More than a Riding Club: Some Memories of the Sunset Riding Club
by Jo Doman
In the 1960s, a small group of residents, passionate about horses started a riding club with the first lessons on a fallen log with a blanket thrown over and a saddle on top. Over the next three decades, the Sunset Riding Club was instrumental in the creation of 39 multi-use trails covering 15 kilometers in the district. These included the construction of the Sunset Bridle Trail in the Horth Hill Park, which the CRD at first labeled as “Bridal” Trail; this amusing error was quickly corrected.
Although Sunset Riding Club is presently inactive, many of the members, and indeed their children, are still riding and involved in trail development. Boarding stables and riders in the area continue to increase, even as it is becoming more and more expensive to keep a horse.
A few fond memories:
The first children to arrive for riding lessons did not have ponies, so Sunset borrowed a safe pony from President Alf Pink. Member Anne Chandler proceeded to demonstrate basic grooming, including cleaning the dock (rear end). The pony was very patient, and after being worked on by quite a few children over two weeks, she automatically lifted her tail whenever a child went near her.
In 1974, the RCMP requested two horses for use in the RCMP Centennial Ride in the Canada Day Parade in Sidney. One rider was to represent the Northwest Mounted Police in historical gear and the other to represent the modern Mountie. Club members Doug Toller and Roy Jewell offered mounts. Two young RCMP constables had volunteered for this duty, but one of them couldn’t ride and couldn’t bend his knees enough in his tight pants to get on the horse. Colleen Jewell led the horse to the tailgate of a truck and the constable climbed on the horse. She gave the constable a quick lesson on how to hold the reins and to keep his heels DOWN so that he didn’t accidentally dig his spurs into the horse! All went well, although Colleen said she hardly took a breath until the Parade was over.
On another occasion, one of our members, Mike Coppinger, was asked to supply two white Welsh ponies to pull the pumpkin coach in the National Ballet of Canada’s production of Cinderella starring Karen Kain at the Royal Theatre in Victoria. Mike bravely agreed to drive the ponies on stage and to wear the livery that went with the coach. During the dress rehearsal the fairy godmother appeared on the stage in a puff of smoke accompanied by a loud bang, which immediately caused one of the ponies to poop. After that, there were NO more bangs in the sold-out performances, and everything went off beautifully.
Often members would ride in the Canada Day Parade in Sidney in fancy dress costume. One year Nicola Hives dressed up her pony gelding as a cow, complete with udder and teats. She accompanied her “cow” as a dairymaid. Halfway through the Parade the pony decided to urinate, and the udder began to sag.
What would we do without our volunteers?
Sunset has been blessed over the years with an incredible number of volunteers, some who did not even ride but who just loved horses and all things equine. The fence around the ring had just been finished a short while before the official opening by Lieutenant Governor Pearkes in 1971, and the owner of our leased property, Joan Walker, was seen painting it herself. That year at Sunset’s Banquet and Awards Day, Mrs. Walker (everyone called her that out of respect) was awarded a hand-made “Order of the Golden Paintbrush”, which gave her a good chuckle.
Founding member Colleen Jewell broke her pelvis one year. She bred racehorses and lived alone, and so Sunset members rallied and took turns looking after her troop of equines. In later life she had to go into hospital, and once again everyone rallied around.
To learn more about the history of the Sunset Riding Club of North Saanich and their crucial role in the development and mapping of the trail network in the district, please visit the link: Sunset Riding Club – District of North Saanich.
Note from editors: Jo Doman is the erstwhile president (her words!) of the Sunset Riding Club. Her photo is on the plaque that can be seen at the southwest corner of the intersection of Tatlow Road and Clayton Trail. Please go and have a look. Jo is in the middle, wearing the blue jacket with Megan Soellner (left) and Dorothy Jordan (right). Link to location on Google maps is here.
Jo has a long history with horses as she started riding when she was 9 years old. She came to Canada in 1967, and to North Saanich in 1972. She moved onto Birch Road in 1974 and joined the Sunset Riding Club. A fatal accident on Birch in the late 1970’s prompted her and several other parents of children attending Deep Cove Elementary School to organize a meeting to discuss safety on the roads in which children walked to that school. The major, Jay Rangel, produced a map showing various unopened road allowances and undeveloped “linear” parks in the District. Sunset agreed to undertake the task of opening them up by hand for multipurpose use, as there were no funds available for North Saanich staff to do it. Jo says that she was lucky enough to have had the time to take on this job. A potential trail network was approved by Council in 1982, and in 1983, the Sunset Riding Club organized volunteer groups to start clearing them, with North Saanich staff in charge of surveying. Interestingly, at the time, North Saanich did not have a specific member of staff in charge of parks, and there were no official trails. It was decided that the Sunset Riding Club would apply for various government grants each summer to employ workers to open them up. The first grant was in 1985, and Jo was appointed the official Trails Coordinator. She continued in this position until a parks commission was formed. By 1992 when Jo resigned from the position of Trails Coordinator, 39 trails were completed, covering 15 kilometres.
Jo was elected president of the Sunset Riding Club in 1998, and is always on the lookout for potential trails.
