YORKTON - Few things make Twylla Newton happier than working with her Clydesdale horses.
In fact, she spends hours with them every day, and while doing it for the joy of it, all those hours have also been recognized.
Newton was recently awarded for documented miles with her horse team Clair and Fontana by the Saskatchewan Horse Federation.
“The Saskatchewan Horse Federation (SHF) offers its members an award for ‘Miles in Motion’,” explained Newton. “There is no charge to enter, and it is only a matter of recording the miles that you have ridden or drove for your horse(s) and then submitting the records to SHF.”
It’s about being active with your horses, not what you actually do, continued Newton.
“How you got your miles with your horse does not matter, ride, drive, trail ride, show, endurance,” she said.
“It is also really neat that this is open to every person no matter if they attend shows or never leave the farm. There are categories for junior and senior SHF members.”
But there is still a record to keep, so why did Newton take on the extra effort?
“I do a lot of both riding and driving horses all year long,” she told Yorkton This Week. “The SHF has had this award for a few years now, and I thought it would be neat to actually see just how much time I am in the barn. Apparently, it is too much, as there were a lot of miles recorded.”
So how many hours exactly?
“My team of Clydesdale mares, Clair and Fontana were drove just under 300 miles, but I added up all the teams and riding horse individual logged miles that I did and it was over 1400 miles,” said Newton, adding “yup, I might have been at the barn too long,”
And Clair and Fontana are not the only horses Newton works with.
Clair, six years old and Fontana, four years old are my mature and most experienced team, thus they get sent to quite a few events, especially the ones that involve the public,” said Newton.
“There are just over 20 young, home bred, registered Clydesdales at our farm. The oldest horse on the farm is seven years old.
“The ones that are about two years and older are in some form of light training for riding or driving, and maybe event both disciplines.
“The horses younger than that are pretty much just enjoying their freedom in large pastures till it is their turn to go to work.”
So what was entailed in terms of record keeping of logging the miles?
“The SHF provides a logbook for you to keep track of your miles,” said Newton. “It is as simple as just keeping the book handy and recording the miles that you either rode or drove with your horse for that day.
“Records are submitted to SHF on a monthly basis, and then SHF will do a final tally for the year end award. The months that are set aside to record your activities are April to October.”
In Newton’s case there were multiple log books to keep up-to-date.
“As I work with multiple horses in riding or driving, and some of the horses do both,” she offered. “I had a log book for each horse that I rode or drove as well as a log book for each team that I drove. It does not matter if you are doing arena work, riding down the trails, or doing field work with a team, all the miles can count towards the award.”
It was not Newton’s plan to focus on Clair and Fontana, they just ended up being her busiest team.
“It just so happened that my team of Clair and Fontana ended up with the most miles out of all the ones I worked with,” she said.
The events Clair and Fontana and other horses at Tail Winds Farm took part in were rather diverse.
“The teams that I drove, did a lot of wagon rides, as well as some field work, chore team competitions and one team even did a wagon camping week-long trip to the Rocky Mountains,” offered Newton. “The horses that I concentrated on riding are all at various levels of training from entry level, where they are only lightly ridden once maybe twice a week, to the more mature which have advanced training getting rode three-to-five times a week and are attending riding shows.”
So can Newton estimate how much time she spends with them all?
“Too much according to my family,” she replied.
“There is daily chores and herd maintenance that takes a few hours every day.
“In the summer time, I spend more time with the riding horses and just work with one or two teams, and in the winter months I do not ride much at all, but have about four teams working.
“It would be safe to say I spend as much time in the barn in the week as a fulltime job.”
But, obviously she loves it.
“My Clydesdales are my passion,” said Newton. “They are part of my family. From me, they receive the best care, food, training and attention that I can offer. In return they reward me with their hearts and their best effort no matter what I ask of them.”
So Newton will likely be logging more miles, many more in 2023.
“Yes, I think I will start the SHF Miles in Motion logbooks again next April,” she said. “Winning or not, it is really neat to see the numbers of miles that get accumulated.”
