KENDAL, Sask. – When Cain and Roberta Quam surveyed the aftermath of a fire that destroyed their horse training facility, they thought that life as they had known it for the last 11 years was over.
“Initially I thought, ‘I’m done, I can’t do this again,’ ” said Cain Quam, one of Canada’s top horse trainers and cutting horse competitors.
“We had a really successful business, but it took so much work to build it up and operate it, that I had often thought that if I had to do it all over again, I never would.”
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But six months after the July 27 fire, hope has risen from the ashes and a new heated 18-horse barn, 14,000 sq, foot riding arena and 650 sq. foot spectator mezzanine are ready.
Cain credited the generosity of the community around Kendal and support from friends, family and the horse industry for bringing the state-of-the-art horse training facility into existence.
“If it wasn’t for the donations and support we received, we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “We would have had to declare bankruptcy and we would be working someplace else.”
The Quams received a cash injection of $35,000, most of which was raised at a silent auction in Montmartre, Sask., and some also came from individuals and horse association contributions.
The donations enabled the Quams to pay bills and buy groceries while their training facility was being rebuilt.
Other donations helped pay for tack because $65,000 worth of saddles, halters and bridles went up in flames in last summer’s fire.
Now that the Quams have been able to begin training horses again at Cain Quam Performance Horses, their tack room has been restocked by friends in the horse industry.
Roberta said the generosity has meant the world to her and Cain and their two girls, 10-year-old Cheyenne and eight-year-old Jaelynn.
“I would come home from somewhere and there’d be a watermelon in my porch, or someone would have dropped off a meal,” said Roberta, who works alongside her husband training horses.
The insurance policy on the former 2,700 sq. foot heated barn, 10,800 sq. foot riding arena, tool shed and equipment did not cover the cost of replacement.
Cain completed most of the horse facility’s concrete work and plumbing himself with the help of his hired man, Michael Wichert, and local professionals who gave advice.
Many neighbours also helped, with one area farmer working alongside Quam almost every day for the past six months. Marcel Bachelu donated more than $15,000 of backhoe work, in addition to doing a lot of the wood work inside the barn.
He spent many hours putting in windows and doors, and working with Roberta to install pine panels on the 650 sq. foot mezzanine, which overlooks the large arena.
“It’s a gift we can never repay. We hope to pay him something, but basically, he says, ‘don’t worry about it.’ It’s hard to get your head around the fact that someone would do something like that and not expect anything in return.
“We never envisioned ourselves being on the receiving end of something like this.”
