Canadian Hobby History 101

The hobby history portion of Nancy Kelly's book Exploring the Model Horse Hobby (reviewed in my previous post) inspired me to embark on a new quest -- exploring Canada's model horse history.   

I've only had time to scratch the surface so far, but already I can tell you that we haven't been very good curators of our own history, and that's a shame.  So with this post I hope to do my part by starting to bring our story together.

I mentioned in my last post that while I have, over time, held subscriptions to a number of American hobby newsletters, I preferred to subscribe to our own Canadian newsletters.  But having only "discovered" the hobby in 1987, I assumed there had been older newsletters circulating in Canada before I joined the hobby.

The two newsletters I subscribed to were, first, the Canadian Model Express, edited at that time by Mary Ann Dalton, and later The Model Dispatch, a relatively short-lived newsletter edited by Tierney Read.

When I sent out a question to my fellow Canadians about newsletters that existed before these two I found, to my surprise, that no one could really remember any others.  The Canadian Model Express, however, had a much more venerable history than I knew. 

The newsletter started when a couple of Canadian collectors, Valerie Hargreaves Ganzert and Andrea Pratt, who had connected through the pages of the American Model Horse Shower's Journal, decided that Canadians needed a place to connect outside of advertisements placed in American magazines.  Some time between 1973 and 1975 they established the first Canadian model horse club, the Canadian Model Club & Registry (CMC&R), and its membership newsletter, the Canadian Model Express.

Over time the newsletter has passed through several editors, starting with Andrea, followed by Bobbie Mosimann, and then Mary Ann Dalton.  No matter who ran the show, though, the newsletter was really the creation of all its contributors -- columnists, news reporters, live show reporters, reviewers, showers and advertisers.

Most Canadians, though, were introduced to the hobby by finding each other in the advertisements or pen pal pages of American publications -- Bobbie Mosimann, for instance, was the first Canadian to write Simone Smiljanic about the hobby when she read her article in The Western Horseman magazine. She met Mary Ann Dalton in 1968 via a pen pal page and through Mary Ann met Michelle Grant.  Together these three formed the founding core of the hobby in Alberta. 

As more and more Canadians discovered the CMC&R and the Canadian Model Express, core groups began to crop up all across the country. In British Columbia hobbyists were brought together by theThunderbird Live Show, founded by Cathy Tweeddale Mitchell.  In Alberta there was Lethbridge Live founded by Bobbie Mosimann and later the Calgary Connection.  Saskatchewan had Saskatoon Live, hosted by Jennie Seaborn, and Manitoba had the Keystone Classic founded by Ivy Olensky.  

One of the earliest shows in Ontario was the Trillium Live, hosted by Stephanie Robson in Guelph, and then there was Maritime Madness, co-founded by Debbie Gamble-Arsenault and Elinor O'Brien, which moved from province to province around the east coast bringing hobbyists in the Atlantic provinces together.

Additionally, Canada had the honour of hosting the first two official BreyerWest shows after the experimental Breyerfest/BreyerWest shows of 1991 (when Breyerfest was held in four different cities, two of which (Redmond, Oregon and Pomona, California) were located in the West.

BreyerWest 1999 Big Ben and most of his swag -- photo by owner.

My copy of the Fred Stone poster.

The world famous Spruce Meadows equestrian facility in Alberta played host to the two Canadian BreyerWests.  In 1999 the featured model was a regular run "Big Ben," but he came loaded with swag.  The model was signed on the belly by creator Kathleen Moody and Big Ben's show jumping partner Ian Millar, sported a special red Champion blanket with red shipping boots, and came accompanied by a VHS tape called Big Ben ... A Glance at Greatness and a large poster of Ian and Ben by artist Fred Stone.

Two views of the flyer for BreyerWest 2000

For the following year, Breyer produced a special run model available only at BreyerWest 2000 -- a classic "Keen" painted to represent the show jumper "Advantage Chrysler," and signed on the belly by rider Linda Southern-Heathcott (daughter of the founders of Spruce Meadows).  Like Ben, Advantage Chrysler, who had competed for Canada at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, sported a specially embroidered blanket, this time in blue.

Advantage Chrysler with blanket

As for the people considered to be the founders of the hobby in Canada, aside from those already mentioned, the name of Lisa Sharpe was frequently mentioned.  As one collector put it, "Lisa Sharpe was definitely a force for the hobby in Canada and the U.S.!  She has been an international judge, competitor, sculptor, show organizer and all-around ambassador."  Another said, "If it was not for Lisa Sharpe I would not have even known model horse shows existed in Canada."

I myself was introduced to the hobby in a number of different ways.  I have already told the tale of my "discovery" moment.  Following that I connected with a couple of other Canadians through ads in the back pages of Breyer's Just About Horses, and finally to hobbyists locally and across the country through participation in hobby newsletters and attendance at live shows.

And that's as much as I know so far about the roots of the hobby in Canada.  I encourage anyone who has more to add to the story to reach out to me through the comments section of this post.