By Pepper Parr

No one knows how many times this vote button was pushed. Often enough to bring $20,000 to Burlington.

BURLINGTON, ON  April 5, 2013  Goderich managed to get more votes for themselves than Burlington and they get the $100,000 Kraft – The Games Goes On award – but Burlington was most definitely in the race and will be given a $20,000 award for the Burlington Lions Optimist Minor Hockey Association (BLOMHA)

John McNeil was the Burlington “poster boy” for this feat when Kristen Priestner nominated him as the “manager extraordinaire” and that got McNeil in as a finalist.

The contest, which was open to any community in the country that ran a minor hockey team that met the Hockey Canada criteria, was based on nominations that came in from individual communities.  The country was broken out into five regions, with Ontario being one of them  Once all the nominations from each region were in, Kraft narrowed down the list to five from each Region.  Burlington was up against Goderich, Lakefield, Cornwall and Stittsville.

Just over 18 months ago Goderich got hit with a major hurricane that tore apart the centre of that city – the community had to pull together and that experience would have had them well-oiled for the Kraft – The Game Goes On contest.

The selection was based on “votes” but these were not like the usual vote – in this game a person could vote as many times as they wanted and for whoever they wanted.  All you had to do was log in click the vote button, key in the code to ensure that you were a human being and not some computer out there dialing in.  Then all the user had to do was click on the vote button.

And then did it all over again until your were numb with exhaustion.

There it was – proof positive that BLOMHA was in the winner’s circle.

No one knows yet what the individual counts were for each community – the total for the country was reported at 750,000 which seems quite low.

Dirk Wolterbeek from Goderich, Ontario, received the most votes and is being recognized today with a $100,000 award to the Goderich Minor Hockey Association. The other four inspiring Ontarians earning a $20,000 award for their selected minor hockey associations include Mike Goble from Lakefield, Rod McLeod from Cornwall, John McNeil from Burlington and Cathy Bureau from Stittsville.

Burlington’s nominee, known as a “Manager Extraordinaire,” John McNeil was described by his nominator, Kristen Priestner “as going  above and beyond for the Major Atom A Burlington Bulldogs. Whether fundraising, coordinating tournaments, hosting the Parents’ Christmas Social or organizing this year’s Ontario Hockey Federation Playoffs, McNeil is the heart and soul of his team.”

As we reported on this event during the two-day race to get as many votes as possible – the picture that told the story for us was this one. The kids are focused and just clicking away. That guy in the middle is going to be playing the game – real soon.

The voting started at 9:00 am last Saturday and other than a small hiccup at the start it went smoothly.  Burlington parents were involved in their hockey end of season games.  Besides driving to London twice and getting their kids out to two games in Burlington this band of parents had to hustle anyone they knew with a keyboard to dial in and vote.

Working from a “hot spot” on the 401 and a cell phone – these “bulldogs” managed to vote frequently.

“We used a cell phone to find a “hot spot” on the 401 and had kids on-line via the cell phone to vote as a parent drove” explained McNeil.

The winners of awards were announced Monday night during a Flyers -Canadiens game (Montreal lost which was not a good sign) and Kraft announced the $100,000 winner for Ontario – Goderich.

Well – they certainly no where their bread is buttered. A $20,000 prize tends to pull smiles like this. This is the BLOMHA core that made the award possible – there are probably a couple of bodies that didn’t make it. I want to know – which one is Kristen Priestner?

For fans – it is all about the game and $20,000 is nothing to sneeze at.  McNeil who doesn’t control the award does expect the BLOMHA executive to use the funds to defer fees for kids who can’t afford to play and to buy equipment for those who need better than what their families can afford.

The core team did gather at McNeil’s house to watch the results – “it was a school night and we had practice last night, practice tomorrow, all the parents are going to a community fundraiser Friday night and we have a game Saturday…. Busy busy.”  And they still managed to bring home $20,000 worth of bacon.

