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PM #40009439Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:
Suite 201, 2400 Bevan Ave., Sidney BC, V8L 1W1
In This Issue CONTENTS • December 2013
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20 Hooves in History The story of the horse in Alberta is a
fascinating gallop back from extinction to a pivotal role in the culture of the West
26 The Bishops Celebrate 100 Years of Wild West Shows
The oldest family run wild west show in the world and still going strong
38 My Blue Creek Holiday A dressage rider heads to the
backcountry for a once-in-a-lifetime experience
46 Deck the Stalls! Holiday Gift Guide
Great gift ideas for the horse lovers on your list
52 Celebration of Horses Photo Contest
Album of winners from our 22nd annual photo contest
HORSE HEALTH
14 Back from the Brink Nutrition for rehabilitating the
starved horse
Departments4 Editorial
6,8 Hoofbeat
10 Letters and Tough Question What is the most serious horse
welfare issue today?
12 Horse Council BC 4th Annual Equine Education Summit
1,60-61,Inside B/Cover Country Homes & Acreages
62 Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association News
63 To Subscribe
EquiNetwork65 Hitchin’ Post
66 Horses for Sale
67 Classifieds
68 Roundup Top 10 New Year’s resolutions
for horses
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When horses galloped across the U.S. border onto Alberta’s rolling prairies in the 1720s, it was a bit of an overdue homecoming. It had been roughly 10,000 years since the province’s expansive grasslands shuddered under hard equestrian hooves. Fossils indicate that North America is the original home of the horse, where it first appeared millions of years ago. While animals like the ancient bison and mammoth migrated into North America from Siberia, the horse did the opposite. It was eventually domesticated by horse-riding cultures on the Steppes of Central Asia but here at home, the ancient horse that once thrived on Canada’s grasslands mysteriously vanished thousands of years ago.
No one is quite sure what caused horse extinction in
Alberta, but archaeology work suggests that they were significant animals to the province’s oldest humans. When horses came back to the prairies 10 millennia later in the 1700s, they would surpass their previous importance and assume a central role among Indigenous and European cultures in the West. The story of the horse in Alberta is a fascinating ride through the province’s heritage of human adaptation.
If your image of ancient Alberta is of a land teeming with vast herds of bison, think again. Horses dominated the northern Great Plains. The palaeontology record around Edmonton indicates that before the last Ice Age (some 40,000 to 25,000 years ago) horses outnumbered bison by as much as ten to one. By 10,000 years ago, up to six different
Hooves in HistoryHOW THE HORSE CHANGED THE WESTBY TODD KRISTENSEN, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA AND JACK BRINK, ARCHAEOLOGY CURATOR, ROYAL ALBERTA MUSEUM
When groups like the Blackfoot and
Assiniboine mastered horseback riding, the
horse changed just about every dimension
of life on the plains.
Around 10 millennia ago, the horse disappeared from the entire continent.
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21December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
species of now-extinct horse wandered the West. They likely split their time between searching for grasses and seeking safety from some daunting predators including cave bears, American lions, and the speedy American cheetah. Perhaps the biggest threat to horse survival was an ingenious two-legged hunter armed with little more than a spear.
Despite its common name, the Mexican horse (Equus conversidens) ventured well north into Alberta’s tundra meadows and onto the menu of Alberta’s first humans. Recent archaeology work reveals that people hunted the Mexican horse at a site not far from Fort Macleod in southern Alberta. Ancient residues of horse blood were found on stone spear tips used over 10,000 years ago. Fossil horse bones have also been found near Grande Prairie, Taber, Cochrane, and in several Edmonton-area gravel pits. The first humans to ever set foot in the province followed footsteps of the Mexican horse and they likely ambushed these animals at watering holes or along trails, while some hunters may have corralled horses onto mud flats that hindered their escape. But around 10 millennia ago, the horse disappeared from the entire continent.
