There’s a certain magic that enters you when you journey into the mainland. I have travelled across Canada a couple times now, have witnessed countless panorama’s of beauty, and I have to say that the Valley is hard to top. It’s almost as if the rest of the province is in contest to see who can grasp the title for being the most magnificent, or picture perfect. I guess it’s all a matter of opinion and the angle you look at, because every direction gives you a different perspective.
The drive from Abbotsford to Grand Forks took about 6 hours; I stopped briefly at a couple wineries to and from. Six hours doesn’t seem long, in comparison on the long journeys across the country I have done, and especially when every turn there’s a new landscape that trumps the prior in its contest for beauty. As long as the drive took, I am looking forward to doing it again, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.Going through Osoyoos was really a great experience; it’s the only certified Desert in Canada. No, there aren’t cacti and sand dunes everywhere, but there are a lot of rocky cliffs, with an abundance of shrubs and conifers brave enough to contend with the dry weather. Osoyoos is right on the border with Washington, so naturally one will see a lot of American license plates. There’s resorts, water park’s, water sports, girls clad in bikini’s and men (in incredible shape, and others not-so-much) walking around without shirts on. If you take away the touristy, sure to please feeling, it’s actually very beautiful.
I enter Grand Forks and its valley upon valley of rolling hills (not the hills you see in Ontario, these are very large). One side of the road is lush green Coniferous forests, and the other, dry with only a little bit of trees, mostly shrubs, rocks and grass. Nicola’s directions are based on landmarks and there’s so much to look at I missed them the first time around. So I do what I have done more times in the past 2 months than my entire life; the U-Turn. I pull onto “Henderson Road” and she tells me to stop when I’m surrounded by farm. She greets me in work clothes and we exchange happy hugs! My fatigue from the drive wears off immediately; I cannot wait to explore the farm.First I unpack my car and put on some “work clothes” and we head out into the fields. I meet 5 out of the 6 dogs that live on the farm and 2 of the 4 cats right away. Jock (the main farm dog in my opinion, is a Border Collie – I believe) and Jazzy (Nicola’s pug from the city, who has proven herself a master of adaptation because she fits right in on the farm) follow us wherever we go. We first meet Rio, the beautiful white horse who is the only one allowed to walk around the 30 acres of farm freely, he’s very old and won’t get into trouble. Then we meet Zulu, the beautiful black stallion; the only stallion on the farm. His pen is right beside the house and I feel bad because he can’t socialize with the other horses….. Stallion….. so I make a point to regularly visit him, but Rio and him have become the best of friends and you will often see Rio just hanging out beside him even though he has so much freedom. We then venture into the pen where there’s a mix of Gelding’s (male horses who have been “fixed”) and Mare’s. All of the horses are hanging around their “watering hole” ( a group of buckets we put water in) and its empty, so Nic teaches me how to fill them and you quickly realize there’s a hierarchy among them all. Once the “bosses” have finished their share of water, the congregate on the hill and take off over into the valley while the underdogs get their fair share of water and then they too take off over the hill.We then make our way to see “the ladies”, about 8 other horses in a separate pen. I don’t know if “pen” is an appropriate term for this space, because it’s quite large, probably about 4-5 acres. Nicola introduces me to each horse separately and I wonder how she remembers all of their names; they all look very similar. She teaches me how to fill each water tub ( for each pen) so while she’s at work I take on the responsibility of making sure they are always topped up. As each day passes and I surround myself with the horses, I get familiar with the nuances of each one. They all have a different personality. One day when Nic was working with the horses ( she takes them into a small pen and starts to train them to respond to her commands….. this is a little humorous because these horses literally have not done a days work in their lives, and most of them are 8 years or more). So I watch her work with a horse named “maroon” and he responds very well to his first time, this has a lot to do with the chemistry between the horse and the teacher though, and Nicola knows this. While she’s grooming Maroon, I go into the large pen to see if another horse will allow me to brush them ( I put some horse treats in my pocket to coax if need be) I center one out and he didn’t like the brushing (most of them haven’t been groomed ever, so they are scared) but one curious horse by the name of Stretch, comes straight up to me and greets me, so I walk away from the others (because it’s a little intimidating when your surrounded by 10 very large creatures) and he follows. I allow him to smell the brush first, so he doesn’t scare, and then I start to groom him. He seems to enjoy it, Nicola taught me the postures of horses when they are relaxed or when they are stressed or on alert (they are pack animals) After I am finished grooming him I give him a cookie and I walk back towards the gate, and I hear a slow trot behind me. It seems I have found a new friend.Each day since then, every time I was near the pen, he would wait for me and if I entered the pen he would follow. One day I went in and walked way in the back where the valley was and he actually followed me a good distance until he felt to distant from his pack, then he returned to his friends.
