18/ APRIL 2020 THE RIDER The Robertsons: Living The Quarter Horse Dream


By Jennifer Morrison When you walk into


Bryn and Carol Robertson’s farm home in Hillsburgh, Ontario it is quickly evident how special horses have been in their lives. That is once you get past the menagerie of peacocks, goats, dogs, chickens and a talking parakeet all ready to greet visitors. Photos, paintings, me-


mentos, horseshoes, shiny belt buckles and trophies from their early days of rid- ing and barrel racing adorn walls and shelves while a beautiful racing room back through the kitchen honours their current successes with racing Quarter Horses. In particular there is a


hefty trophy in the centre of the room from the American Quarter Horse Association for their homebred Had to Be Ivory, named Canadian Champion for the second year in succession at a cere- mony in Oklahoma in Janu- ary. Another special award is a plaque they received from the Town of Erin and Erin Agricultural society, a lifetime achievement award and induction into the Horse Heritage Hall of Fame. For 54 years the couple


have lived at Hillerin Farm, a 150-acre farm originally bought by Carol’s parents many years before for just $18,000. At one time a hobby farm for riding and barrel horses, the Robert- son’s small stable of Quarter Horses, also owned by their son Michael and daughter-


just hanging on. We won the race but they were giving out prizes before I even got the horse back there.” The Robertsons made a


permanent move to racing Quarter Horses before the new millennium and raced their first horse under trainer Wayne Proctor at Picov Downs’ J-track in 2000. Bryn watched and studied other trainers and achieved his own license in 2004. Their purchase of an


Oklahoma-bred filly, Had to Be Fandango,


in 2009


in-law Jaime, is now one of the most successful in the country. Their now 5-year- old gelding Had to be Ivory was recently named 2019 Ontario Horse of the Year at Ajax Downs, while Eazy Street, an undefeated 2- year-old was the High Point juvenile colt, and Five Bar Fandango, the year’s High Point 3-year-old filly. Three Champions in


2019 from a grand total of five runners during the year. “We’ve been blessed,”


said Bryn. “Our whole fam- ily is the team behind or horses and it works out re- ally well.” Originally from Wales,


Bryn was just 3-years-old when he arrived in Canada with his parents soon after his father fought in World War II.


Had to Be Ivory - John Watkins photo “There were 1,800 peo-


ple on a boat coming to Canada,” said Bryn. “The crazy thing is, we went over a mine in the ocean and it blew a hole in the boat and we had to go back to France for it to be patched up. It took two weeks to get to Canada.” Bryn’s parents had al-


ready been in Canada before the war and had a home- stead in Alberta but the farm was taken away by the gov- ernment because it had not been a working farm for five years while his father was in the war. They made a base in


Woodbridge where Bryn grew up and began a career in sales. He was just a teenager


when he met Carol, a horse- crazy girl from Islington


who was riding horses be- fore she was. Bryn learned to ride


through Carol and the pair immersed themselves in various events including barrels and pole bending, showing, and winning prizes across the province. They joined many other


horse owners and raced in quarter mile dashes for fun on farms north of Toronto including Circle M Ranch, owned by Al Greco. Carol remembers riding


in an all girls race, the Pow- der Puff Derby, on the makeshift quarter-mile track at Circle M. “I was riding a Thor-


oughbred we had and we broke out of the gates well but then one of the other girls grabbed his bridle and ripped it off. So here I am


changed their life. The large, brilliantly fast daughter of Hadtobenuts became a mul- tiple stakes winner of $150,000 and played a role into luring Michael and Jaime into the business. Michael, a farrier, not


only shoes the horses but rides them in the farm’s arena or on the track while Jaime is in charge of feeding and horse care. The Robert- sons also have two daugh- ters, Kim and Jodi plus grandchildren, all of whom spend time with horses. In 2010, along came


One Famous Glass, a $10,000 purchase from Oklahoma who was named 2013 Horse of the Year by the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario. ‘Eagle’ raced successfully until he was eight-years-old in 2018 and earned over $250,000. He is retired at Hillerin Farm. Meanwhile Had to Be


Fandango produced her first foal for the Robertsons in 2015, a tall, blaze faced son of Ivory James, who became


Bryn and Carol Robertson OVC 5th in New World


Guelph, ON Feb, 18, 2020 - Bits and breathing. Both words start with the letter “b”, and most might assume their relationship ends there. But Dr. David Mellor, a leading animal welfare ex- pert at Massey University in New Zealand, believes there is more to the story, espe- cially when it comes to our horses. His research, shared in a talk at the University of Guelph in autumn 2017, looks at how bit use can im- pact equine breathing dur- ing exercise and what this means for equine welfare. One of the first topics


that Mellor covered during his talk was bit-induced pain (pain that comes from bit use). Mellor introduced the topic by asking audience members to take a pen, press it lengthwise against their teeth, increase the pressure, and consider the amount of pain this caused. He then asked audience members to repeat the steps, with the pen pressed against their lower gums instead. Audience members agreed that this location produced more pain. Try this experi- ment for yourself. Mellor compared the sensation felt on the lower gums to the sensation felt by your horse when a bit is in their mouth. He explained that the sensa-


