4/ JULY 2020 THE RIDER HON. COL. A.W. FINN CD: Founder


BARRY FINN: barry@therider.com Publisher/ Editor/Advertising Manager


GLENDA FORDHAM: fordhampr@rogers.com Entertainment Columnist


Horse Journal®


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Cancellation of the 2020 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair


TORONTO , June 24, 2020 /CNW/ - Due to our ongoing concern regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the excite- ment of The Royal will have to wait for another year. The Royal’s Board of Di- rectors today made the heart-wrenching but unanimous decision to cancel the 2020 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, originally scheduled for November 6th to 15th at Exhibition Place, Toronto. This treasured annual tradition will re- turn better than ever in 2021. “Over the past several months,


we’ve all experienced an unprecedented disruption to our daily lives and are re- defining how we live, work and play. Ultimately, our decision is grounded in our commitment to help ensure the health and well-being of our community at large,” stated Charlie Johnstone,


From Our Founder


Remembering 1970 Forward


Hi! it’s only me. I’ve been


around the horse business for more that ½ a century plus an- other 25 years before 1970. Well here we are on the ac-


tual door step of our 51st year of publishing, The Rider.com. It all started when I was the owner of several newspapers and Shop- pers.


The family were members


of the Ancaster Saddle Club. At one of the meetings I was hard pressed to keep track of what the president was telling us about up- coming shows. So I decided to have a discussion with the family and low and behold a star was born. After advising the club of my intentions Lynda Harrison Sisson offered her services to write for us. She was our first. We have to be a star as we


have gone through countless challenges. The newspaper was


Chief Executive Officer at The Royal. “Our pri- mary responsibility re- mains rooted in serving our community and pro- tecting the integrity and welfare of all. We under- stand and appreciate the time, effort and financial commitment required to compete and exhibit at The Royal and did not make this decision with- out very careful consider- ation.” The Royal Agricul-


tural Winter Fair is the largest combined indoor agricultural fair and international equestrian competition in the world. Each fall, The Royal brings together


born out of necessity. It was orig- inally called the Canadian West- ern Rider. Chuck Aylett designed the horse and rider on our mast head (superimposed on our mod- ern logo on page 1). We used that logo for years and to this very day Bob Sisson figured he was the rider that Chuck used on the logo. Who am I to argue that point? There is definitely a re- semblance. The Canadian Western Rider


was distributed for the very first time at the Ancaster Saddle Club’s show at the Ancaster Fair Grounds. It came out in June but was flagged as July 1970 so in keeping with protocol officially we are now celebrating our 50th Anniversary. Joe and Pat Carter were


judges at previous Ancaster Sad- dle Club shows so we featured their photos on the front page of that first issue. Over the past 50 years our


name evolved into the The Rider.com as we try and celebrate a ½ century mile stone. The Canadian and World Horse In- dustry has taken a beating. Major shows have cancelled such as the Calgary Stampede, the CNE, the Royal Winter Fair along with


hundreds of competitors, thousands of animals and hundreds of thousands of guests to celebrate the best in agricul- ture, local food, and equestrian compe- tition. During its storied history, The


countless Agricultural Fairs. Even the Kentucky Derby has been postponed. Everything and everyone has been touched by this Global Pandemic. So needless to say The Rider


has also been effected by this as well. We have trimmed some ex- penses such as keeping our costs down by reducing the amount of pages to match our advertising income. As well this reduces the cost of post office delivery. The Rider survived the 80’s,


when the banks and lending insti- tutions were gouging us all with 20% interest rates. The Rider was the first


Western Horse publication in Canada. We have outlasted all the contenders that came along and started up competing publica- tions. Even a publication owned by the Toronto Star had the au- dacity to use our trade name on their short lived newspaper. These publications took away some of our revenue but we man- aged to keep going. They col- lapsed as they were not getting results for the advertisers. These competitors did not


have a solid newspaper business background like I had. A good schooling is what it takes. I start-


