Queensborough is one of New Westminster’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods, but only a few decades ago, it wasn’t unusual for farmers to let their horses and cows roam the eastern tip of Lulu Island.
That history is fading in the shadow of burgeoning development, but just across the highway from the big box stores a vestige of the old ’Boro remains.
On a small farm on Salter Street, trainer Aidan Ford is leads a horse into a riding arena to do some groundwork. Before she jumps into the saddle, she has to get the mare used to the sounds of the large excavator working in the field next door.
Mia is one of five horses currently living on the property. Ford rents the space, which includes a tiny barn, a riding arena and two lungeing rings, and uses it to train her horses and teach lessons.
Ford herself stumbled upon the facility almost a decade ago. The 22-year-old had been riding horses since she was little but had grown tired of the sometimes aggressive techniques used by trainers. A few years later, the East Vancouver resident went searching for cheap horse leases, and that’s when she discovered the local barn.
“I did not know Queensborough existed; I had no idea. I had no idea there were horses here. I turned up and went, ‘Oh, this is a little whacky,’” she said.
“The women who ran the place at the time were into natural horsemanship, and they taught me their ways and mentored me.”
Natural horsemanship is a different way of training and working with horses that’s more about learning to communicate with the horse rather than demanding or forcing it to do something.
A few years ago, Ford’s mentors decided it was time to move on. Instead of looking for a new place to ride, Ford decided to continue what the women had started. She went out and got her Canadian Horsemanship Association certification and began teaching lessons herself, again, focusing on natural horsemanship and horse psychology.
“(Students) come, they catch their horse, they groom their horse, tack them up. We do about half ground work and half riding. So they learn how to communicate with their horse on the ground. They learn how to teach their horse new things – develop some of that trust and leadership and some of that bond before they get on their horse’s back,” she explained.
At any given time, Ford has between 10 and 20 students – 20 is her max – ranging in ages from three years old to upwards of 60 and 70 years old. One of the draws of her riding stable is its central location within the Lower Mainland.
While many of her clients are from New Westminster, she also gets quite a few from East Vancouver, Kitsilano, Southlands and even Dunbar.
“It’s urban, which I love, … you can get here in about 40 minutes from downtown Vancouver, and it’s in this place that has no farmland left, so we get people constantly coming by with their kids (saying), ‘Oh my God, there’s animals here.’”
And their surprise is understandable.
The property next door used to be home to a tree farm before it was sold. Now it’s a barren lot awaiting city approval for subdivision into 17 single-family home sites plus a park space on an 18th site, according to Jim Hurst, planner for the City of New Westminster.
Further west down Salter Street, another landowner wants to build a 96-unit townhouse complex, pending council approval.
It’s all part of a trend that’s trying to capitalize on Queensborough’s growing population, which has ballooned from a mere 2,000 in 1990 to 7,100 in 2011, according to census data.
Ford admits the encroaching development is a concern that brings up questions she’s not quite ready to answer – or even contemplate.
“We’re a little worried, as always, but I like to keep my fingers crossed and don’t think on it too much,” she said, adding that if the unthinkable happens and the property is sold to a developer, she’ll likely move the horses to a ranch in the Interior until she can find them a new home in the Lower Mainland.
For now, she’s content with how things are going.
The self-professed city girl spends nearly every day with her horses in Queensborough.
“It’s just a different feel having a place that’s right in the centre of the city and having people drop by and families coming up the driveway with their toddlers to say hi,” she said. “It’s not the same out there. In Langley everyone out there are country people already.”
Find out more about Ford and her horses at www.facebook.com/FreestyleHorsemanship.
