Horses stage a comeback

Continued from Page 9
developed from English
Thoroughbred stock in colonial
times to run a quarter-mile race
faster than any horse alive.

Most breeds in North America
stem from European, Arabian, or
Asian bloodlines, The great draft
horses that plodded the Canadian
fields in the late 1800s carried the
blood of knightly war horses from
Europe's age of chivalry. When
the invention of gunpowder put
an end to jousts, castles, and
swordplay, the chargers had to
find other employment. Though
bred for battle they were superbly
suited to heavy farm work, This
new career, however, was short-
lived,

The arrival of the gasoline
engine brought automobiles,
trucks, tractors, and a gleam to
the eye of farmers. In those days
of cheap and plentiful energy,
farmers welcomed the idea of
machines that needed to be ‘‘fed”*
only when they worked. Even the
sports with showy trotters and
buggies gradually succumbed to
the automobile’s charms.

As late as the 1920s there were

*800,000 horses in Canada. By the

1960s the number had dipped to
100,000, most of them pleasure
horses. Now suddenly the trend

~ has reversed. Ironically the surge

of technological progress that

wiped out the horse’s working —

role is largely responsible for

today’s leisure hours and the
horse revival.

Old-fashioned horseback ri
is booming from British
Columbia to Newfoundland. In
Ontario alone there are now
more than 250,000 privately
owned riding horses, Every large
city is ringed by a network of
fancy stables, converted cow
barns, and drafty sheds. They all
advertise themselves as ‘‘boarding
stables,” and some entice a
stream of unwary owners to part
with $100 or $150 a month for
questionable care of their horses.

Why are so many so fascinated
with horses these days? A few are
in it for the money, of course;
every fad and fancy attracts its
merchants. Most, however, are
city people, As our cities become
more plastic and chrome, as our
lives become more regimented by
numbers and computers, contact
with the pungent world of earth
and living things — so much a
part of our recent past — becomes
aneed for many.

Relaxation. Renewal. A change
of pace, And as one doctor who
raises Hackney ponies tells his
tension-wracked patients:
“There’s something about the
outside of a horse that’s good for
the inside of a man,”

There is also a very human
reason for the horse’s current

WHAT WOULD THE CALGARY STAMPEDE be without horses or without the exciting finale of the

chuckwagon races.

popularity. Riding around a dusty
ring or plodding across
somebody's pasture has given way
to well-organized social. events.
Trail rides, camping expeditions,
family outings, association
parties, and the like. Each breed
promotes, indeed worships, its
own identity. For many the talk
and the rivalry and the good
fellowship are almost as appealing
as the horses themselves.

Even down on the farm the
horse may have the last laugh, As
energy costs soar, big machines
were losing some of their glitter.
When a tractor costs $20,000, the
vision of two gentle Clydesdales

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or Percherons munching hay in
the barn can be an appealing
alternative.

Of course, all those fugitives
from the city and part-time
farmers who make up the back-to-
the-land movement hold the draft
horse in high regard, right up
there with windmills and solar-
energy panels. After all, the horse
is a natural approach to saving
energy, avoiding pollution,
obtaining free fertilizer, and
having somebody to talk to as you
plough the fields. All of which
helps to explain the large crowd
lining the ring at a recent auction
of draft horses. One leathery
farmer in his sixties shook his
head in amazement as a Belgian
mare was sold for $5,300.

“My Dad won't believe this,”
he chuckled. ‘‘He’s 94, and when
I get back to the farm and tell him
they’re selling breeding mares for
better than $5,000, why he'll up
and throw his cane at me.””

As more and more farmers
swing back to horses, a mare that
will produce seven or eight foals
in her lifetime is a pretty good
investment. Worth pampering.
The picture, however, isn’t nearly
so rosy for others.

Down through the years man
has not always been kind to
Canada’s roaming bands of wild
horses. Many have been rounded
up and broken to saddle or shot,
because. they. were destroying
grazing land.

It was Norma Bearcroft of
Richmond, B.C., who set out to
rescue them. In 1965 she founded
the Canadian Wild Horse Society,
a nonprofit, charit
organization dedicated to

protection and preservation of
wild horses and fighting cruelty to
all equines.” The society's ap-
proach to wild horses is a simple

perhaps 100,000 wild horses in
Canada. These battle-scarred
stallions and their harems of
mares were far from beautiful,
but in their veins flowed the blood
of magnificent Barbs brought to
Spain. by the Moors. Today the
old nobility struggles for survival.