Do you love Fergus? Visit his website at: http://www.fergusthehorse.com


Royal has been cancelled on only one other occa- sion, during World War II. At that time, the stalls within the historic Royal Horse Palace were trans- formed into Army Bar- racks to house soldiers preparing to be deployed to join our Canadian and Allied troops fighting in Europe. Today, The Royal once again stands in sup- port of its community, first and foremost. “During these un-


certain times, we’re heartened by the re- silience of farmers, the ingenuity of entrepreneurs, and the abundance of care shown towards family, friends and


ing out selling subscriptions when I was 10 years old for New Liberty Magazine in Toronto. I had to build my own route. I started working full time at a weekly newspaper, the Journal in Oakville. Then I switched to the Oakville Record Star as they of- fered me an opportunity to start a publication in Milton. I was only 18 at the time. What an opportu- nity. Then I was off to London to study journalism in the UK. Then it was the Globe and Mail Circu- lation dept and then I ended up helping found the Oakville Beaver. After that I started The Burlington Post with a $2,500 loan from the Bank of Nova Sco- tia. I had a wife, a new car and a new house and then the current publisher, Barry, came a long 4 weeks after our first issue. Back in 1965 I was doing my best to keep afloat. I sold The Post to the


Toronto Telegram. I was really under way then, working for them with unlimited financing. You see, I was involved with starting the chain that was made up of many newspapers owned by the Telegram. It provided na- tional revenue and combo ads. It was called Inland, a subsidiary of the Telegram. Then the Telegram collapsed. In- land survived but then the assets were merged with Metrospan and became Metroland. Then I cut myself


loose and worked for the Brabant chain of newspa- pers. I left them and went on my own again. I started the Hamilton East Ender, The Hamilton Mountain Advertiser and then I took over the Mountaineer. So you see I had an excellent


animals,” concluded Johnstone. “As we lead up to our 100th Anniversary cele- brations in 2022, we take comfort know- ing that the 2021 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair will be, as always, an out- standing experience for all those who compete, exhibit and attend.” In addition to The Royal’s Agricul-


tural Food Competitions, which will still take place in 2020, virtual programming designed to engage, educate and moti- vate is currently being explored for this Fall. More details regarding this exciting initiative will be released soon. In the meantime, all Canadians are encouraged to continue supporting Canadian farm- ers, producers and local retailers. Together we will get through this,


and “Bring the Country to the City” next November 5th to 14th, 2021.


back ground in publishing. As we have reached this


juncture where 50 years have past I have no idea where The Rider will be 50 years from now. All these other horse publi-


cations have fallen by the way- side. We were and are the only one of our kind in Ontario, in a folding hands on publication. Some others have gone to online only models but The Rider is still publishing our print edition, which can also be found online. Today the newspaper indus-


try is in distress such as the Power and the Glory of Publish- ing,Torstar, has gobbled up every publication they could get their hands on. Their stock was in the hundreds of dollars. Now today only .62 cents. With the onset of computers and the inter- net it has taken its toll on all these, some have closed some have gone home literally. The Rider, after 50 years


with the same owners, are still riding on. We were responsible for bringing the Ontario horse in- dustry together. We started the Western Rider and the English Rider and the Canadian Quarter Horse Journal. We found when we did a survey that we had a lot of crossover subscribers and ad- vertisers so in 1994 The Rider.com was born when all three publications were merged under that title. The Rider was blessed with


suburb people in the industry that cared about us and helped to get us going. Like the Coverdale’s who bought full pages for a year, the Ionson’s, the Bailey’s, the Bonks, the Lenz’s, the Nye’s, the Royal’s, the Picov’s the Auzzie Watt family. There were so many in our beginning that we just can’t name them all here. But we


need to take the time to thank them all. Especially those in the horse industry that came to work for us: Sue Nye in circulation, Don Nye in advertising, Jerry Kinsella, a Rodeo Bronc rider, in production. All these great people helped us get this together one way or the other. A number of horse clubs and


associations were with us from the beginning. The WHAO who were with us from day one. The OQHA as well the CQHA and the Ontario Appaloosa Associa- tion, the newly minted Ontario Paint Horse Club, the Pinto, even AQHA. George Hewitt, Archie


McArthur and Craig Black, all of the Ontario Rodeo Association, Joe and Pat Carter, Jan and Tom Bishop, Bob and Lynda Sisson, they were there for us. Our thank you list goes on


and on. I know it is not good journalism to thank individuals for fear of missing someone, but I needed to name some of the main supporters that got us to 50 years. I would like to thank Don


Bailey of Bailey Harness and Saddlery for being our very first advertiser, THANK YOU DON.


My Turn Will continue next issue…


Not a peep out of Reliance Home Comfort, only a dunning invoice for something that I do not owe. Thank you for looking down


in the corner. Keep your distance and remember that you and only you are responsible for reporting child, elder, animal abuse.


Aidan W. Finn CD


Founder of The Rider 1970 President, Orange aPEEL www.orangeapeel.com


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