CARBERRY, Man. -In the 1950s, Marnie Somers used to watch for the rag and bones man.
He drove his horse and wagon through the streets of Toronto collecting second-hand items that today would more commonly be found in garage sales and thrift stores.
Somers would rush out to greet the man but what attracted her was his old grey mare. As a girl, Somers dreamed of having her own horse.
“I was always out there trying to give his horse carrots and apples,” said Somers, who is now president of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association. “It was the same with the milk wagon delivery man.”
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Somers’ dream of owning a horse began years earlier while she and her family were living in Alberta. Her father, Ken Sluman, played for the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos before retiring and moving his family to Toronto, Somers’ birthplace, in 1953.
But it was not until she was married and living on an acreage near Oakbank, Man., that she was able to buy her first horse.
In 1974, for her 30th birthday, Somers bought a weanling filly from equine rancher Greg Frick at Whitewood, Sask.
“I always blame it on my Irish grandmother,” said Somers, commenting on her fondness for horses.
“The Irish have the love of horses so it must have come from her.”
Somers now lives on an acreage near Carberry, 42 kilometres east of Brandon. She moved there in the early 1990s, when the Manitoba government was decentralizing services out of Winnipeg and into rural Manitoba.
The Carberry sandhills had always struck her as a beautiful area. An added attraction was the area’s nearness to Brandon, a centre for many of the horse events held in Manitoba.
In 1999, Somers retired from her job with the provincial government, but she didn’t stop working. In fact, she is as busy today as she has ever been in her life.
She owns a consulting company, heads the Canadian Quarter Horse Association and is co-ordinator of the Canadian satellite office for the North American Equine Ranching Information Council, an association of pregnant mares’ urine producers.
As well, she has been a board member of the Manitoba Quarter Horse Association every year that it has been active since 1976.
She has served on the board of directors of the American Quarter Horse Association since 1996, and last January she was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Equestrian Federation, the national body representing the Canadian horse industry.
She is also a freelance writer who contributes to dozens of horse publications. She has had hundreds of articles published in magazines and newspapers in Canada and the United States.
She compares the pleasure of writing a story to the satisfaction farmers must experience when planting a crop.
“I’ve had so much enjoyment out of horses over the years that I’d like to give something back.”
The Canadian Quarter Horse Association was resurrected last year to address issues of concern to owners of the breed. The purpose of the association is also to promote and market the breed.
Somers’ main role with the equine ranching council is to plan and co-ordinate conferences and to report on major horse events. She also co-ordinates projects and conferences for Ayerst Organics, a company in Brandon that extracts estrogen from pregnant mares’ urine to produce a hormone replacement for menopausal women.
Involvement with horse industry associations and the council takes up most of Somers’ week. The balance is devoted to writing and to managing Carberry Sandhills Consulting, the company she owns with her life and business partner Wilf Davis.
The company provides print media consulting services and marketing advice for Western Canada’s horse industry.
Davis complements the skills that Somers brings to the business. His background in the cattle industry included 11 years as a livestock specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. He was instrumental in forming Bar 5 Simmental Stock Farms Ltd., one of the leaders in bringing Simmental cattle to North America decades ago.
Davis is also a beef cattle marketing consultant and has established himself in livestock photography.
Despite the many hats that she wears, Somers finds time in summer to compete at shows or to go on fishing trips with Davis.
“One weekend the horse trailer is on the back of the truck,” she said, laughing. “The next it’s the boat.”
Somers competes in the English, western and halter classes, mainly in AQHA-approved events in Manitoba. The trophies that line a cabinet in her kitchen suggest she has enjoyed success there. Exhibiting four different horses, she has earned two AQHA all round amateur championships, and six AQHA grand championships at halter.
She predicts continued growth for Canada’s horse industry. Last year, there were 207,000 Quarter horses in Canada and 71,000 owners. That was an increase of more than 6,000 horses over the previous year.
The baby boomer generation is inheriting a lot of wealth, disposable income that those people are willing to spend on things like recreation. Horses, whether for pleasure riding or for competitive events, fit that bill.
“I think people like to go out and touch something alive, something that is not high-tech, cold, computer hardware.”
There is also the prospect that reining, a western riding discipline, will be approved as a new Olympic equestrian discipline – in addition to the three existing English riding disciplines of show jumping, three-day eventing and dressage.
