Perfection cannot be accomplished without an area to train.
This can be seen by all athletes. No matter the sport played, all teams and athletes require a place where they can safely train to polish their skills to the level that can be considered perfection. Not only this, but the training area can be considered by many to be a second home, a place where athletes have developed into the people they are destined to become.
As an active member of the Cochrane Pony Club (CPC), as well as an eager participant of Alberta Horse Trials Association (AHTA), the selling of the Cochrane and District Agricultural Society (CDAS) grounds would have negative effects on my training of myself and my horse, but also on who I am as a person. The CDAS grounds can be considered my home away from home and it is the same for many riders. Without it, we as a group could cease to exist.
I wasn’t always an equestrian. Before I was galloping the cross-country course at the local horse trials and testing to my C2 level in Pony Club, I was your normal horse-crazy eight-year-old girl. I could not wait to ride in the local horse trials.
The grounds have become a place where I am able to connect with friends, family, and even fellow competitors who all have the same love for our equine partners. The best moments of my life have taken place on the CDAS grounds during the Cochrane Horse Trials, and the CPC weekly lessons, clinics and camps. Without the CDAS grounds, Cochrane Pony Club – the oldest Pony Club in Alberta and one of the oldest in Canada – could disappear due to lack of facilities.
As well, the Cochrane Horse Trials would also disappear for the same reasons. AHTA would suffer altogether if these grounds were to be sold to developers because we only have five complete courses that are considered ready for events in the province.
Without the Cochrane grounds, the province could possibly lose an Olympic event, which has always been popular for both riders and spectators alike. Therefore, it is because of the impact that the loss of these grounds would have on a large group of people in the area that the CDAS grounds should remain untouched by development.
The grounds have been a factor of my life that helped me become the person and equestrian I am today. My life has been shaped around making time to ride on the grounds whether it is to train for the next event, or to just spend time with my horse.
As a result of the CDAS grounds being sold, I would become unable to do this, and would suffer greatly. Therefore, I request that the grounds be left for the use of recreational activities, and the enjoyment of riders and other user groups.
Since Rocky View County considers itself to be a “western community” it is very ironic that the council wishes to sell the agricultural grounds.
Kathryn Palmer
