Conley's Horse Photos

2021 Kentucky Muleskinners

Renfro Valley/Barbourville

Wagon Train Ride

 

Members of the Kentucky Mule Skinners left Mink's Farm near Harrodsburg, Kentucky on 9/27/21 with a small group of wagons to spend the next two weeks driving their wagons southeast across central Kentucky to Renfro Valley and eventually, on south to Barbourville, Ky for the annual Daniel Boone Festival. The plan was to ride the wagons to the next destination each day and then to return at the end of the day to move up the horse trailers and other vehicles with the animal feed and our living quarters. There were only 3 wagons and a few outriders on this year's ride as old age and fear of Covid seems have overtaken many of those who would have participated in the past. The weather for the first week of the ride was ideal with sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70's. This resulted in excellent travel times as there was much less need to stop and rest the animals. We laid over for two days at Lake Linville near Renfro Valley and participated in the Bittersweet Festival Parade in Mt Vernon, Kentucky on one of those layover days. We left Renfro Valley on Sunday morning and drove the wagons through overcast skies and on and off showers much of the day. In fact, the overcast skies and the threat of rain remained with us through much of the rest of the week. In London, Kentucky we were again the guests of Ray Hammons and his family at their farm just outside of London. Mr Hammons was confined to a wheelchair recovering from some broken bones, but seemed delighted that we had come to visit. They have a beautiful place and we laid over there for a day enjoying their hospitality before continuing on. We arrived in Barbourville on Wednesday afternoon and camped on the grounds of one of the local elementary schools. Our plan was to ride in the Daniel Boone Festival Parade on Saturday so we had plenty of time until then. On Friday, we were joined by a few local wagons and took a 13 mile ride around Knox county. During that ride, the only casualty of the trip occured when a weld on the coupling pole on Dannie Crawford's wagon broke. Fortunately, one of the locals was able to call his son who quickly appeared in his work truck which had all the tools necessary for him to make the repair. He said the it didn't look real pretty, but that it was more than adequate given the situation we were in.

I wanted to warn long time viewers of this website that there are not as many photos this year as I would normally have taken. Due to Dannie's health and the fact that our Amish helper had to go back home for school during the second week of the trip, your photographer had to take a much more active role than usual in feeding, harnessing, and driving, etc. Dannie had brought two teams and wagons so that our Amish helper would have something to drive while he was with us. His departure created a vaccumn that your photographer was required to fill. I found that it was very difficult to take photos while harnessing or with a set of lines in my hands. However, a lot of the daily activities were captured by others in the group on their cell phones and posted on Facebook and other social media, so be sure to look there for more photos.

Click on the links below to see the photos that I took on this adventure.


 

  

Click the links below to see photos from this event!

Harrodsburg to Renfro Valley

Renfro Valley to Barbourville

A DVD with a slideshow of all of the photos displayed for this event is available for $35 including shipping. 

Individual photos are also available for purchase!  Contact us or click here for more information about ordering.

 

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