The drive from Abbotsford to Grand Forks took about 6 hours; I stopped briefly at a couple wineries to and from. Six hours doesn’t seem long, in comparison on the long journeys across the country I have done, and especially when every turn there’s a new landscape that trumps the prior in its contest for beauty. As long as the drive took, I am looking forward to doing it again, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.Going through Osoyoos was really a great experience; it’s the only certified Desert in Canada. No, there aren’t cacti and sand dunes everywhere, but there are a lot of rocky cliffs, with an abundance of shrubs and conifers brave enough to contend with the dry weather. Osoyoos is right on the border with Washington, so naturally one will see a lot of American license plates. There’s resorts, water park’s, water sports, girls clad in bikini’s and men (in incredible shape, and others not-so-much) walking around without shirts on. If you take away the touristy, sure to please feeling, it’s actually very beautiful.
I enter Grand Forks and its valley upon valley of rolling hills (not the hills you see in Ontario, these are very large). One side of the road is lush green Coniferous forests, and the other, dry with only a little bit of trees, mostly shrubs, rocks and grass. Nicola’s directions are based on landmarks and there’s so much to look at I missed them the first time around. So I do what I have done more times in the past 2 months than my entire life; the U-Turn. I pull onto “Henderson Road” and she tells me to stop when I’m surrounded by farm. She greets me in work clothes and we exchange happy hugs! My fatigue from the drive wears off immediately; I cannot wait to explore the farm.First I unpack my car and put on some “work clothes” and we head out into the fields. I meet 5 out of the 6 dogs that live on the farm and 2 of the 4 cats right away. Jock (the main farm dog in my opinion, is a Border Collie – I believe) and Jazzy (Nicola’s pug from the city, who has proven herself a master of adaptation because she fits right in on the farm) follow us wherever we go. We first meet Rio, the beautiful white horse who is the only one allowed to walk around the 30 acres of farm freely, he’s very old and won’t get into trouble. Then we meet Zulu, the beautiful black stallion; the only stallion on the farm. His pen is right beside the house and I feel bad because he can’t socialize with the other horses….. Stallion….. so I make a point to regularly visit him, but Rio and him have become the best of friends and you will often see Rio just hanging out beside him even though he has so much freedom. We then venture into the pen where there’s a mix of Gelding’s (male horses who have been “fixed”) and Mare’s. All of the horses are hanging around their “watering hole” ( a group of buckets we put water in) and its empty, so Nic teaches me how to fill them and you quickly realize there’s a hierarchy among them all. Once the “bosses” have finished their share of water, the congregate on the hill and take off over into the valley while the underdogs get their fair share of water and then they too take off over the hill.We then make our way to see “the ladies”, about 8 other horses in a separate pen. I don’t know if “pen” is an appropriate term for this space, because it’s quite large, probably about 4-5 acres. Nicola introduces me to each horse separately and I wonder how she remembers all of their names; they all look very similar. She teaches me how to fill each water tub ( for each pen) so while she’s at work I take on the responsibility of making sure they are always topped up. As each day passes and I surround myself with the horses, I get familiar with the nuances of each one. They all have a different personality. One day when Nic was working with the horses ( she takes them into a small pen and starts to train them to respond to her commands….. this is a little humorous because these horses literally have not done a days work in their lives, and most of them are 8 years or more). So I watch her work with a horse named “maroon” and he responds very well to his first time, this has a lot to do with the chemistry between the horse and the teacher though, and Nicola knows this. While she’s grooming Maroon, I go into the large pen to see if another horse will allow me to brush them ( I put some horse treats in my pocket to coax if need be) I center one out and he didn’t like the brushing (most of them haven’t been groomed ever, so they are scared) but one curious horse by the name of Stretch, comes straight up to me and greets me, so I walk away from the others (because it’s a little intimidating when your surrounded by 10 very large creatures) and he follows. I allow him to smell the brush first, so he doesn’t scare, and then I start to groom him. He seems to enjoy it, Nicola taught me the postures of horses when they are relaxed or when they are stressed or on alert (they are pack animals) After I am finished grooming him I give him a cookie and I walk back towards the gate, and I hear a slow trot behind me. It seems I have found a new friend.Each day since then, every time I was near the pen, he would wait for me and if I entered the pen he would follow. One day I went in and walked way in the back where the valley was and he actually followed me a good distance until he felt to distant from his pack, then he returned to his friends.
You really learn a lot when you are removed from the city and from all the distractions and you pay attention to your surroundings. I found myself to adapt very well to farm life, perhaps this is because when I was a very young child my Grandmother still had a farm where I would enthusiastically go with her to help groom the horses. I remember having a velvet riding hat and vaguely remember how to ride a horse. Nicola said she will continue working with the horses so next time I visit towards the end of the summer we should be able to ride them.
While there I learned different degrees of silent languages and what an enriching experience. I haven’t quite escaped the spell of the valley yet and I’m not sure if I want to. I look forward to my next venture out to the Valley and all of the elements that are included.
A.
