Albertans - Horse Scene in Fort Mac?

[ace]

Chiming in for the Peace Country

Hi there,

If the Peace Country of Alberta or BC is an option for your SO and the horse scene is important for you I highly recommend Peace River or Grande Prairie on the Alberta side, or Dawson Creek and Fort St. John on the BC side. The money might look better in Fort Mac for firefighting but the cost of living is soooo high it just might not be worth it. I was born in Fort Mac, my parents moved there in the 70s for the startup at Syncrude and Suncor, so we were part of the original “boom” up there. I spent my tween/teen/young adult years in Peace River, which is where I learned to ride - and we went to shows in Grande Prairie. I now live in Fort St. John so have experience in all the places you are discussing!! I looked at going to Fort MAc for career reasons about 5 years ago, but honestly, financially it just wasn’t worth it because of housing prices. I have found equally good career opportunities in Fort St John which is why I"m still here :winkgrin:

I would be really suprised if your SO couldn’t find a similar sopportunity in the Peace Region for firefighting - most people think of this region as being “remote” too so won’t move here so there are tons of jobs available - but trust me, its nowhere near as isolated feeling as Fort Mac!! Seriously we a horse friendly/ horse crazy region - lots of farms and ranchland. Lots of riders for the western disciplines of course, but there are lots of english discipline enthusiasts too, and of course, there are many who dabble in both. There are great boarding facilities with heated and unheated indoors in Peace River, Grande Prairie, Fort St. John and Dawson Creek - and affordable when compared with the big Alberta cities like Edmonton and Calgary. We have a fantastic jumper coach in Dawson Creek that I think of as our best kept secret! Her daughter will be competing in the 1.2m classes this year at the shows in Edmonton and Calgary. There are great dressage coaches for the lower levels in Peace River, Grande Prairie and Fort St. John. I have heard there is a Grand Prix dressage rider from Europe who recently relocated to Grande Prairie with her husband who is now giving lessons too.

Peace River and Grande Prairie have a great dressage scene for such a nothern locale - regularly hosting clinics with EC Level 3 coaches. They formed a regional dressage club last year and have a bronze level dressage show series with 3 shows at 3 different stables.
Fort St. John and Dawson Creek have jumping clinics all winter with Robin Hahn. Grande Prairie also hosts various jumper and cross country clinics throughout the spring and summer season.

Grande Prairie has a fantastic x-c course - in fact I’m pretty sure that the GP Horse Trial is the only one in Alberta to offer the Intermediate level.

Very very active horse clubs in GP and Dawson Creek. Have I sold you yet??? Also, you would have no problem finding a job yourself in any of the 4 communities.

If you guys decide its an option get in touch with me and I’ll get you the contacts for all the horse clubs and boarding facilities with indoors in the region that I know of.

P.S Confirming previous posters note about bugs. Horrendous in Fort Mac!

[Cari_Ann]

Absolutely u can PM me. I just logged on to answer this thread so I’m not really sure how it all works. If I don’t answer it’s cause I haven’t found ur message yet the bugs here are less than in Winnipeg, and less than Thunder Bay. But more than in Arizona haha AZ had NO Mosquitos or horse flies at all, HOWEVER, u trade bugs for rattle snakes, Cowboy Killer cactus, and tarantulas. Every place has it’s natural challenges right?
As for politics I would challenge anyone to show me a horse community without them for I have never seen this. When I was on the list and accepted absolutely NO ONE knew who I was. So not sure how favoritism could have been a factor.
I ride all year round here. But u may interested to know that studies done at the Uniersity of Guelph have proven that any horse even just turned out in temperatures less than -15C is experiencing a degree of negative lung impact. So really pretty much everywhere in Canada is a bad place for horses except maybe ON and coastal BC. But then in BC they deal with mud and rainrot and thrush due to the almost constant damp conditions. Yet that province has been one of the leaders of the eventing world for a long time…
So again, go where ever u want, and figure it out!!

[overthemoon]

Thanks so much for all the feedback!! Once again, CoTH has proved to be a wealth of information that I will definitely be utilizing in the future! I will most likely be messaging a few of you once the location is set.

[Ti-ann]

I just found this thread from a few years ago. I’m new to Fort Mac. Can anyone tell me more about how/where they buy hay for their horses?

[rugbygirl]

There are a few growers in Grassland/Athabasca. That’s the best I was ever able to do, we hauled 300 squares at a time on a flat deck behind our truck. I use the Alberta ag website General Store to find hay, but one year I just drove around Grassland looking for signs. We also sometimes hauled from Edmonton.

[Valentini]

Hello Folks, Are there any winter horse drawn sleigh rides in the Fort McMurray area this season, Thanks Randy