2024 Ballan Autumn Festival

For the first time, I attended the Ballan Autumn Festival with my friends from the King’s Horses equestrian group. We got into some armour and other fancy gear and rode in the parade.

The Ballan Autumn Festival is held in March every year and involves the entire little township. One of the highlights is the parade down the main street.

Our group took three horses and a donkey, with two riders in full 15th Century armour, one rider dressed in a splendid red velvet dress and one in civilian medieval garb. The group was led by a foot soldier and followed by the most important part of the team: the horse poo collector with a wooden wheelbarrow.

Phoebus got to wear his new barding. It was his first parade and he put up with all the noise and the crowds really well. I think the only thing that bothered him at all was a pedestrian crossing with white paint. However, since his mate Algernon wasn’t eaten by it, he decided it was ok to step over too.

We had a lot of cheers and nice comments, both during the parade and in the meet and greet afterwards. Another highlight was KH winning the best individual entry for the parade.

Unfortunaly, I don’t know who took the pictures, so I can’t give credit. The Festival’s FB page has a video and some photos from the parade that include us.