trucks, and enjoyed some hot apple cider accompanied by some confectionary, before returning home.