McNeil hopes Kraft releases the numbers. “we would like to see how we fared against the other communities – it will give us a sense of where our strength is and where we can improve”, said McNeil.  Ever the analyst – he wants data.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  March 25^th, 2013  “Busy day Monday as we return to normal jobs and prepare for a trek to London for game 6 of our playoff series” was the note we got from John McNeil as he frantically continued to vote and vote and vote again to earn that award of $100,000 from Kraft Foods that would be used by the Burlington Lions Optimist Minor Hockey Association (BLOMHA) to cover the cost of getting more players on the ice pads.

John McNeil was at his keyboard until the very last-minute Sunday night – squeezing in that very last vote for the Kraft Foods $100,000 award

They were minutes and then it was over – you could try to enter a vote but the system wouldn’t take it – and for those hundreds in Burlington who had been voting for two days – it was over.

During the hectic two days parents still had to get their kids out to hockey games, still had to do the shopping and keep the house in order.

Now – the wait while the Kraft Foods people do the counting – which should take just a matter of minutes because everything was electronic but it will be more than a week before they go public.

If you were at the McNeil house Saturday night you were at a keyboard – voting.

So for now those that did the work – a chance to sit back and know they did their best.  During the next few days there will be hundreds who will say ‘if they’d known they would have voted.

The Mayor was chatting up the business types at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday morning and he forgot to mention the event – even though he was touting that Burlington was now the # 1 mid-size city in Canada within which to live.  We hope our Mayor at least went on-line to vote a couple of times – won’t be too long  before he’s looking for votes himself.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  March 22nd, 2013   There is an opportunity for the people of this city to bring home a “real” #1plus $100,000 that will go to the Burlington Lions Optimists Minor  Hockey Association – BLOMHA.

Have you heard of “Hockey Goes On” a promotion sponsored by Kraft Foods?  A number of years ago Kraft sponsored an event that resulted in Dundas,  Ontario getting a new arena.  The event was so strong a promotional vehicle for Kraft that they decided to revise it and build on the enthusiasm for “our game’.

Hockey Goes On is there to celebrate those unsung heroes that make the game go on. The sponsors divided the country into five divisions with Ontario being one of them.  People within each division were asked to nominate the person they felt had done the most for minor hockey in their community.

Kristen Priestner nominated John McNeil who manages the Burlington Atom A  BLOMHA rep hockey team that skate under the Bulldog banner.  Priestner’s son plays in that league.

Kraft got in touch with McNeil to ensure he would accept the nomination and onto the list he went.

The Kraft organization then took the thousands of names that were nominated and selected 20 for each division.  McNeil made the cut and Kraft once again called him to ensure that he was prepared for all the news coverage there would be.

McNeil was up to it.

The T-shirt tells it all. John McNeil wants everyone in this city to let 19 other communities in Ontario be aware of the Burlington Bulldogs – they are out there gunning for the $100,0000 that Kraft Foods wants to hand out to a minor hockey association.

Now McNeil doesn’t actually play hockey, he wishes he had,  but he missed that sport for the most part.  His job with BLOMHA, the Burlington Lions Optimists Minor Hockey Association is to handle everything “off  ice” as he puts it.  He has  coaches galore that he works with; his job is to ensure that everything comes together – which he apparently does so well that Priestner put his name forward.

Burlington was now about to see just how well McNeil hustles.  He plans to use all the old marketing skills he has along with everything social media will let him do.  Can McNeil pull it off?  Will the city get behind this initiative and pull in the $100,000 Kraft Foods is putting on the table?

First thing he did was get to the media; then he put out calls to all the other sports organizations in town and ask them to support McNeil and BLOMHA.

The prize is well worth the effort.  Kraft will donate $100,000 to BLOMHA which McNeil hopes gets used to cover the costs of the kids who can’t afford to play hockey – “it can get expensive” said McNeil.  Besides the $100,000 top prize there are four $20,000 prizes

CBC recently reported that the average family with kids in hockey spend $1,000 per child on fees and equipment.  For McNeil getting those kids whose families just can’t afford that amount – this is a big deal.  He would like to see some of the money spent on upgrading equipment the organization already has and then spend money on upgrading the skills of  both the coaches and the players.