When the horse returned with the Spanish 500 years ago, Indigenous peoples had a more profound place for the equestrian animal than the dinner table. Once groups like the Blackfoot and Assiniboine mastered horseback riding, the horse occupied and changed just about every
below: A rocky canvas of ancient art at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park depicts a domestic horse in a buffalo hunt.
above: Brave and well-trained horses known as “buffalo runners” were prized by hunters who needed both hands free for their weapons, as this painting by George Catlin from the 1800s illustrates.
left: This map shows the chronological spread of the domestic horse into Alberta over the last 500 years.
The palaeontology record
around Edmonton indicates
that before the last Ice Age
horses outnumbered bison
by as much as ten to one.
Around 10 millennia ago, the horse disappeared from the entire continent.
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dimension of life on the plains. The new hooved pets created new hunting strategies. They changed the way people moved across the prairies, altered the dynamics of plains warfare, and by the 1800s Indigenous Plains people such as Post Oak Jim (a member of the Comanche) could safely claim that “Some men loved their horses more than they loved their wives.”
Reconstructing when and how the domestic horse spread into Alberta has been tricky. Historic records offer only a handful of references to the timing and motivation of horse adoption by Indigenous people during those ear-ly days in the 1700s. The journals of the great explorer and fur trader David Thompson provide one extraordin-ary glimpse. Thompson spent the winter of 1787-1788 camped with the Peigan (Piikani) in Alberta’s foothills where he shared a tipi with an elderly Cree man, Sau-kamapee. Saukamapee had been raised by the Blackfoot and while winter’s wicked winds ruffled the tipi hides, he regaled Thompson with the history and lore of his adopt-ed people, including the first ever horse sighting.
The Peigan had been raided by dreaded rivals who rode
Morninglightonthebeautifulhoodoos atWriting-on-StoneProvincialPark
southeastofLethbridge,Alberta.
left: This combat scene from Writing-on-Stone shows an early horse draped with body armour.
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23December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
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animals “swift as the deer.” Equally swift was the spread of this news of a new beast. The first chance to see a horse up close came when the Peigan attacked a horseback rider. The man got away but the horse was killed with an arrow. “Numbers of us went to see him,” Saukamapee recounted, “and we all admired him; he put us in mind of a stag [elk] that had lost his horns; and we did not know what name to give him. But as he was slave to man, like the dog, which carried our things, he was named Big Dog.”
In addition to the few written records, there is a unique piece of heritage that offers fleeting
(and beautiful) glimpses of how the horse changed the west. Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, which is nestled into the winding valleys and coulees of the Milk River in southern Alberta, houses one of the largest collections of rock art in North America. For over a thousand years Indigenous people have been carving and painting their stories on the sandstone hoodoos and massive canyon walls. Appropriately named, Writing-on-Stone is a rocky canvas of ancient art that spans many centuries, and the horse looms large in those depictions.
Horse carvings depict a wide variety of events and beliefs including battle scenes,
hunting expeditions, tallies of horses acquired through trading or raiding, and commemorations of a powerful, respected animal. In everyday life, the horse had several different uses. Some horses were destined to replace the dog as beasts of burden that carried belongings such as tipi poles and skins during long marches from camp to camp. Other horses were highly revered as “buffalo runners,” prized for being long-winded and intelligent when faced with the challenge of overcoming a buffalo weighing 1000 pounds or more.
Early Europeans remarked on the instincts and skill of the buffalo runners. These horses had learned to read the buffalo and knew when to dodge an oncoming charge even in the midst of the swirling dust and flowing blood of a buffalo chase. Moments before the buffalo run began, the Pawnee of the Central Plains were known to whisper terms of endearment into their horses’ ears. They called them brother, father and uncle, and encouraged them not to fear the buffalo but to run well. For buffalo hunters who needed both hands free for their weapons, a well-trained horse was essential to survival.
Other horses were used for small trips, training, or as gifts, and the artwork at Writing-on-Stone hints at these practices. The stony art also tells archaeologists how beliefs about the horse changed over time. For example, early carvings of horses at Writing-on-Stone show them draped with leather body armour; a trait borrowed from the Spanish. This was soon found to be too hot, heavy and impractical (as well as ineffective against musket balls and bullets). Later images of horses show them unadorned and in full flight. Both wild and captive horses multiplied dramatically and what was once a novel sight on the rolling grasslands became a necessity of life on the plains.
