Yellowknife equestrians travel to Alberta for horse camp

With no horses left in the city, Yellowknife equestrians are instead travelling to Alberta to give students a chance to participate in horse camps and shows.

Since their evacuation last summer, Yellowknife’s horses still haven’t returned.

Caterina Walsh and Abbey Wilson, riding instructors who worked at the city’s North Country Stables prior to August 2023’s evacuation, have been working to keep the equestrian community going and led a recent trip to Alberta for their students.

In July, Walsh and Wilson went to a horse camp in Barrhead, Alberta, along with seven students and several of their parents and grandparents.

The students had a “mixture of nerves” at first, Walsh said, as more than a year had passed since most of them were in the saddle. But those nerves quickly went away and the students were “excited to be back riding.”

Walsh said she felt pride watching her students at the camp and it was “inspiring to see students come down and still have that passion” after a year with no access to horses, “seeing them be excited, and make the effort, and the travel arrangements and everything to go down.”

On the first day of camp, each Yellowknife student was paired with an Alberta student to show them around.

Since the camp, Wilson said, some Yellowknife and Alberta riders have kept in touch with their partners from the week. “Being able to link them up with other horse girls was awesome,” Wilson said.

“It was intimidating for these students to go down to a whole new barn with all new horses, all different riders that they haven’t met before, a new instructor,” Walsh said. “They just carried themselves so well and were such a good representation of northern riders.”

Students got to ride daily in Alberta, often first thing in the morning to avoid the intense heat that week. They also took part in a yoga session, with specific exercises for riders, and an educational session on horse nutrition.

Two students, Kate Reynolds and Jenny Murray, also competed in a horse show. “I think they had a lot of nerves,” Wilson said. “It was the first real show for both of them.”

Both students “totally excelled,” Wilson said. “I was so proud of them. They just went in and did it like they’re old pros, and they’ve never even done this before … they totally took everything in stride.”

Ultimately, there were “lots of people in tears when we had to leave at the end of the week,” Wilson said.

“It really hit home for everybody that we don’t have access to this in Yellowknife.”

Horses absent from Yellowknife

Before the evacuations of last summer, 21 horses lived at North Country Stables in Yellowknife. There were 30 kids who received weekly riding lessons, in addition to people who came out for trail rides or “lease rides” for experienced riders. Events included volunteer days, education nights and horse shows.

The horses left the city in the face of an approaching wildfire in August 2023. Those horses that once called Yellowknife home are now at farms across Alberta. At the moment, there appears to be no concrete plan for horses to return to the NWT.

Watching the students work hard and improve their skills over the week brought up mixed feelings of pride and frustration for both instructors.

“I had some really mixed emotions about feeling this loss all over again and frustration that we couldn’t provide this service to them any more, as instructors,” Wilson said.

“They worked so hard. They were enjoying it so much … the frustration is just unreal.”  

“It’s hard knowing that they’re coming home to a place that doesn’t have horses right now,” Walsh said.

Despite that, she’s still “really proud of them for coming down.”

“You can tell just how hard they worked,” she said, “and how much they improved in just that short week of being back there, back on a horse.”