If you’re within five feet of John McNeil he will put one of these flyers in your hands and badger you to log into the Hockey Goes On web site and be part of the effort to bring $100,000 to BLOMHA

Flyers have gone out to anyone who will pass them out.  McNeil asked the Mayor to mention the event on his blog.  Teams of kids will be at the BLOMHA offices on Saturday working the computers and voting as often as they can.  “We want them there in two-hour shift” said McNeil.  There will be all the pizza they can eat.

McNeil realizes that the other communities will be doing exactly the same thing – looking for every possible angle to get anyone and everyone logging in and voting  – and voting – and voting.

Burlington is up against Stittsville, Goderich, Atikokan, Barrie, Renfrew, Verona, Sarnia, Weston, Langton, Moose Factory, Kitchener, Prescott, Napanee, Pelham, Amherstview, Lakefield, Cornwall, Brampton and Fergus.

Some of those smaller town have great community spirit.  Is theirs greater than Burlington?  We will know sometime next week.

There is a website link to the story on the work he does with his team and minor hockey in Burlington.  This is where you vote.

This is what you are looking for on the voting web site. It will be red when you get to it on Saturday morning. Vote early and vote often – as often as you like.

In the upper right hand corner you will see a button – it will be red when the contest starts

So from 9am this Saturday,  March 23 to midnight Sunday,  March 24, you can vote as many times as you can. Help bring this funding to the kids. All it takes is clicks.

John McNeil is leading this push – he’s the guy they nominated so he is the guy Burlington wants to push over the top; it’s almost like dialing for dollars.

First thing Saturday morning you go to the web site – look for that red button in the upper right hand corner and click.

Log out and go back in and click again – and just keep on clicking.  There is no limit on how many times you can vote for McNeil.

John McNeil was described by Priestner as “the “Manager Extraordinaire” of the Major Atom A Burlington Bulldogs (BLOMHA) of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario. John is the heart and soul of our team and what he gives back to hockey you must see with your own eyes to believe! He is the epitome of a true sports fan. He lives, eats, and breathes Bulldogs!

“His level of organization is second to none. Parents new to the team this year will constantly question if he is “for real”. His weekly emails and reminders are full of detail. He maintains a phenomenal website with up to date stats, team summaries and also takes fabulous photos to share. Tournaments are a thing of beauty with John’s attention to detail ensuring a fantastic experience for every family and never a worry.”

“Social events for the team are hosted at John’s place, the highlight being the Parents’ Christmas Social until the wee hours. Or, arranging a party bus for parents to attend a “Cupids for Cancer” fundraiser. John truly never misses a trick. A highlight for the boys came in the form of John McSanta, distributing some serious Bulldogs swag Christmas presents at a super fun team Christmas party.”

“His level of dedication is witnessed when he is the first to arrive at the rink to hang our team banners or the last to leave and clean up. He is a critical fundraiser for the team with contacts galore. In case he didn’t have enough responsibility, he is also organizing the illustrious Ontario Hockey Federation Playoffs which we are hosting this year.”

“I can’t honestly believe that John ever has time to do his day job, given that he seems to give every hour of his day to this team. When we won the Alliance provincials last year, John surprised the boys by setting up an NHL style dressing room with their names posted over their hooks and motivational signage. They were thrilled! He continuously goes beyond the call of duty and we appreciate the care and kindness he provides to our boys! John’s heart barks for the Bulldogs!”

That from one parent: Let’s see how loud Burlington can bark for McNeil.

That website link again.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  November 26, 2012  That stuff about Christmas starting the day after Halloween is a little too rushed for me.  I like to ease into Christmas reasonable early in December and like it when the store and supermarkets ease me into the Christmas Season.