The horse quickly galloped into the social lives of indigenous cultures. Families that could acquire many horses gained prestige and respect. Festive gatherings that included thousands of horses were not uncommon, which placed great demands on local rangeland. The need for greener pastures determined where these events could be held and how often people were forced to move across the prairies. Horse raiding became a mark of courage for many groups and horses were traded for a multitude of things including European goods, food, membership into societies, and spiritual power. Esteemed leaders often lent horses to families in need, offered them as gifts associated with weddings, and were sometimes buried with horses that would escort them to the afterlife.
25December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
By the time the first Europeans began to arrive in Alberta in the mid- to late 1700s, horses were a hot commodity. Their introduction changed the way indigenous groups interacted with each other and with the new European fur traders. While slick beaver furs were motivating European economic interests in Alberta, horses, guns, and buffalo meat were becoming entwined in complex trade networks that would shape the history of the prairies.
Fur traders needed food that locals were willing to deliver if the price was right. Pounded pemmican (dried buffalo meat) fed the fur trade, and in exchange, indigenous traders acquired metal tools, clothes, and guns. Growing appetites in the 1800s led to a sharp drop in buffalo populations. The use of buffalo leather for clothes and machinery, combined with unregulated sport hunting, hastened the demise of an animal that once numbered in the millions. When the buffalo herds vanished, the hooves of the horse pounded on. Ranchers and farmers continued to rely on horses to break the land and they’ve occupied an important place in cowboy culture ever since. The use of modern horses continues to evolve to suit our recreational and economic needs.
The rare and unique collection of rock art at Writing-on-Stone is a provincial treasure that captures pivotal centuries of modern Plains cultures. For this reason, the area is a Provincial and National Historic Site. Writing-on-Stone always was, and still is, a sacred place to the Blackfoot people; a place where spirits dwell among the towering spires and sheer walls of sculpted bedrock. Visitors are encouraged to learn the story of this powerful place while immersing themselves in its stunning valleys and rolling uplands. History books often contain dry written records, but one of the many benefits of the stony archive of art on the Milk River is that it can be enjoyed and appreciated under blue skies. What better way to learn how the horse changed the West than from reading the sandstone walls of Writing-on-Stone while cool breezes blow in hints of sage and a red-tailed hawk reads over your shoulder? Site protection combined with a healthy respect for Blackfoot traditions and the archaeological record will ensure that the history of the Old West will endure and the story of the horse will ride on. b
right: The Mexican horse ranged north into Alberta’s meadows where it was hunted by the
province’s first humans. Residues of horse blood were found on ancient spear tips at a site not
far from Fort Macleod in southern Alberta.
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below: This photo, taken on the set of CBC’s drama television show Murdock Mysteries, features a carriage and two-horse team from 4B Ranch Productions, with Tom Bishop Jr. at the reins and the star of the series, Yannick Bisson, a seated passenger.
right: Another skit in the Thomas W. Bishop Wild West Show was the
“Dragging the Outlaw” act, in which Thomas’s younger brother, Robert,
almost always played the role of the horse thief who is caught, dragged,
and shot or hanged.
inset: Cowboys and Native American Indians, settlers and
outlaws, train robberies and stagecoach ambushes – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West portrayed a romanticized
version of the American West that became the prototype for later shows of the Wild West genre.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TOM BISHOP’S 4B RANCH PRODUCTIONS
27December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
By JESS HALLAS-KILCOYNE
ordinarily, when you’re talking about a family business that has been passed down through the generations, with the parents eventually handing the reins over to their children, the “reins” are figurative. But then, the Bishop
family business – consisting of daring feats on horseback, fancy roping tricks, and knife throwing – is anything but ordinary.
For three generations, the Bishops have made a living as Wild West performers, with the second and third generations represented by Tom Bishop Sr. and wife Jan, and their offspring, Sarah, Sally, and Tom Jr. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the Tom Bishop Wild West Show, making it the oldest family-run show of its kind in the world.