Dr. David Mellor discusses bits and breathing in horses Veterinary College Ranking The University of


tion can range from mild ag- itation to severe pain, de- pending on factors like bit type and rein use. Mellor then extended


this topic to links between bit use and breathing in horses. He explained that many horses will open their mouths to deal with bit-in- duced pain. Unfortunately, when a horse opens his mouth, especially during in- tense exercise, it becomes harder for them to breathe. This is because horses breathe only with their noses, and not their mouths. In fact, a horse’s mouth ac- tually needs to be closed for optimal breathing. When the mouth is closed, there is a negative pressure that the horse creates and maintains through swallowing. This pressure keeps the soft palate from blocking the na- sopharynx. If something, like bit-induced pain, causes the mouth to open, then the pressure is disrupted and the soft palate can block the pharynx. This obstruction can cause the horse to expe- rience breathlessness, which can impact the horse’s ath- letic performance. More de- tails on the links between bit use and breathlessness in horses can be found in Mel- lor’s recently published lit- erature review.


In another talk at the


University of Guelph, Mel- lor presented on his research looking at the big picture of animal welfare. One of the core concepts of animal welfare is the Five Free- doms, which cover the five main aspects of animal wel- fare (e.g. freedom from hunger or thirst). Dr. Mellor explained that the Five Free- doms give an animal rea- sonable survival, by looking after their nutrition, envi- ronment, and health. How- ever, he believes that it’s time to move towards giv- ing animals a “Life Worth Living”. This is based on the concept that for animals to have “lives worth living”, it’s not only necessary to minimize their negative ex- periences, but also provide the animals with opportuni- ties to have positive experi- ences. For instance, giving them experiences to feel en- gaged, positive, and provid- ing time for bonding and play behaviours. For more on Dr. Mellor’s fascinating work, check out his talk on the topic. Did you know that


horses are obligate nose- breathers? Have


you


thought about how this im- pacts their respiratory sys- tem health and their performance? Topics like


Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) has placed fifth worldwide and top in Canada in the 2020 World University Rankings. OVC moved up from


seventh place last year. The annual World Uni-


versity Rankings by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) international education net- work list the world’s best universities in 48 academic subjects. QS looked at some 1,300 universities from 83 locations around the world, the most comprehensive global overview by disci- pline of higher education. The survey considers


these will be covered in Equine Guelph’s upcoming Racehorse


Respiratory


Health course, available ex- clusively to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of On- tario (AGCO) licence hold- ers.


About Equine Guelph: Equine Guelph is the


horse owners’ and care givers’ Centre at the Univer- sity of Guelph in Canada. It is a unique partnership ded- icated to the health and well-being of horses, sup- ported and overseen by


equine industry groups. Equine Guelph is the epi- centre for academia, indus- try and government - for the good of the equine industry as a whole. For further in- formation,


www.equineguelph.ca. Story by: Nicole Weidner


Photo: Horses will open their mouth to escape bit pain, but this can then im- pair their breathing


such factors as overall re- search impact and academic and institutional reputation. The rankings are in-


visit


tended to help prospective students identify leading schools in their


field. Schools are graded based on


academic and employer rep- utation and research impact. OVC is one of 18


Canadian university pro- grams that have been named among the world’s top 10 for their discipline this year. The top-ranked veteri-


nary science schools this year are University of Cali- fornia – Davis, the Univer- sity of London’s Royal Veterinary College, Cornell University and Utrecht Uni- versity. After U of G, the Uni-


versity of Calgary was the highest-ranked Canadian school in veterinary sci- ences, placing 42nd. OVC is focused on ad-


vancing veterinary medicine and health research for the betterment of animals, peo- ple and our planet. Almost 480 DVM students and more than 375 graduate stu- dents are enrolled in the col- lege.


their star runner Had to Be Ivory. A stakes winner at 2, 3 and 4, ‘Ivory’ has won 11 of 14 races and over $162,000. He is set to return to racing in 2020. Had to be Fandango,


also the dam of Five Bar Fandango, has a huge 2- year-old in training at the farm, Had to Be Relentless and she is in foal again to Ivory James. The 2020 racing team


for the Roberson family looks just as potent as previ- ous years (they have won 52


races in the last four years combined), success they credit to keeping the horse numbers down,


feeding


them a lot and giving them plenty of outdoor time. Bryn says they don’t


take anything for granted when it comes to their farm. “We love the horses, it’s our life, our family’s life and we’ve been lucky.”


Courtesy of Ontario Racing, www.ontarioracing.com


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