• Cherry Creek Canadians • The Canadian Horse •

Cherry Creek Canadians - History

Prior to our getting our Canadian Horses, we both had Thoroughbreds before.  Jim had race horses, and Yvonne had hunter/jumper/eventers.  After having had our Thoroughbreds for a number of years, we were beginning to get a bit disenchanted with their frequent self inflicted injuries and high maintenance needs (and even higher energy levels!).   By 1994, it became clear that we were ready for a change. 

That year we headed off for an equine vacation to the Spruce Meadows "Masters".   Until that time, we had never heard of a Canadian Horse before.  It just so happened that they were the feature breed at that year's "Masters".  There they were, front and center in the International Show Jumping ring, amidst all the chaos of the "parade of horses".  One couldn't help but notice the small black horses calmly parading about, totally unconcerned by the brass bands, zooming golf carts, umbrellas, balloons, fireworks, and other total chaos surrounding them. 

As soon as we saw them, we both knew "that's the horse for us!".  We immediately scrambled down out of the bleachers in search of more information about the breed. After inquiring about them, we found to our amazement that the calm horses we had just seen in the International ring, were not the mature seasoned horses we expected, but in fact were just youngsters.  We couldn't believe that they had taken the whole Spruce Meadows experience so calmly! 

We proceeded to find out as much as we could about the breed, and the more we learned, the more of an impression they made on us.  This made us all the more determined to have one - as quickly as possible!  The next thing we knew, our first Canadian Horse - a yearling filly, was on her way out from Quebec.  After she arrived, our filly confirmed for us that indeed, this was definitely to be the breed for us.

This was how Cherry Creek Canadians began...  

And just as other have, we soon found out that having Canadian Horses are just like eating potato chips - you can't have just one!". 

From 1994 on, we continued to carefully assemble our herd and breeding stock by acquiring well bred horses of rarer bloodlines.  To get good stock, and to learn as much as we could about the breed, we went on repeated trips back to Quebec - the heartland of the Canadian Horse, and where the majority of Canadian Horses still remain today. 

We tried to see as many "typey" and traditional examples of the breed as we could.  We also had the good fortune to meet many individuals who were instrumental in the breed's history and preservation.  These folks kindly helped us on our  learning curve about the breed. 

In Quebec, we carefully picked out the young stock that would form the basis of our fledgling breeding program, and transported them home ourselves.  Throughout this learning process, the breed continued to impress us with their sturdiness and soundness, as well as their sociable and calm natures.

Our farm continued to grow, with our acquiring several stallions, and a small herd of quality broodmares. 

Ultimately, this allowed us to produce a small number of quality foals which gained us the reputation of producing healthy, good natured, well handled babies of rare bloodlines.  To our pleasure, our "Cherry Creek" foals have gone to wonderful homes located all over Canada and the USA

Eventually, our young stock matured, and this then enabled us to be able to do a wider variety of things with them. 

Eventually we trained them to both ride and drive.   Although we had never driven horses before having our Canadians, we found them to be so inherently well adapted to this discipline, it seemed a logical step for us to take it up.

 

We have had tremendous fun with our Canadians driving carriages in the summer, sleighs in the winter, and entering Combined Driving Events, for which they seem particularly well suited.

As our horses matured, we began to spend more and more time with them, under saddle.  Most recently, we have been showing a number of them in dressage.

 

Throughout 2005, we had a great year working with, training and showing our horses, and in particular, our stallions.  Our "boys" were well behaved, and they did very well at the shows and other promotional events that we took them to.  And best of all, we had a great time getting out with them! 




 

So, this past year has made us take a very careful look at what we were doing now, and at what we wanted to be doing in the future.



 

This has lead to big changes being in store for Cherry Creek Canadians...



 

Since we love getting out and about with our horses, we have made the realization that we want to focus more of our efforts on doing this. 

To be able to do this, we realized that we weren't going to be able to devote the time needed to bring along foals to the standards that we expected, any longer.  Bringing a youngster along properly, requires a lot of time, attention, and handling.  This ensures that they are well behaved, properly handled and socialized, and a pleasure to be around.

For us, it just wasn't possible to do both well, so something would have to give...
 

Accordingly in 2005, we made the decision to get out of the foal production end of things, and have now sold all of our Canadian Horse broodmares.  

However we are still keeping all three of our stallions, and will continue to offer breeding services with them. Our "boys" really are too special for us to part with!

Now that our herd numbers are reduced, we are very much looking forward to having more time and freedom to get out and about with each of them.  

We are hoping that this big change in our focus will enable us to have more fun with "our gang" as well as allow us to have a great time attending both a wide variety of shows and breed promotion events in the coming years. 

All in all, we find our Canadians to be sensible, intelligent, quick learners, and that they really want to please. They tend to be a horse that "thinks first" before reacting, as opposed to other horses that we have dealt with in the past who would react first and (maybe) think later. They are easy keepers, and have such excellent feet that they usually require no more than routine trimming. Versatile and adaptable, they happily do whatever we ask of them, be it riding, driving, working around our farm, or just "schmoozing" with the many visitors to our farm.
 

Needless to say, we love our Canadian Horses and can't say enough good things about the breed!
 

**NEW**
(as of March 2006)

See our new website home:  http://www.cherrycreekcanadians.ca

Due to space limitations on our original website, we have now moved to our very own domain. 
This site has much more room, so will be filled with larger photos, videos of our horses etc
Be sure to bookmark this page as it is going to become our primary website location.

Updated Thursday March 23, 2006

© Cherry Creek Canadians