FIRE

       This is one of the very large statues honoring the fire fighters in the community.

        The building began as an armory during WW I. Then it was turned into a firehall for the community. As you can see it was in the days of horses pulling the fire engine. The horses were always excited and hard to harness and eager to go. This statue certainly shows the excitement. 

        The statue is in front of the library as when the new firehall was built this firehall  was not needed. The firehall was next to the library They connected the library and firehall to make a very good library.

        I find myself looking at this statue as well as other people observing it. Kids like to play on it. 

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS COMMENT

      At least one of the comments on one of my Christmas posts made me start to think about horses. The post isn't going out of my mind even if it's past Christmas. 

     The person said they would like to have a Christmas sleigh ride. I imagine people who want a sleigh ride at Christmas are thinking about lively horses and fancy sleighs. 

    However my sleigh rides were not of the fancy kind.

    The Canadian prairies suffered more than most areas during the 30's. The depression was bad enough but then there was a drought that went along with the depression. 

   So we were still using horses until after the second world war. We didn't have enough money to buy tractors in the 30's. We couldn't buy tractors during the war and couldn't buy gas so the horse was important and used until after the war. . 

    The horses used were not the huge draft horses. They were known as the prairie horse. They weighed about 1000lbs and were willing workers. They were easy to keep. When the harvest was over most of these horses were turned out and let loose for the winter. These horses were able to find food and were able to get enough water from the snow. About 50% of the area was not developed so they could paw the snow back and get at the native grass. There were also straw stacks from the harvest that they could use but the straw was not that nutritious. Horses know what's good for them. 

    Roads were not kept open in the winters. There wasn't antifreeze at that time for cars. We didn't have snow removal equipment so we used horses to get us to town in the winter. 

   These were the same tough little horses we used to get to our cousins for Christmas. We didn't have fancy sleds. We used a heavy farm sleigh with a grain box on the sleigh. We used them to get from one place to another. It wasn't fancy. It was tough as it was cold. 

     I can't find my photo of Queenie and Daisy who were the last horses we had on the farm. 

    For some of you this will make no sense at all. This was agriculture on the Canadian prairie. It was tough but, the people who survived were proud.

THE HORSE STORY

     I inadvertently set something up in my last post. My purpose in writing the post was to describe more of Heritage Ranch. I put in a small paragraph about my daughter riding at Heritage Ranch. That one little paragraph got more interest than the whole post. 

     My kids were raised in the 1970's which was the day of free range kids. The kids were sometimes gone all afternoon and we didn't really know where they were. Yes, we had a good idea of where they might be and the kids knew where  they could go and where they could not go. 

    Heritage Ranch was about 2 1/2 miles from my house. I think my daughter rode her bike out with a friend to ride horses. I'm not sure which parent gave permission to go. 

    She told me that the horses to rent were very  gentle but not that smart. Some of the riders weren't that smart either. She remembers the ride and still talks about it. The horse was not a smooth ride and it really didn't go that fast. 

    She did survive without accident and went on to ride many more horses. At 49 she's still interested in riding some more. 

    She made comments on the last post as unknown. I hope she comments on this post and corrects my memory. 

     These photos of horses at Heritage Ranch were taken long after her time at Heritage Ranch. 

HERITAGE RANCH

       The three hundred acres I rambled through the other day is known as Heritage Ranch.

      In the early 1980's a very progressive government set up a plan to make large park areas in our cities. Trails and many facilities were developed. Cross country ski trails, picnic areas and playgrounds were established. 

     When I came here in 1969 the Heritage ranch area was farmed and much of it was taken  for gravel. 20 km of trails were developed. Some of the gravel pits were made into ponds and stocked with fish.

     But the main part of Heritage Ranch was to be set up for horses and at that time the emphasis was on equestrian training. Excellent corals and stables had been built. The equestrian training didn't pan out so they tried just horse riding. That didn't work well either. 

     When my daughter was about ten she was intensely interested in horse riding. She went to a 6 day equestrian camp. You could rent horses to ride at Heritage ranch so one day she took some allowance money and rented a horse to ride. I happened to be riding bike through the area when I saw a horse wildly galloping through gravel pits and around trees. There was a little kid on the horse hanging on to a half out of control horse and the little kid was my daughter. 

    Today the operator runs sleigh rides in the winter and an assortment of wagon rides in the summer.

    So as I was getting back from my ramble I could overlook the horse facilities. 

WHY DO I LIKE THIS PHOTO

       On the weekend we were out bird watching in a 300 acre area of old growth forest, recovering quarries and open fields. It was a warm fall afternoon. It turned nasty the next day.


      It was an afternoon where I took quite a few photos. I was surprised when I looked at one photo and immediately liked it. I'm not a horse person so it's not because of the horses. It's one of those photos where you take a quick look and click. So I didn't think about anything.


      So I'm still asking myself what it is about my photo that makes me really like it.


      Do you have any ideas?

 

A Day at Spruce Meadows.

    Spruce Meadows is a well known horse show jumping facility at Calgary Alberta. It's a world class facility and some would argue the world's best facility. It sprawls over 480 acres.

Riders walking through the jumps

    Many international competitions are held each year. 

   Yesterday I spent the day at Spruce Meadows for the Master's Competition. 47 great riders and horses competed. The top 12 riders then competed in a jump off. This resulted in tie between Ian Millar of Canada and Reed Kessler of the U.S.  Millar won the tie breaker.

Ian Millar takes a jump

    Now I did get excited when Ian Millar won. He's been competing for many years and has been a winner many times.

Ian Millar the winner. Read Kessler just behind Ian

   At 67 Ian Millar is an amazing rider. He's been in  ten Olympics. Reed  Kessler is an amazing 20 year old and we will hear much more about her.

   Now I'm not a fan of show jumping. My wife is a fanatic about show jumping so being a thoughtful husband , I took her to the masters at Spruce Meadows. For her that is a great day.

A few heads and the RCMP

     Oh yes , the RCMP musical ride performed too. 

   Now there were riders from 15 different countries. The event was televised to many countries around the world. Thousands of people attended.

   Now if you watch TV , the only sour puss in the stands was Me!

The Horse Healer

     I wanted to post another folklore post but Putin got in the way. I had to make a statement on Putin.

     I was recently sent for some physiotherapy and I began thinking about physiotherapists being healers. 

     I was reminded of a horse healer.

     My great grandfather was known as a horse healer. He would look into the sick horse's face and eyes and the horse quite often was healed. Sick horses were brought to him all the time. Two days before he died they brought a sick horse to the house steps. Great Grandpa came out and took a look at the horse. The horse got better but Great Grandpa died two days later.

    Now this healing ability was hereditary. It would skip a generation and show up in the opposite sex. So one of Great Grandpa's grand daughters would have had healing power on horses. Now I don't know if any of these women every realized they had this power or used it.

    My great Grandpa was a very influential man. He was a leader. He brought all of his adult children and their families to home stead in Canada in 1905. Also many of his children's in-laws came. Since the Lutheran church was not organized and they had no pastors , he was the lay reader. 

   I believe this must have been an old German folk lore belief. I've tried to find information on this belief but came up blank. 

   Does anybody else know about healing horses by looking at them and then passing  their ability to heal horses to a family member in the next generation?  Are there any other folk lore situations where the power is hereditary?