Pony Parade at New Bedford, Ohio (Panorama)

I’ve zoomed in below on a few chunks of this superb panorama photo shared by reader Mike Atnip (you might recall his previous panorama of the Meadow Mill School Auction).

Mike describes this photo as “Lining up for the pony parade at New Bedford, Ohio.”

The 15-minute parade, which you can see includes many Amish children as well as adults helping out, is part of the area’s annual Merchant Days.

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New Bedford is a tiny little place (“all of about two blocks long” as Mike describes it) on the border of Holmes and Coshocton counties, a heavily-Amish area in the state’s largest settlement.

Merchant Days is “a way for the town to draw in some extra business. Several of the small towns in the area do something similar every year.”

Mike notes that other attractions “include sale prices, drawings for free prizes, raffles to support charity causes, garage sales, an auction, and (in the last few years) volleyball and corn toss games.”

And what’s to eat? Says Mike: “in the midst of it all are the food stands, many times set up by the local Amish schools to make a few bucks in support of the school.”

A closer look

Here are the zoomed-in shots (I’ve chunked the panorama into four pieces). I like how you can see all the little interactions and wonder what’s going on in each one.

The children expectantly waiting for the start, a bored-looking dad looking maybe wishing he was somewhere hunting, girls chatting about who knows what, an Amishman with a microphone directing something out of the shot.

What do you notice?

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    9 Comments

    1. Bill Rushby

      I wish I could be there for the event!

    2. Juanita Cook

      Looks like everyone is having a fun time. Thanks for sharing the pictures…

    3. TLC SLP

      I'm from New Bedford...

      Massachusetts! It is a small city, the most profitable fishing port in the US, the start of the novel Moby Dick, and definitely NOT a place where pony parades are common, lol!

      Thank you for the interesting photo. I really enjoyed searching for details. The colors of the outfits and the bright green field were so inviting!

    4. Slightly-handled-Order-man

      small towns are awesome.

      small towns are awesome.

      My aunt, uncle, and their children and grand children live in a town that you can stroll around the outer road loop in the town site in about 20 minutes, if you ever had seen the Canadian sitcom “Corner Gas” it is kind of like that but not as cartoony comical (although there will be humour if you look for it)

    5. eli

      Is it just me, or are there a lot less suspenders than one would expect to see at such a gathering?

      1. Good observation, Holmes County is different than say Lancaster County. Suspenders are not as commonly worn.

      2. Amish_Girl Rebecca

        Eli,
        Suspenders are typically only worn by little boys and middle-aged to older men. You are not likely to see too many between 12 and 50 wearing suspenders in Holmes.

    6. OldKat

      Lots of chrome

      Some horse people would say that many of those ponies have “lots of chrome” on them. Not that they are hitched to a buggy or wagon with actual chrome on it, but that they are flashy in their coloring: paints/pintos and at least one that may have some Appaloosa blood in it.

      Most of the Amish owned horses I have seen over the years have been solid colored horses; bays, blacks, sorrels, chestnuts, etc. Though I can’t say that I have ever paid any attention to the ponies that their children may drive.

      Does anyone know if is common in many Amish communities for the children to drive the flashy colored ponies seen in this panorama?

      1. Pony chrome

        Love the expression. I’m not an equine person, but to these eyes the ponies don’t look any differently from those you usually see Amish children driving. It would make sense that for a casual fun event like this they’d just use their own regular ponies, and especially since Amish aren’t really into “show” events anyway.

        But interesting to learn that there is such a thing as a flashy pony and that that seems to be what a lot of Amish kids drive.