By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

LEBANON, Ohio — The first Saturday in December may not be a good time to be a motorist in Lebanon, Ohio. Unless, that is, you’re heading to the annual Horse-drawn Carriage Parade.
On this particular day each year this normally quiet, rural city in southwest Ohio horses become the main attraction as more than 120 owners and their decorated carriages and animals converge on the city for this annual tradition. Several thousand make the trip each year to Warren County to see this parade.

“We’ve been coming to this event since it started 20 years ago,” said Melody Nunamaker of Middletown Ohio, who was there with her husband, Bill, and their two dogs. “We used to be able to watch the parade from the balcony of the Golden Lamb Inn, but it’s grown so much we had to stake out a place along the curb.”

The parade was represented by many repeat participants of this parade, including Bob and Voneta Adams of Muncie, Ind.

“We’ve done this sort of thing across the country the past 12 years,” Bob said. “We used to be heavy into the hog industry, but we went bankrupt with that business. We once had a 240-sow unit on 1,500 acres, but we now have just 200 acres. When the hogs prices plumeted it took our savings. So we diversified and got into miniature horses. People told me we couldn’t make it with these small animals, but they were wrong. We did just fine. In fact, thanks to these horses we’ve nearly paid off all our previous debts.”

The Lebanon Horse-drawn Carriage Parade is just one of many stops for the Adams pair. They recently attended the National Western Horse Show in Colorado and the Grand National in California.

“The economy has hurt us on this as well, but we’ve still managed to go to parades from coast to coast, from the tip of Texas to the Canadian border,” Bob said.

Horse owners from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky participated in the event.

The parade (held at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.) was the center of attention. However, there were plenty of carolers, traveling bell choirs, photo opportunities with Santa and Mrs. Claus, street characters and 80 antique and specialty stores to discover.