While driving home earlier this week the wife burst into the house and said “you aren’t going to believe this but there is a house down the street that already has their Christmas tree up.  I looked on my way out later and sure enough – there it was – a white plastic one to boot.

Christmas has a sense of season about it but that Christmas Spirit isn’t something we control nor is it something we can decide has to appear when we want it.  Like all things spiritual – we are on the receiving end – it arrives when it is supposed to arrive.

Jill Harrington a wacky, wired, single Mother run the Christmas For Seniors event.  It’s an organization that keeps in touch with different seniors groups across the city and asks them what they would like for Christmas.  These are people who are a bit on the being alone side; their family isn’t in the area, the spouses may no longer be with them.  They have fond memories of Christmas past and don’t want for all that much.

Harrington collects the names and what they would like and then places tags on Christmas trees that are put up in stores, office buildings – wherever she can get a tree she can put tags on.

A typical Children of Christmas Past tree set up in more than 30location in Burlington with trees also set up in Alberta and Nova Scotia.

People see the tree, see the tags, look at what is being asked for and if they feel the gift is something they can give they buy the gift, get it to Harrington who then delivers it to the senior.

Yes, it is labour intensive and Harrington does the work while holding down a full time job and raising a delightful ten year old boy who is still on the shy side.

Harrington handles it all by multitasking.  During one of our conversations Harrington appears to be talking to someone other than me – “not too much chocolate in the coffee please” which had nothing to do with the conversation we were having.

Harrington had sent me a note telling me of a huge surprise she got.

She had said to her seniors: “Wish with a big heart – what would you like, what do you need?”

To her surprise there were six requests for chairs that have the capacity to lift a person from the chair to a standing position.  They are called “reclining lift chairs”.

Harrington had no idea where she was going to find the money to pay for these gift requests but she knew that if she did raise the money she would have to get some help delivering the chairs.  They aren’t the kind of thing you tuck under your arm as you ring a doorbell to deliver a gift.

Harrington knows everyone you need to know to operate in Burlington.  She got herself in front of the Bulldogs coach at the Burlington Lions Optimist Minor Hockey Association and asked if they could lend her someone with a truck to deliver the chairs – assuming she could raise the money to buy them.

In no particular order Burlington Lions Optimist Minor Hockey Association coaches and staff with Burlington’s Mayor. Sheila Ramage, Kelly Meikle, Tim Wilson, Doug Rogers, Perry Lake, Scott Wright, Mike Milford and Rusty Reingruber. The coaches put up the funds to pay for the reclining lift chairs and said they would handle the delivery as well.

The coaches listened politely and told Harrington they would get back to her.  That was the best she could do, she thanked them for their time and moved on to the next challenge.  In less than ten minutes she got a text on her smart phone BLOMHA:

Hi Jill,

The Bulldogs are going to purchase the 6 chairs you require for your Seniors. I pitched it to the group of Coaches and all 25 Bulldogs Teams are going to chip in and buy these chairs ($600 each) Congratulations!!!!!!  Great cause.

Tim Wilson, a BLOMHA coach

BLOMHA would pay for all six chairs – and yes they would arrange for the delivery as well. The association is paying for two of the six with the coaches paying for the other four.

The Christmas Spirit had arrived a little earlier than Harrington expected and so did the tears that just flooded down her face.

The Burlington Lions Optimist Minor Hockey association was formed in 1951 by members of the Burlington Central Lions Club and the Optimist Club of Burlington, making it one of the oldest, longest serving youth organizations in our city. Members of both clubs were once actively involved in the operation of the organization. BLOMHA is governed by Hockey Canada, Ontario Hockey Federation and Alliance Hockey.

They are a not for profit, non-share corporation and volunteer based organization with 2,250 players registered making them the largest minor hockey association in our city. Their aims and objectives are to foster, promote and teach amateur hockey within the City of Burlington and to provide the maximum opportunity for all eligible individuals to participate regardless of their ability.

