Hang On To Your Hats! An Amish “Buggy Race” (12 Photos)
I want to share a remarkable set of photos captured by Don Burke. Here we see an Amish family in Jamesport, Missouri enjoying a buggy race.
So right off the bat: you might be thinking, “is that safe?” Don has addressed that (below).
I actually posted one of these photos on Facebook a week or so back. One commenter called buggy racing on the road “downright stupid”.
On the one hand I understand that concern. I post here about car-buggy crashes all the time.
However, there is context. There’s a difference between doing it in town traffic, and doing it on an empty country road with miles of visibility.
And, a difference between doing it at 60+ mph car speeds and 10+ mph buggy speeds. Don’s reply to the commenter:
I was at this location taking these pictures, able to see the curve the two buggies were coming out of and the straight highway ahead of them. And besides that I observed the speeds both buggies were going. And oddly enough none of it struck me as “stupid.”
And truth be told, I’m also not sure how hard buggy #2 was even pushing it, if you look at the position of the second horse’s legs through this series of photos. I’m calling it a “race”, but it may be closer to glorified passing 😀
That said, you can see the children and no doubt the parents here got a huge kick out of it – and they seem to be taking it seriously enough. You can see the huge grins even from the side:
Catching up…
Passing the competition.
Pedal to the metal…
We catch view of a leg belonging to the buggy passenger (I assume there’s a guy driving – though maybe not!).
The final surge brings them clear…
Looking back…looks like they took the checkered flag.
Thanks to Don for the photo set. Check out more of Don’s many Amish photos in his “greatest hits” sets here and here.
Nailed it, my friend...
“I’m calling it a “race”, but it may be closer to glorified passing.” Erik, a keen eye you have there — you got it exactly right. It certainly had the air of a fun-time racing challenge (as the smiles on the kids show), but as you point out the stride of the black horse on the original lead (covered) buggy clearly shows that driver hadn’t even kicked her out of second gear. What can’t be discerned from viewing the pictures is that this location is a banked curve on the very edge of town (which would have allowed for little to no passing), and ahead was better part of a mile of straight highway. I don’t know how long the open-air buggy had been following the closed one, but I do know that this was his first chance to pick up some speed and get around him. So the driver took his opportunity and thought he’d have a little family fun in the process — so he punched the accelerator, and old Betsy dropped it into passing gear. So while we see signs of the brown horse pouring on the steam, we have to realize that she’s starting from what is likely a slowish in-town trot.
Yes, I’ve seen some dangerous antics by some Amish buggy drivers, including a couple of teen boys (from Clark, MO) leaving their Thanksgiving service with passengers in their open-air buggies, racing down both lanes of a two-lane highway into a blind curve. So yes, there are some daredevils among them…, but the folks in this set aren’t among them.
As always, thanks Erik for sharing my pics with our fellow Amish-enthusiasts — and especially a fun set like this one!
Thanks for the additional details Don – I trust your instincts by default but nice to read more background on what’s happening in the photos. So this is basically one buggy passing another, rather than a “race”, really. Though, by the looks on the children’s faces, it probably felt like a race for a stretch anyway 🙂
I know your photos of the other situation you’re referring to with the youth buggies, and yes that does seem to be something different than what’s happening here.
No..
Sorry, I disagree with this.. Not a good thing. There is no protection for all involved. You never know what may happen.
No, no, no….
Alberta, I will agree that there is no absolute protection for everyone involved; and I suppose it fair to conclude that this is slightly more risky than not passing. But even not-passing doesn’t provide absolute protection for all involved, for one of the children could fall out or a rock could be thrown by the lead horse and buggy and hurt the mom or dad. But hey, even greater protection would have come from the whole family staying at home and not being on the road in the first place. But even there there is the risk of heart attacks or being kicked by a spooked horse during feeding time. The point is, nothing in life assures total protection for all — period. The solution is not found in avoiding all risks, but in evaluating the reasonably safety among the risks. No one is advocating throwing all caution to the wind, but when you get down to it that is little more risk in a few moments of fun pictured here than there is in taking the more cautious approach of not passing. And from the looks on the faces here — and the slight envy I feel in my heart because they were able to enjoy what I could not — I think that at least most of us agree that the huge spike in the fun-o-meter is well worth the ever-so-slight accompanying deflection in the riskometer.
Stay on the porch.