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HORSE DOCTOR Dr Garth Henry, Equine Vet By CANDICE VETTER

Halloween Hanover and her foal

Canadian Cowboy Country June/July 2022

s the founder and original partner of Russell Equine and as an owner of Standardbred racehorses himself, Dr Garth Henry of North Russell, Ontario, knows his horseflesh. Dr Henry started as a large animal veterinarian, and his wife, Dr Ruth Irving, got him interested in Standardbred horses, which her father, also a vet, raised. “I was exposed to the breed through Ruth’s dad,” Garth said in a recent telephone interview. “Standardbreds were his passion.” Garth and Ruth hail from the Maritimes; he from Charlottetown, P.E.I. and she from Moncton, N.B. They met in 1979 at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and then both attended Guelph University to finish their veterinary degrees. Ruth’s father had a large animal clinic with a small animal clinic on the side.

Veterinarians Dr Ruth Irving and Dr Garth Henry at their clinic

Garth chose large animals, and Ruth focused on pets, eventually opening the Village Veterinary Clinic, a separate small animal clinic in Russell, Ontario. (Author’s disclosure, my cats are taken there.) Garth found he liked large animals and soon realized he preferred equine medicine. “I’d rather work on horses,” he said. ”From an economic standpoint, people are more

willing to spend money on a horse.” With a laugh, he added, “Plus, they smell better than other large animals.” The Russell area is just outside Ottawa, and the racing style there is harness racing. “Because of where we are, there are not many Thoroughbreds raised,” Garth said. “Other than by a couple of breeders, so I mostly treat, and we breed Standardbreds.” “I had a Quebec license and an Ontario licence, and I developed a big practice in Montreal where there were higher quality horses,” he said. That practice was a couple of hours drive away. Garth would stay in Montreal for three days, work 16 to 18 hour days, then come home to Russell and work three more long shifts, often seeing 50 horses in a day. Garth developed a reputation for what he modestly describes as “competent diagnoses.” Eventually, he gave up the

Halloween Hanover and her foal with Quintessa

cowboycountrymagazine.com

Canadian Cowboy Country June/July 2022

COWBOY WAY

PECKING ORDER? Where Are You in the By DYLAN BIGGS

n the social world of cattle or horses, there is always a leader — a boss bull or cow or lead mare. The social hierarchy is dynamic, everyone is ranked, and the process is continual. Rank isn’t simply given; it is earned. Top rank gives physical dominance or control of time and space to feed, water, shade and mating in multi-sire bull batteries or stallions. The hierarchy benefits the herd in many ways, which we won’t go into here. What we are going to discuss today is the importance of acknowledging this social reality and understanding how we, as livestock handlers fit into this social fabric. I have realized over the decades the folly of those who assume that cattle, horses, and dogs, for that matter, will join us, as opposed to us joining them. It may sound like a semantic argument, but cattle, horses and dogs are not humans, and they can’t engage with us in a human capacity. Not that we don’t share certain characteristics regarding wants, needs and behaviours, but they don’t and never will share all human traits, regardless of how desperate some folks are to treat their animals like people. What I am saying seems obvious, but there is a blurring of the differences and boundaries. Some folks treat their cattle, horses and or dogs as pets and begin ascribing human characteristics and intellectual capacity to them that they simply don’t possess. Some folks are just cowboycountrymagazine.com

desperate to believe if they just love a dog enough, they can control its behaviour entirely or even remedy dangerously aggressive behaviour. Or if they are nice enough or talk sweet enough, their horse will do what they want, or if they sing the right song or use just the right tone of voice, the cattle will do as they please. I also hear, “Oh, so and so would never do that.” I could ignore this wishful thinking if it was harmless, but it is ill-advised because it results in people getting hurt and, sadly, on occasion, killed. What we are talking about is leadership. The boss mare or boss cow is in a leadership role. People also assume leadership roles with animals when developing effective working relationships. We need to engage with them socially in their capacity, in their world, so to speak. That requires learning their social structure and their social language if we are going to be communicating effectively and be successful in our leadership role. The boss bull or lead horse can drive subordinate animals away. They can drive them in any direction, at the speed and distance they choose. Subordinate bulls yield space to the boss bull; they stay away at the indicated distance and for the time they are told. Subordinate horses also do the same thing; they are not the master of how close, when, or for how long they are in the sphere of the 39

Pro Rodeo Canada Insider Francis Rodeo Stock horses are raised in the beautiful Qu'Appelle Valley of Saskatchewan

BRONC FUTURITIES NEXT-GEN WINNERS BY TIM ELLIS

T MAY BE CONSIDERED A HOBBY BY SOME. FOR OTHERS, IT’S AN INVESTMENT WITH LITTLE RETURN. AND FOR MANY, IT’S A PASSION. WE’LL CALL IT

AN EXPENSIVE, PASSIONATE HOBBY.

Shawn (Shawn-Boy) and his father, Art Francis of Francis Rodeo Stock. In the chute is one of their young bucking horses with the “dummy” strapped onto its wither and above the flank.

“The end goal for us is to sell our bucking horses,” says Shawn Francis, who, along with his dad, Art and sister, Marnie, operate a stock contracting outfit on the Piapot First Nation, north of Regina, Sask. “We’re competing in futurities with the hope of getting those horses to the National Finals Rodeo.” “Just before COVID, rodeos were in decline with rising costs and a lack of volunteers, so a lot of our contracting jobs were going away. We still have the infrastructure to raise these bucking horses, so it makes sense for us.” Canadian Cowboy Country June/July 2022

C.P.R.A.

Cooper Clan horses in the pasture

Cooper Clan Buckin’ Horse Company up-and-comers on the homeplace near Senlac, Sask.

Frank Wyzykoski put his money into his breeding program while he was still working in hopes of helping with his semi-retirement. “I wasn’t in it to make it a full-time job,” confirms Wyzykoski, who still has a halfdozen horses left on his operation near Eckville, Alta. “I don’t have the land base to be a contractor, so the futurities are a great way to find out where your breeding program is at.” “It gets to be like a job, but it’s something I really enjoy. Sometimes you do a little horse-trading, and everybody improves their herd. It kind of gets to be a way of life.” Travis Reay began raising bucking horses while he was still riding them in the rodeo arena. And the 2013 Canadian Pro cowboycountrymagazine.com

Rodeo All-Around champion has built his herd up to over 100 horses. “I started out raising bulls, but they’re hard on fence,” chuckles Reay, who just last season won the Wildrose Rodeo Association steer wrestling championship at the age of 42. “Rodeo has been my life, and I want to carry it on after I’m done competing.” “When I was six years old, my mom timed at all the Howard Thompson rodeos. Howard would take me to help him sort. Guess he put the bug in me way back then. And now it’s been twenty-some years I’ve been doing this.” For several years, Ash Cooper has been heavily involved in rodeo as a clown and barrel man. He’s now in the bucking horse business for a different reason.

Above: Frank Wyzykowski’s mare, 571 Rodeo Code was purchased by Western Rodeo of Idaho. The mare is being dummy bucked — the “dummy” is the apparatus strapped over her flank and wither. When about eight seconds are up, the riggings are tripped to open, and the dummy is bucked off.

“My dad and brother, Cam, started the operation,” begins Cooper. “I took over when my brothers died in a plane crash about 11 years ago.” “I was raising bucking bulls at the time. I sold all of them to take over for the family. I thought my dad and brother put in too much sweat equity and there was too much sentimental value to have it not continue.” Cooper believes raising bucking horses is more difficult than raising bulls. 49