There are close to 500 volunteers registered to assist in the running of the program, which includes the operation of about 135 teams. All coaches, team trainers and other volunteers are fully qualified, accredited and insured, in keeping with the guidelines issued by governing bodies of minor hockey in Canada.

Cups. trophies, plaques and pictures – all the signs of hockey players as they move from one level to another; from one tournament to the next. BLOMHA’s 25 coaches take several thousand players through the training and the physical development every year.

A key goal of BLOMHA is to provide programs that develop each player’s full potential, subject to talent, ability and enjoyment of the game. Hockey is a competitive game therefore we are organized into three progressively competitive levels. BLOMHA is the only minor hockey association in Burlington that offers a complete range of programs available to all players regardless of ability.

Harrington was grateful that BLOHMA came through and with “thank you’s” galore done, she adjusted to the great news and the extraordinary act of kindness and moved on to collecting the gift requests and making up the tags that would go on Christmas trees and then actually getting the tags to the trees they are going to go on.

It gets a little hectic for Harrington but the work is made so much easier when she gets a response like the one she got from the Bulldogs.

Christmas for Seniors is in its thirteenth year of operation.  It grows year after year.  Last year there were 3,230 requests; Harrington expects that to go to more than 4000 in 2012  .

There are  30 trees in Burlington locations.

Harrington does the work with no form of remuneration, she doesn’t even get gas money.  Everything that comes in is donated and it goes out the door to a senior who might not otherwise get a Christmas gift.

The names of people asking for a gift are collected by people who work in retirement homes, nursing homes, long term care facilities and  people who work one on one with seniors.

Jill Harrington, Executive Director of the Christmas for Seniors charity works with her son Noah sorting tags that will be placed on Christmas trees where people can choose a gift they would like to give

Each location is given a spread sheet file that Harrington sends them.  The names and the gift they would like are entered on the spread sheets which are then aggregated to create a master list which Harrington then uses to create the tags that get placed on Christmas trees.  People pick up a tag, purchase and wrap the gift and then deliver it to Harrington’s home.  “There is a box on the porch – it’s the greatest honour system you can imagine.  Elves come by several times a day and put the gift inside the box” adds Harrington. “I call them elves”.

The gifts are stored at Harrington’s house until the day before Christmas. “We used to deliver them on Christmas Day but there were just too many to get done in the one day so now they are delivered a day or so before Christmas and handed out Christmas day.

Harrington has what she calls “elves” – these are people that arrange for the collection of the gift.  “There are a couple of dozen people who have a key to my house; the just come in put the gifts in a pile and we sort and get them ready for delivery.

A little unorganized?  Labour intensive?  Could a more efficient system be created?  Probably; but right now Harrington is focused on getting the labels out on the trees and then getting the gifts back to her house and delivered to their Christmas Day destinations.

The request for the reclining lift chairs was  a little on the “high” side.  “It was totally unexpected” said Harrington but once I had the request I thought ‘what the heck’.  Let me ask someone and see where it gets me.”

Could be if that’s the way you choose to see it.  Harrington asked the seniors:  what would you ‘wish’ for?

How plugged up does her house get?  Well her son does have to give up a part of his room when Christmas is just a week or so away but they manage to find the space they need.  “At some point” Harrington admits, “we are going to have to change the way we run this charity”.  She is organized as a non profit but doesn’t have charitable status. “I don’t need it right now”, says Harrington.

If you want to help out – send Harrington an email.   Visit the web site 

The program is growing beyond Burlington .  There are trees set up in Nova Scotia and Alberta.  Not easy to administrate all that from Burlington and Harrington realizes it is time to move from her dining room table to an office and secure the funding to allow her to develop it into a national program. “We are going to have more seniors to care for – not fewer” explains Harrington and there will be many of them who don’t have family to both care for them and remember them.

The poster identifies a tree that will have tags identifying a charity for Children of Christmas Past.