The source of the Bishop family’s passion for the Old West is one that can be traced back to a single event in the childhood of Tom Sr.’s father, Thomas W. Bishop.
THE FIRST GENERATIONIn 1889, six-year-old Thomas W. Bishop stood on a street corner in
Newcastle, England, holding his father’s hand and watching the street parade before him with great enjoyment. As the procession continued
the bishopfamily business
100 Years of Wild West ShowsJESS HALLAS-KILCOYNE
ofamily business – consisting of daring feats on horseback, fancy roping tricks, and knife throwing – is anything but ordinary.
For three generations, the Bishops have made a living as Wild West performers, with the second and third generations represented by Tom Bishop Sr. and wife Jan, and their offspring, Sarah, Sally, and Tom Jr. Next year marks the 100family-run show of its kind in the world.
be traced back to a single event in the childhood of Tom Sr.’s father, Thomas
100 Years of By
ofamily business – consisting of daring feats on horseback, fancy roping tricks, and knife throwing – is anything but ordinary.
performers, with the second and third generations represented by Tom Bishop Sr. and wife Jan, and their offspring, Sarah, Sally, and Tom Jr. Next year marks the 100
100 Years of By
ofamily business – consisting of daring feats on horseback, fancy roping tricks, and knife throwing – is anything but ordinary.
performers, with the second and third generations represented by Tom Bishop Sr. and wife Jan, and their offspring, Sarah, Sally, and Tom Jr. Next year marks
100 Years of
Lorna Bishop-Aylett (daughter of Thomas and sister of Tom Sr.) was a talented trick rider who performed many times together with her brother during their childhood, as well as in adulthood after Tom Sr. and Jan launched their Wild West Show in 1967.
business
Lorna Bishop-Aylett (daughter of Thomas and sister of Tom Sr.) was a talented trick rider who performed many times together with her brother during their childhood, as well as in adulthood after Tom Sr. and Jan launched their Wild West Show in 1967.launched their Wild West Show in 1967.
28 www.HORSEJournals.com • December 2013
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down the street, the boy heard gunshots. The gunfire grew louder and louder until he saw the source of the noise.
At the centre of the parade rode a tall man mounted on a white horse, cutting a striking figure in his fringed jacket, tall leather boots, and large cowboy hat. Walking about 30 feet in front of him was a man who was throwing glass balls up into the air for the rider to explode with well-aimed bullets from his gun.
The man on the white horse was William Frederick Cody, better known as “Buffalo Bill” and the man responsible for founding one of the first (and easily the most famous) travelling Wild West shows – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West – in 1883.
The success of the show, both in the U.S. and on its European tours, was such that Buffalo Bill swiftly achieved international fame as “the most romantic figure in American history – the idol of every man and boy.”
Thomas W. Bishop was no exception. The sight of Buffalo Bill and his shooting demonstration made a profound impression on the young boy, leaving him forever enchanted by the “Wild West.”
Just a few years later, the untimely death of his father and his mother’s ill health saw
left: In the Bishop Wild West Show, Tom Jr. frequently performs trick roping while Roman riding on teams of two or four horses.
below: Already a horse lover and rider before she met Tom Bishop Sr., Jan Bishop was enthusiastic to learn trick riding and became an accomplished performer.
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29December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
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Thomas and his younger brother, Robert, end up in an orphanage. There, before they had even reached their teenage years, the boys were given the opportunity to immigrate to their choice of several British territories at the time, including Australia, South Africa, and Canada.
“Canada,” Thomas said to himself when he heard the list read out. “That’s where the cowboys are!”
And so, with his younger brother Robert in tow, Thomas made the transatlantic journey to Canada, where the boys spent the first few years working for a farmer in southern Ontario. After heading west for a brief stint in Alberta, the brothers returned to Ontario and settled in the Niagara region.
Thomas found work as a farmhand. Having always enjoyed working with horses, he also began to take on horse training gigs, quickly making a name for himself in local circles as a gifted trainer of troubled horses.
