EVANSTON — The proud owners of four Clydesdales and three American standard breeds, Don and Linda Ezola love horses. With a home out on the old Piedmont railroad grade past Sulphur Creek Reservoir, Don has been a horse trainer for years and is a member of the Clydesdale Breeders Association of Indiana.

He is the owner of Lindley Construction, now a trucking firm. Linda is the operating room director and a nurse at Evanston Regional Hospital. They have eight grown children in their combined family. 

Their connection with horses led them to purchase an antique horse-drawn sleigh five years ago. The two-person sleigh was built in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, at the Northwestern Manufacturing Plant in the 1880s.

Don’s research shows that because it has doors, it was probably originally owned by an upper-class family. Fifteen years ago, the sleigh was sold at auction in Rock Springs, and someone from the central Utah town of Wales bought it and displayed it in their yard. Don and Linda saw it and fell in love with the sleigh and were able to talk the family into selling it.

Two years ago, Don took the sleigh to an Amish man in Arthur, Illinois. There the sleigh was completely restored. It was stripped down and everything is now original except the new paint and fabric on the seat cushions. The sleigh is currently on display at Uinta Bank in the Yellow Creek Mall in Evanston.

Don chose Uinta Bank to showcase the sleigh because he banks there, and also because Uinta Bank is one of the oldest Wyoming banks still in operation. It was chartered in 1919.

“Future plans for the sleigh,” Don said, “might be showing it in Evanston’s Christmas parade and a possible display at county fairs.”

His horses are trained to draw the sleigh. Now all he and Linda need is a buffalo robe for Wyoming winter sleigh rides.