Harrington has both compassion for seniors and empathy for their plight.  She is currently working on a book on “elder abuse” and assuring that older people can live their lives with dignity. Once that has been turned over to her publisher’s  Jill Harrington is going to become a regular columnist for Our Burlington and will write about seniors for seniors.  Should be interesting.

This project has been a grind for Jill Harrington; 13 years of running around every day for the last quarter of every year and putting in five to six hours every night, usually with the help of her son Noah and an hour or so more once he is tucked into bed.

“You know” commented Harrington, after a talk about where this project can go, should go in the future, “in all the years I’ve been doing this – no one has asked me what I want for Christmas”.  Telling isn’t it.

The gift from the hockey coaches though was gift enough for Jill Harrington.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  November 5, 2012   There was a banquet recently at which awards were given out by the Automotive Journalists of Canada  association.  Burlington`s Lorraine Sommerfeld always wins an award for something – there`s that sense of entitlement she has to which you have to add that she is really pretty good.  Damn good actually.

She brings to her columns as an automotive writer a sparkle, a sharp wit and more technical knowledge than some of the guys over at Canadian Tire.

We first met Sommerfeld at a Shape Burlington community event and then got to know her a bit better when we realized she and her boys were a part of the Boich family and was a best friend supporter to Arlene Miller, the late John Boich`s wife.  She`s the kind of person that is `there ‘when you need her.  During some of the darker days at the Boich household Sommerfeld would show up with a car that only a high maintenance wife would get to drive around and she and Arlene would head up into the Escarpment to give Arlene a sense of what it meant to really own the road.

A couple of weeks ago was – well let her tell the full story. “Last night was the AJAC banquet, where they name annual winners in the automotive journalism world. There are 5 writing categories, one photography one and one layout. I won a writing one. I really wanted to win one for my picture of the red car with the stork thing, but, they were having none of that, apparently.

“Wakefield/Castrol offers an award in Technical Topics. I submitted several of my pieces and one of them won.. It was a column of mine that has a Ferris Bueller quote in it. And the word ‘penis’.

“The problem was, I was at a table chatting away with friends, and we weren’t paying attention. Then they said my name. And we all started laughing. I finally got up and prayed I wouldn’t catch my heel on the table cloth or something, and was giggling like an idiot. After I sat down, I decided to look and see what I’d won, because of that not paying attention thing. When I read ‘technical topics’ I realized why the room had gotten so quiet. I got told later even my editor looked shocked. And my other editor told people it was because of the headline I won. He writes the headlines.

Lorraine Sommerfeld, learning to dance. she’s normally in a pair of jeans and behind the wheel of a car

Sommerfeld can be found in the Globe and Mail, the Spectator and on Rogers Cable.  Maybe she will write for Our Burlington?  She never offered to take me for a spin in one of those really fancy cars she gets to drive as an automotive journalist.

That`s Lorraine Sommerfeld – oh, she dances too.

By Margaret Lindsay Holton

BURLINGTON, ON  October 12, 2012  When I was seventeen I was in a car accident and broke my back. I was in a body brace for eight months and it took me two full years to walk properly again. During my final examination, the specialist told me that I had been very lucky. He said I could have been paralyzed for life. He strongly advised that I never ride a motorbike, water-ski or horseback ride ever again. As he said, “It would be tempting Fate.” Somber words, yet, even so, as a teenager, I needed to KNOW my real physical limitations. So, within another two years, I got my motorcycle license, went on a marathon water-skiing weekend in Northern Ontario, and, in the Brecon Beacon National Park of Wales, went horse-back riding – for the very last time.

While passing through the quaint farming village of Crickhowell situated on the River Usk below Table Mountain, I decided I wanted to give it a try. Yes, I wanted to ride in that breath-taking Welsh countryside. I found a local farm that offered a ‘trail ride’ on top of the overshadowing Brecon Beacons.

Soon I was mounted up on a lovely tempered 15 hand chestnut mare named ‘Jewel’. Jack, the stable owner, and myself trotted up into the wind-swept barren splendor of those magnificent rolling hills. The landscape was riveting. It was a fabulous, and memorable ride, but not just because of the views.