“With my Dad’s abiding love of horses and interest in them, he started training runaway horses, bad buggy horses, biting horses, horses that would kick buggies apart and hurt people,” says Thomas’s son, Tom Bishop (Tom Sr.). “One of his worst, most vicious ‘students’ he kept and made into an outstanding performance horse. Saladin was his name, but my Dad called him Sandy.”
Thomas began to play around with teaching Sandy to perform some tricks, which the horse picked up easily and with enthusiasm. Man and horse both developed their skills and before long were performing at local fairs. The pair’s reputation steadily grew until, in 1914, Thomas was invited to perform a trained horse exhibition and Wild West display to help raise money for World War I troops.
The show was a huge success and Thomas soon found himself regularly producing Wild West shows much like Buffalo Bill, with skits depicting scenes and themes from the legendary Old West, such as the traditional “Cowboys and Indians,” settlers and outlaws, hold-ups and horse thieves, and train robberies and stagecoach ambushes.
As a performer in his older brother’s Wild West production, Robert Bishop’s litheness and agility saw him cast almost exclusively in the role of horse thief or similar scoundrel who is dragged, hung, shot, or otherwise brought to justice.
“One of the skits was catching and hanging a horse thief,” says Thomas’s son, Tom Bishop (Tom Sr.). “The horse thief was always Dad’s younger brother. They put a birch pole along the track in front of the
30 www.HORSEJournals.com • December 2013
grandstands and they would haul him up from a rope on the horse and then shoot him.”
The performance was so authentic that it was not uncommon for women in the grandstand to faint.
“It might be hard to believe, but you have to think back in time,” says Tom Sr. “Today it’s nothing, we see it all the time in television. But in those days, before television and movie pictures, the gentle folks didn’t see that.”
But the undisputed highlight of the show (and
testament to Thomas’s skill as a horse trainer) was the “Saladin Shoots the Kaiser” act that Thomas developed during the First World War.
“Sandy, without any bridle or bit or harness on him, would go at my Dad’s command up the stairs to the stage and put his front feet up on a pedestal where Dad had a double barrel shotgun mounted with a bobbin attached to the trigger,” explains Tom Sr. “Sandy would put his teeth on the bobbin and pull to fire both barrels at an effigy of the Kaiser (Wilhelm II) that was hanging up on
above & near right: Angie Bishop became a
member of the family in November 2013
when she married Tom Bishop, Jr., and was
enthusiastic about learning to trick ride
and perform in the family show.
far right: The most popular act in Thomas W. Bishop’s Wild West Show was undoubted-ly “Saladin Shoots the
Kaiser,” which debuted during the
First World War.
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a yardarm. During the First World War, the Kaiser was the kind of villain that Hitler is today, so it was immensely popular.”
Over the following years, as his Wild West Show continued to grow and expand, Thomas was eventually able to purchase some farming land near Ridgeville, Ontario. By this time a husband and father, Thomas with his wife Eva, and children Lorna and Thomas Lyell (Tom Sr.), moved
to Ridgeville to live on the farm, which they named the 4-B Corral.
THE SECOND GENERATIONThomas introduced his children to the ins
and outs of the family business early on. His son, Tom Sr., learned how to trick ride and trick rope as a young boy, and he and his sister Lorna performed together all over southern Ontario during their childhood years.
Thomas W. Bishop’s Wild West Show included a skit of a stagecoach ambush and shootout.
above & right: Sarah Bishop, the whip cracking sweetheart of the Bishop family, performs a Wild Whip act in which she cuts the flower from her assistant’s (husband Mark Schneider) mouth.
33December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
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“I was sort of born into it,” says Tom Sr. “I was always around it. It was just something we always did.”
Tom Sr. never outgrew his interest in trick riding and performing, although as a young adult he spent several years working as a radio announcer. During this time he was asked to judge a local beauty contest, where he ended up meeting his future wife. As you might expect, contestant Jan Whitty was a very attractive young woman, but Tom’s attention was really captured when she described her interests and hobbies as including a deep love of horses and riding.
