About Us
Jim and Yvonne riding out. April 2015
After being involved with Thoroughbreds for a number of years (Jim racing them, Yvonne eventing them), we fortuitously discovered the Canadian Horse in 1994.
This occured while we were on a trip to the Spruce Meadows Masters where they were the featured breed that year. We couldn't believe the temperament and calm natures of these sturdy, beautiful black horses in the ring. They seemed to be totally oblivous to the complete chaos going on around them in the hundreds of horses, brass bands blaring and golf carts zooming round everywhere in the International Ring.
We had never heard of the Canadian Horse before, but as soon as we laid eyes on them, we said "that is the breed for us!".
Soon afterwards, our first filly was on her way out from QC, and we started raising them shortly thereafter. That was over 20 years ago, which we are proud to say makes us one of the very first and the longest term Canadian Horse breeders in BC.
Once we decided that the Canadian was the breed for us, we began to carefully assemble our herd and breeding stock by acquiring well bred horses of rarer bloodlines.
In order to get good stock, and to learn as much as we could about the breed, we went on repeated trips back to Quebec - the heartland of the Canadian Horse, and where the majority of Canadian Horses still remain today.
We tried to see as many "typey" and traditional examples of the breed as we could so that we would be able to recognize and appreciate the best.
Cherry Creek Fonzie Merit - one of our stallions
During our search we had the good fortune to meet many individuals who were instrumental in the breed's history and preservation. These folks very kindly and patiently helped us on our very steep learning curve about the breed, and we are still incredibly appreciative of their assistance still to this day.
While in Quebec, we carefully picked out the young stock that would form the basis of our fledgling breeding program, and ultimately drove them all the way home ourselves.
Throughout this selection and learning process, the breed continued to impress us with their sturdiness and soundness, as well as their sociable and calm natures.
Our farm continued to grow, with our eventually acquiring several stallions, and assembling a small herd of quality broodmares.
Over the years we have produced a good number of foals that have found homes all over Canada and the US. Our foals and our breeding program are well known for producing athletic, versatile horses with superbly good natures.
We very much downsized our breeding program with the economic downturn in 2008, however we started it up again after 2014, and produced a foal more foals.
As we continue to age, we have finally decided that it is time to officially retire from the foal production end of things, and pass doing that onto the new generation of young up and coming breeders.
However we are still standing our our quality stallions at stud, and continue to offer full breeding services including AI with both cooled and frozen shipped semen.
Our farm is located in Kamloops BC, an area renowned for it's arid climate, hot summers, and mild winters. This area, considered to be part of Canada's desert, is composed of mountains, deep river valleys, sagebrush, bunch grass, Ponderosa pines and prickly pear cactus. Our property encompasses 120 acres worth of steep, rocky, mountainous terrain. It has little to nothing in the way of lush pasture. As it turns out, these are ideal conditions for raising Canadian Horses!
Our horses are turned out 24/7, and the terrain ensures that they remain fit, healthy, and that their hooves stay rock hard. Best of all, it prevents our horses from becoming overweight - a problem that plagues many Canadian Horse breeders elsewhere.
All in all, we find our Canadians to be sturdy, hardy, easy keeping, sensible, intelligent, quick learners, and that they really want to please. They tend to be a horse that "thinks first" before reacting, as opposed to other types of horses that we have dealt with before who tend to react first and (maybe) think later.
Versatile and adaptable, they happily do whatever we ask of them, be it riding, driving, working around our farm, or just "schmoozing" with the many visitors to our farm.
Needless to say, almost 3 decades later, we still totally love our Canadian Horses!
Jim, Yvonne, Fee Lyne and Merit - all horse camping at Timber Ridge trails, summer of 2013
A panoramic view of our place