Jack had offered a word of caution when we had set out from the barn, “Watch out for the wild ponies. Look, but whatever you do, Do Not Engage.”  Sure enough, while cantering along an upper ridge, we saw a small herd grazing in the gulley below. We dutifully steered clear, but, it appears we were ‘up wind’ because within a matter of minutes the feisty black stallion from this wild pony herd appeared beside us on the ridge. Jack tried to spook him off but he was not deterred. The stallion watched and paced along beside us for several minutes.

Our horses became very restless and my mare began an intense head bounce that pulled the reins from my hands. Within seconds, she bolted. Mayhem ensued. As she galloped off I held onto her mane for dear life. The pony stallion fell into pursuit and came thundering up beside us. The mare began dodging and weaving. All I could think of was staying on. My legs were clenched tight around her body.

The stallion roughly body-slammed us and reared up, stallion like. I was ABSOLUTELY terrified. Meanwhile, Jack had been in hot pursuit and with his much larger horse body-slammed, shouting, into the rearing and kicking pony stallion. I fell off the back end of the mare onto the ground. The startled stallion abruptly turned on its heel and ran back to his herd. Jack jumped off his steed and ran over. Luckily, I was badly shaken up, but otherwise, fine, nothing broken. Jack helped me back up onto the now jittery (but also fine) ‘Jewel’ and we slowly walked back down to the farm. The gods, in their infinite wisdom, had sent a clear ‘WARNING’. And I haven’t ridden since.

Horses have as much personality as your favourite dog or cat.

I think every child, especially those born in the country, go through a ‘horsey’ stage.  One of my first memories of ‘riding’ was ‘cantering’ around the neighbour’s field as an infant, barefoot, neighing, with my friend’s fuzzy head bopping along in front of me.  Then began the ferocious reading of various children’s horse stories   . followed by the obsessive collecting of porcelain horse figurines and finally, I was fixated on horse films, like National Velvet,  , (starring an unknown child actress, Elizabeth Taylor). My friends and I, at the age of 10, were absolutely horse mad.

Over the years, I was taught to ride ‘English’, even though our neighbours rode ‘Western’. I had always wanted to ride ‘bareback’ but never had the nerve. Trust me, it really does take some nerve. My friend would run up then catapult herself onto the back of one of their burr encrusted field ponies and just take off, gleeful. I never had the guts to do that.

After an assortment of riding academies from Freelton to Kilbride, I finally found my favourite ride, Geronimo, a palomino blend with a frisky spirit to match. Those were fun years. Several hours of every Saturday were devoted to the barn: sweeping and hosing down the stalls, grooming the beast, followed by long joy-filled rides back country, blissful under the autumn sun.  But, during the mid-teen years, my equine interest began to wane. I discovered the joy – and freedom – of driving a car, and soon, I quietly left all things horsey behind …

Back to the barn.

Except, every fall, when the autumn colours turn vibrant, and the air turns crisp and clear again, I find I still long for a gentle canter with Geronimo along those dusty trails through the hidden back fields of Halton County.

Yet, to do so now, would, methinks, severely test Fate …

Back fields of Burlington, on top of the Escarpment, Region of Halton.

In Burlington, experienced and inexperienced riders can saddle up at the following stables:

Bayview Equestrian Centre –

Bertin Stables

Parish Ridge Stables

Reschburl Equestrian Centre

Readers are advised to familiarize themselves with individual horse farms to find the horse or pony that best suits their own level of expertise and character.  Horses have as much personality as your favourite dog or cat.  Judge, and ride, accordingly.

Margaret Lindsay Holton is both an environmentalist and a community activist.  She is an artist of some renown and the designer of a typeface.  She is also a photographer and the holder of opinions, which are her own, that she will share with you in an instant.   She appears as an Our Burlington columnist every two weeks.  Unless otherwise stated all photography was done by MLH.