The Southern Indiana Draft Horse and Mule Association started it's annual Fall wagon train ride on Saturday September 9, 2017. This year's ride began at the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln near Lincoln City, Indiana. We camped at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial where we were treated wonderfully by Bob Zimmerman and his staff. Some of the club members put on demonstrations of plowing and disking with horses and mules while the rest of us went on wagon rides in the area. We rode mainly in Spencer County, but we also ventured onto some of the backroads of neighboring Warrick County during our daily rides. The original plan had us staying at the Park until Wednesday when we were to move to the farm of club member Chuck Painter and then to ride in the vacinity of his farm for the remainder of the week, but the rains from Hurricane Irma arrived on Tuesday and we decided to remain at the Park until that rain passed by since there was concern that it would get muddy getting into Chuck's fields. We finally moved to Chuck and Cindy's farm of Friday morning. They had done a lot of work in preparation for the group and it was a shame that we weren't able to spend more time at their place.
The turnout for this year's ride was a bit disappointing, but we had 4 to 6 wagons or buggies each day. There was some turnover as different people came and rode for a day or two and were then replaced by others. We had no outriders at all as the daughter of our President who normally outrides with her husband, had chosen this as the week to get married. If some of the accompaning photos look similar, it is because it is difficult to find different ways to show the same people, wagons and scenery after the first few days. I hope you enjoy the photos I've posted as much as I enjoyed taking them.