Burk’s Falls Fair, an annual Labour Day Wend event, reveals something about Ontario that the McQuinty Government overlooked in”CutBacks & our Canadian Culture” ..much of our vast land is made up of folks who are in tune with agriculture/animals/ ..grass-roots stuff. What I have found out from cycling around this particular Northern Ontario area, is that many people are passionate about horses. 55, 000 horseracing jobs will be lost if the provincial liberal government takes out the revenue that slot machines generate at horse racing venues.
However, I was just at a recreational event where people support their love of horse ownership by working at other jobs. One woman watching the Stake Horse Racing, (a timed event where the rider assists their horse around stakes placed in the paddock in figure 8 fashion ){think slalom ski racing)….said “we have to sustain our passion by getting up a 0:30 something in the morning and care for these animals…then go to regular jobs. 99% of the folks here are poor, but not in spirit..they don’t have time to watch TV and be stupefied by computers …we’re out -of -doors. people..really living!” I was informed that there were more that 10 teams of Belgium and Percharons, in the Horse Pulling Event… to compete in pulling the cement increments (on a steel sleigh); given 3 tries to pull 20 feet for each event. The winning duo pulled more than twice their combined weights at 8680 pounds. More events are scheduled throughout Ontario over September and October.
-So I witnessed much—–from the picture of the owner of the Fish Burger truck at Magnetawan, who said that he was going to have to”PUT-DOWN” his horses if he could not afford to care for them through the racing venue—– The sadness and despair in this man’s person was moving. He showed me a sign citing that his daughter Connie McConnell ran a Horse Camp for young girls this summer ’12.
This is not only about cutting back on extras.. this is about eliminating a whole lifestyle/culture that is indigenous to our land. I think for a moment, ..and feel the same pangs of disillusionment that surfaced from the Newfoundland dilemma. a fishing industry in peril and all the fine people, people who had a pure purpose, a purpose no longer needed…pretty sad.
Our technology is taking away some pretty good stuff. JUST REVIEW THE NATIONAL POST OR WEB CITES: MANY MORE THAN 13000 HORSES ARE IN JEOPARDY of being KILLED (Euthanasia of Horses will be a record high)—–.WITHOUT THE PREVIOUS PROVINCIAL FUNDING, there is no other more compassionate way to deal with the crisis.
2012thislandisyourlandseatosea 