HIt and Skip

My neighbor stopped by the other day to use the phone.  He was arranging the delivery of queen bees for this spring.  He is known as the honey bee person in this area.  He has quite a following with people coming from quite a distance to get bee supplies in the spring.

As we were talking he mentioned his daughter had a buggy/car accident the other day.  As our area gets more populated and built up the traffic on the roads increase which makes it difficult to share the roads with the buggies.  At least for some people.  I always give a wide berth to the buggies.  This day though a car bumped my neighbor's buggy.   The horse became starled and began to run off... still attached of course to the buggy.  My neighbor's daughter is a young woman in her early twenties alone in the buggy on her way from her job as a school teacher.  The horse bolted across a ditch and then began galloping across some farm fields heading in the direction of a major highway.  Before they got to that point fortunately Mary was able to pull the horse up and get it to stopped.  Once stopped they both stood in the field.  The horses sides heaving as the driver tried to get both of their nerves calmed down.  After they caught their breathe the young woman turned her horse back to the scene of the accident.  In her absense a near by farmer saw the accident and had come to help.  The the farmer and car owner were discussing whether or not the Amish woman was a 'hit or skip'.  The driver of the car apparently thought the Amish woman took off to get away from the accident.  The farmer didn't think that was the case.   Once Mary arrived back at the accident site the police were called so a report could be filed.  As I understand they were both sited.

I have horses so I have an understanding of what a horse will do under stress.  I am always so impressed that for the most part Amish buggy horses are very tolerant.   It had never dawned on me that someone would think a run away horse and buggy would be a 'hit and skip' on an accident scene! 

I have seen drivers wanting to react to a horse and buggy like you would a car.  For instance I saw an Amish man struggling with a horse not wanting to stop at an  intersection.   The horse was prancing in place but you could tell by its expression that it was anxious.  A truck drove by and blasted his horn at the horse.  Fortunately day the horse didn't bolt. 

As I write this I think of the conflict that sometimes happens as our fast paced cultured flies by the Amish way of life. 


I am an artist living in Ohio Amish Country.  I occassionally have oil paintings for sale depicting Amish life.  To see mroe of my work go to http://www.suesteiner.com/