Horsin’ around the foothills
by Chris Bowerman
Sun Media

For all the rootin’ tootin’ Stampede parties and kitschy country regalia, too few urban cowboys can put their mosey where their mouth is.

PONY UP … The Homeplace Ranch corral and Welcome Lodge, viewed from the Coach House porch.

And while almost half of Canada’s horses trot around Alberta, most Calgarians prefer to zip around in exhaust-belching Mustangs and Broncos.

Not so for Michaela Hirschmuller.

The tourist from Bayern, Germany, recently realized a life-long dream with an eight-week sojourn to Priddis at the Homeplace Ranch, a year-round working guest ranch with 43 horses.

Even with two children and a husband back home, Hirschmuller was compelled to experience the Canadian prairies and ride horses like her inspiration, John Wayne, who she grew up watching in films.

“The nature here is so wide and big,” says a beaming Hirschmuller at a spectacular vantage overlooking the Kananaskis Forest Reserve. “I’m so happy here. I feel quiet inside.”

Jenny McDonald, hailing from Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, and a return guest to Homeplace Ranch, says: “It’s so tranquil here, they make you feel at home.”

‘They’ are the friendly ranch workers and the venerable proprietor, Mac Makenny, who lives on the 7,000 odd acres — owned and part leased — with his wife and daughter.

Until the mid-1800s, this neck of the western foothills was inhabited by the Stoney and Sarcee Indians, who simply called it Paradise.

Makenny’s land was homesteaded in 1912, and next year he celebrates the 30-year anniversary of Homeplace Ranch (coinciding with Alberta’s centenary).

“Seems like it was only yesterday we started working this ranch — except when I get up in the morning,” says the spry 69-year-old, who started riding horses at age three.

It’s been a way of life for Makenny, who’s calm demeanour extends to his love of horses. “He’s a really good horseman,” says McDonald, who’s been riding horses for almost 50 years. “He speaks quietly around the horses, but he’s definitely in charge.”

A day at Homeplace Ranch begins early as guests help feed and groom the horses, while Dawn Albin cooks up a hearty breakfast in the rustic, cozy Welcome Lodge, built in 1929.

On this day, the inviting aroma of fried eggs and bacon signals the feast, which includes fresh biscuits and a concoction the Homeplace posse calls “pebbles in muddy water” — a delicious slurry of cream, tabasco sauce and ground Alberta beef. (Head wrangler Brad McCarthy has his own specialty: “Cowboy coffee,” which he brews for guests in an old tin can with pine needles “for flavour” during full-day horseback trips along Fish Creek.)

A rookie to the equestrian lifestyle, I was first schooled by Makenny on Blue, a wooden practice pony, before meeting nine-year-old Doc, my gracious stead for the day.

Our horseback team ambled on muddy trails, through dense birch forests, alongside wild roses, sage, tiger lilies, raspberry bushes and Indian paintbrushes.

Makenny’s neighbours — moose, elk, deer, porcupine and the occasional black bear — were no where to be seen.

But neither were there any cars or highways to blight this slice of cowboy life in Paradise.

Calgary Sun