Tom Sr. introduced Jan to trick riding, which she picked up very quickly. After they married in 1965, the newlyweds travelled to England to join a Wild West show, only to learn on arrival that the show had gone under. So the couple returned to Canada and the following year launched their own Wild West show, which they continue to perform to this day, with a little help from their offspring.
THE THIRD GENERATIONLike their father, the third generation of
the Bishop clan learned the ropes of the family business at a young age.
“We all started riding when we were very young,” says Sally Bishop. “I learned to trick ride when I was around seven years old.”
She obviously took to it like a duck to water because Sally grew up to become a professional trick rider and rodeo performer whose resume includes a year touring with Cavalia and performances at events and locations throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Calgary Stampede and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
Also a professional stuntwoman, Sally
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owns and operates her own company, Sure Shot Productions, in Calgary, Alberta, where she lives with husband Grady Galvin. Her stunt work has been featured in many films and television shows, including CBC’s Heartland, Flicka 2, and Once Upon a Time.
Sally’s older sister, Sarah, likewise grew up performing trick riding and Roman riding in the family shows, but chose to pursue a career in news broadcasting which required relocating to Nashville, Tennessee. After living for many years in the U.S., Sarah returned to Ontario to pursue a new career as a teacher, although she helps out with the Bishop Wild West Show on a part-time basis with a whip act performed with assistance from her husband, Mark Schneider.
That leaves Tom Jr. as the third-generation Bishop most involved in the family Wild West show.
“Tom takes a big hand in managing the shows,” says Tom Sr. “He is known for his Roman riding, and is a trick roper and one of the few knife throwers in North America.”
Tom Jr. also coordinates and performs stunts for film and television, which the Bishop family enterprise branched out to include in the 1970s.
Just last month, the Bishop family welcomed the most recent addition to their family – Tom Jr.’s new wife, Angie, who also performs in the Bishop Wild West Show as a trick rider and in her husband’s knife throwing act.
“Angie is a horse gal too, through and through,” says Tom Sr. “We’ve taught her trick riding. She has no trouble standing on the spinning wheel and having
left:ThomasW.Bishopperformsalibertystand(withoutthebenefitofatricksaddle).centre: TomBishopSr.demonstratesashoulderstand.right: SallyBishopshowsoffwithaonefootstand.
right: “Angie has no trouble standing on the spinning wheel and having knives
thrown at her,” says Tom Sr. about his daughter-in-law’s
remarkable willingness to be the
assistant in her husband Tom Jr.’s
knife throwing act. Now that’s a marriage
with trust! PH
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35December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
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knives thrown at her. My wife still can’t watch it to this day.”
Angie may be the newest member of the Bishop family, but the youngest member is Sarah’s two-year-old son. Naturally, he has already been for his first rides on horseback, but only time will tell if he represents the fourth-generation future of the Bishop family business. b
For more information about the Bishops, please visit Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions at www.vaxxine.com/wildwest or Sally Bishop’s Sure Shot Productions at www.sureshotentertainment.com .
For more amazing photos of the Bishop family in action, visit www.HORSEJournals.com/bishop-family.
Inadditiontotrickridingandstuntwork,SallyBishopalsoperforms RomanridingdemonstrationsateventsthroughoutCanadaandtheU.S.
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37December 2013 • Canadian Horse Journal
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function and lung capacity, and increased recovery time. Other noted long-term side effects included nervousness, high blood pressure or low blood pressure.
SallyBishop’s“TangiertheTrickHorse” specialty act, which she
performswithherPainthorse,Tangier,incorporates haute école components fromclassicaldressagewithtraditional
trick maneuvers such as the SpanishWalk,kickingoutoncue,and Tangier’sownspecialstyleofyoga.
facing page: (L-R): Matthew Modine, Tom Bishop Jr., Mel Gibson, and Tom Bishop Sr. on the set of Mrs. Soffel, a 1984 drama film starring Gibson, Modine, and Diane Keaton, and featuring horses and carriages from Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions.
