Anyone in Canada? Emigration questions....

Hey, no problem, eh? I do like reminiscing about Canada every once in a while! I'm up in Aberdeenshire, and I love it, except this endless rain and dark. Except now, you guys have the rain, and we have the snow.

I do find some horsey things very weird here: not having cross-ties, for one, and seeing all the poor horses literally rugged up to their eyeballs when it's well above freezing! And don't get me started on "this funny cold white stuff: can my horse walk in it?". The word "numnah": I first thought it must be some weird kind of pony treat! And nobody here knows what a Coggins test is, which is actually a good thing, when you think about it.

What sorts of things did you find weird when you first moved over there?
 
Skye; wherever you decide to go, my best piece of advice is this - make sure you spend AT LEAST 6 weeks, preferably more, time out in your chosen country/state/province. I have lived in a few countries in my lifetime so am fairly adept at figuring out whether somewhere I am visiting on holiday is actually somewhere I could realistically live in. When I was out in BC, I loved it - however I had serious reservations about whether the culture shock might be too much. The fires and the bears and all of the nonsense that goes along with them, all seemed like something I didn't want to tinker with. Ontario on the other hand, looked dull and dreary in comparison, BUT it was somewhere that I thought I could actually live. When I moved here, my husband went back to England and I (and my 8 year old daughter at the time) spent the first 6 months here without him before he came over for a months holiday. In all, I spent the first 4 years here with him only visiting for a few weeks per year. He moved out here permanently in June last year and it has been useful having him here. He is returning to England in a couple of weeks time, however he will only be gone for 6 weeks this time.


Spooky; ah well I was the opposite to you, Lol! I did know what cross-ties were as have used them in other countries, however Coggins, didn't have a clue what that was and only found out about it when I shipped the pony here. No rugs was a shock to me, Lol! All of these horses, TBs, WBs, Arabs etc. all living out in -30 temperatures with no rugs on ... or as they say over here "blankets". I found that weird.

Here in Ontario I didn't find a whole different culture of raising and keeping horses, however out in Vancouver I found it very odd, whereby they keep horses permanently in teensy little pens and poo pick these little pens 15 times a day and hay them with one section of hay 324 times per day. 40 horses being kept on 10 acres - no sorry that was not my kind of keeping horses. Thankfully when we made it out to the Okanagan BC, they kept horses similarly to here in Ontario.

I found trailering horses loose in a loose-box style trailer weird - now I love it and it is so much better than trailers in England.

I suppose my biggest thing was dealing with winter here. I remember my first winter here (I moved here in the middle of winter) and I only had one huge 30 acre field which wasn't split anywhere, and I bought a new horse but didn't have anywhere to section it off until it got used to the other horses I had here, so I decided to go and buy some electric fencing and was going to make a little paddock for the new horse. I had no idea that you couldn't possibly get anything into the ground once it freezes, Doh!

Whenever I mentioned XC, no-one knew what I was talking about, unless they had lived in England at some time. Headcollars, again unless they had lived in the UK, they had no idea what I was chattering about. I used to say rugs, and some people looked in a very confused manner; then I'd remember it is blankets and they would smile.

The names of all the different types of livery you can have; even the word "livery" had people confused.

Hmm there were loads of little things which were all new to me. I got there in the end though, thankfully.
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Light nights here, yes I love that. Up in Aberdeen you will have early dark nights, so you must miss the long days we have over here. Even in the depths of winter, it is never dark till around 5pm which is great.
 
I have to say, an "American"-style barn corridor with cross-ties could be very useful for this silly spooky pony, who has snapped so many baler-twine loops due to random horrors in our yard (all invisible to normal people and horses, of course), that I must owe the YM a whole roll by now!
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I forgot about "blankets", although I was explaining that to someone only yesterday. A rug is something that goes on the floor! Also "yard" instead of "barn", and "livery" instead of "boarding". I'm sure I'll sort it all out eventually, though.

I do love the many options for livery I have here, though, and the sheer volume of horsey people, so that horsey equipment is so readily available. And not being laughed at for taking my 14.1 furball hunting. I started riding at a dressage stable in Canada, and when that closed, I followed my friends and their ponies to a hunter/jumper stable (I was too naive to really comprehend the difference). My goodness, those people looked down on us for riding ponies! I still don't really understand why, although I see a similar attitude here sometimes.

How did you get into QH?
 
LOL, greeny-beige side zip breeches! NO ONE as them here! I import mine in as the color is kinder to my legs than beige and the side zips make my belly look flatter. I found a pair of Ariat ones in my size at YHL in november that were on sale for cheap and bought them. The woman said that they were getting rid of them as they were bad sellers in the UK!
When I do my first dressage show in the Spring (walk/trot), I'm going to wear them
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Yup, no cross ties here and since mine is an outside stable, I can't even put my own in. People are much more tolerant of what you ride here than the hunter barns I used to ride at in Canada. I'm 5'9" so always rode 16hh and 17hh horses there but some of the other ladies I used to ride with were short and were afraid of riding the big ones and never were really taken seriously due to riding ponies.

I already knew what I numnah, rug and horsebox was as my mum is Welsh and alot of my horse books that I had as a kid were brought over by my grandparents form when they used to go back to visit Wales.

I still have an undying urge to call a headcollar a halter and over reach boots, bell boots though!!!
 
Numnah is a funny word where ever you come from imo!!
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This is a very interesting thread,and it is nice to get views from all sides. I suppose there are pro's and cons to all thing's but it has brought up point i have never though of. It is a place where i would like to live but im a home bird really, so it may be a jump to far
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nice to think about from time to time though. i would like to live a while there though if only to experiance living in a different culture.
 
Me and the OH are looking to move to canada once I finish university. He qualifies on the points system, and once I've got my accreditation in a year I will also.


I can't wait - miles and miles of open hacking, and not a poncy arrogant southener in sight!
 
Scribbles, Good Luck.

As for the hacking, pick where you go, like anywhere.

I live in the tobacco/corn growing area of Ontario and despite having thousands upon thousands of acres of unfenced land on my doorstep it is all privately owned, some farmers don't want horses on their land. Most of my riding is in State Owned Forests. If we were a little further North then I would have access to the Trans Canada trails as, I believe, Tia does. Hacking was not a first consideration when we moved. Next time we move I'll be in a position to take more time choosing a house.

Southerners arrogant? Is it really that bad?
 
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