“We have only about 4,000 wild

horses left — 1,000 in British
Columbia, 2,000 in Alberta,
uncounted bands in Saskatchewan
and, perhaps, a few hundred on
Sable Island off the coast of Nova
Scotia, With public support, good
management, and a little bit of
luck, this population, too, may
soon be on the upswing.

“Whatever the lure of horses —
competitive thrills, dreams of
owning a champion, or just a
relaxing way to fill up those
leisure hours — it’s obvious that a
great many of us are behind the
horse these days. And pushing!
Clubs, breeding associations,
commercial riding stables,
publishers, and even the farmers
who board horses for city people
are all working to expand the
interest. ‘‘Snobbism is un-
doubtedly a, factor,’? one riding
instructor adds, “‘but ultimately
it’s the love of-the animal that
eclipses other motives.””

Besides, there may be a con-
spiracy among some parents.
Most adults heartily approve
when their youngsters participate
in today’s wholesome approach to
horsing around.

CLASSIC PICTURE OF WORKING. HORSES was taken by Tom
Leach of | Whiterock, B.C., showing plough now in the province’s eam

' Museum-in action.-

Counting parks’ wildlife

made easier by helicopter

Monitoring wildlife in the
rugged terrain and dense forests
of the Columbia Mountains seems

Mount Revelstoke and Glacier
National Parks conduct an in-
tensive game survey by air. A
survey of the two parks was held
in April of 1979.

Spring is an ideal time for aerial
wildlife- counts. The animals are
on the move as they migrate from
winter to summer ranges. Their
tracks and darker bodies contrast
sharply against the lingering
snow.

Taking census of game from the
air is a common practice in the
mountain national parks. Foot
patrols through the backcountry
are a more accurate way to assess
the location, movement and
numbers of wildlife species but
staff shortages and time con-
straints do not allow sufficient
ground patrols.

Helicopters quickly and easily
reach the most remote areas of th
parks and in a short period of
time, vast regions can be checked
for game. In known wildlife
ranges, the helicopter can land
allowing the wardens to scan with
their binoculars the surrounding
slops and cliffs.

‘Check Major Valleys

The spring survey in Mount

Revelstoke and Glacier National

Parks followed a flight pattern
which looped in and out of all the
major valleys. Icefields and alpine
ridges were included. Through the
bulging glass of the helicopter,
two park wardens spotted both
game and tracks while a third
person recorded the sightings on a

map.

Although no Grizzly bear were
seen, a number of tracks in the
high country indicated that they
had left their winter dens and
made a beeline for spring in the
adjoining valleys.

Goats were common. We
spotted several. scrambling up
rocky cliff ledges. Their trails
dotted the snow along razor-
edged summit ridges up as high as
2700 meters elevation. Wolverine
tracks laced cornices in terrain
equally as formidable.

Caribou in parts

Crescent-shaped hoof prints
caught our attention as we flew
along Bald Ridge on the eastern
boundary of Glacier National
Park. The helicopter landed
beside the tracks and our
suspicions were confirmed —
Caribou.

Caribou are seldom seen in
these two parks, however, forty
years ago the case was quite
different.

“Back in 1936, according to an
old C.P.R. engineer,” recounted
Park Warden, Bill Laurila, ‘‘the
Caribou were thick in the Bostock
Creek (formerly called Caribou
Creek) and Flat Creek basins of
Glacier National Park. The train

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had to slow down for the herd of
gover 200 Caribou as they crossed
the railway.””

“Ten years ago’’, Laurila
added, ‘‘a small band of cight
Caribou used to winter in a burn
at Mile 13 on Mount Reveistoke.
But they’re gone now.””

Game surveys point out trends,
such as the decrease in Caribou,
indicate a need for wildlife
management plans. However,
only with a sound knowledge of
the animals and their habitat can
the park wardens make wise
decisions. In the rugged Columbia
Mountains, surveys by air are the
most practical way of getting the
information needed to manage the
parks’ wildlife.

HELICOPTERS ARE NO USE in inventorying ae of ‘small
wild creatures like this Columbia ground squirrel, but as the ac-
companying article notes anything that leaves sizeable footprints can be
monitored from the air. — Parks Canada photo - John Woods,