Foothills Farm has produced and will continue to produce elite equestrian riders, those young athletes with sights set on competing against the very best hunter and jumper types that this country (and the world) has to offer.
That, however, is but a very small fraction of those who come to the Chelmsford country setting to enhance their knowledge of horse riding, some with an eye on entering the ring before fans and judges, others with no such interest, all with far more modest goals than those who yearn to attend the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair each November.
“A good weekend would be if we make it around the ring and everything is smooth sailing,” suggested 33 year-old Leanne Gilbert with a laugh, contemplating her very first show with Dyna (her new horse) this coming weekend.
“We need to see how she handles my nerves,” she added. “I get nervous – but she’s been an absolute star. Nothing fazes her – but she is green to the show ring.”
How this all plays out will be answered this coming weekend as the Foothills facility plays host to the annual Rick Smith Memorial Horse Show, a Trillium circuit gathering of talent, both human and equine in nature, from various pockets of northern Ontario and beyond.
While the background story that Leanne Gilbert carries with her to the ring might not be the norm for most participants who will strut their stuff at Foothills this weekend, it’s also not a unique tale, her indoctrination to the world of riding coming only in her early twenties, despite some family history with horses.
“I started off on a big, chunky Clydesdale,” recalled Gilbert, a Timmins native who moved to Sudbury some six months ago, transferring with work and opening the door to much easier access to her love of riding. “I was in a Western saddle to start but I remember watching other people riding and falling in love with the whole look of the English saddle.”
“The tanned breeches, your shirt tucked in with a belt – I just really liked that style of riding.”
Nice relaxing, casual riding – an enjoyment of being at one with the horse, without a care in the world to disrupt the moment.
“Competing wasn’t in my plans at all,” Gilbert confessed. “My plan was just to learn how to ride. That was the route I was going – but then seeing everybody else riding, lessoning, hearing about their competitions, seeing the videos, that’s where the push came to compete.”
That push would steer Gilbert towards the NEC (Northern Equestrian Circuit) shows and an eventual trek along Highway 144 to a stop at the gem that is Foothills Farm. “The whole environment there was just so friendly,” she said. “Dave and Laurel (Scott) talked to everybody that comes.”
“It was such a welcoming environment that was the epitome of what I pictured riding to be.”
A blueprint to improvement had been cast, with Gilbert more committed than she had ever been about putting herself out there. “I was confident, I was brave, I wasn’t super nervous,” she said.
“It was my best year of riding.”
In April of 2023, Gilbert made the decision to stable her horse at Foothills, accepting the challenges of that schedule. “I lived in Timmins and commuted every weekend,” she explained.
“I would work Monday to Friday, leave work at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, drive here, ride, stay with my aunt on Friday and Saturday, ride all day Saturday and Sunday and drive back to Timmins. From April until September, I think I missed two weekends.”
Earlier this summer, Gilbert purchased Dyna, the horse-rider relationship still very much in its formative stages. “I am planning to show at the Rick Smith, but I am going to stay on the lower side (of the competitive scale) until we get to know each other better.”
Fourteen year-old Emma Aubé is not a great deal more well-acquainted with Stormi, her new horse this summer, one that she shares with veteran rider Leah Blanchette, the horse she will show this weekend. And much like Leanne Gilbert, competition was hardly the driving force behind the equestrian involvement of the soon-to-be grade nine student at St Charles College.
“My dad went to high-school with Holly’s dad (Holly Heikkila – granddaughter to Foothills Farm owners Dave and Laurel Scott),” said Aubé. “I would always hang around with Holly and we would do summer camps together. When I was eight or nine, I started lessoning.”
And for as much as she knew the shows would come, those weekend events ranked second to her true happy place in the barns. “It was always my dream to have my own horse. It wasn’t even the sport that I liked as much as the fact that I just liked the horses. I’ve always loved being around horses.”
“I just like being in their presence, whether that is just sitting in the stall with them, getting them ready to ride, un-ready to ride.”
That dream would materialize in September of 2022 when Aubé’s parents purchased Garrett, the childhood pony that Heikkila had ridden for years. “I got a pony that was ready for me,” said Aubé with a smile. “That pony had been schooled many times over.”
Which is not to say that this new partnership was without any valleys.
“Garrett was a pretty naughty pony for me that winter, I’m not going to lie,” said Aubé. “When we would be jumping he was constantly bolting. And he’s a scaredy-cat too, always spooked at things. I’ve fallen off him so many times.”
Stormi is, by all accounts, the next step in the progression, taking Aubé from the two foot jumps to the 2.9” hunter circuit. “He is lazy – but generally a good boy,” noted the younger of two girls in the family. “Stormi struggles with rhythm; he loses his rhythm easily. He needs lots of help, with spurs and crop – and lots of leg as well.”
That will be the focus this weekend for Aubé and her horse, however modest that goal might be.