Oh how the days continue to blend together. Let me help you decipher them, Cochrane, with another Thursday Tack and Tale from Stockemen's Memorial Foundation set to go.
This week I will shed some light on the little nostalgic store that used to be. The story of the little Horse Hut store.
Jill Warner left her parents and life in England in 1959 and came to Canada after accepting a job with the Workers' Compensation Board in Edmonton. After being fed up with her current role as an occupational therapist, Warner was looking for a change of pace in life. In 1980 she moved north of Cochrane to the Dogpound area and took up a job at the Springbank Airport to help out a friend.
She would then be roped into helping the same friend with Howes Brothers Lumber because at the time, he was having issues with the manager.
"I was coursed into going and sort of keeping an eye on Howes Brothers, that was another experience that was interesting," said Warner. "Then an area became available where I finally put the store."
Nestled away in the corner complex of 124 River Ave, stood The Horse Hut. The feed and tack store became Warners therapeutic release as she ventured off her beaten career path in hopes of fuelling her soul.
"It was something that I was interested in and it was just so totally different from what I had been doing. Something like that is a real rest somehow it just gives you a new lease on life," she said. "I've done all sorts of weird and wonderful things."
Warner ran the Horse Hut from 1983 to 1987 and over the years began rounding up quite the collection of used hats. It is believed it all started with Don Edge leaving his raggedy hat at the store in place of a new one. After that moment, it almost became a ritual for those who bought a new chapeau to leave the one they came in with.
"The guys all used to come in and sit and have coffee all morning and I seem to remember some bantering about 'you better leave something for this coffee' and the hat got left behind," explained Warner. "There were about 30 something when I sold the store."
Warner explained she never intended to sell hats in her store but after a hat and western wear shop which was also located on River Ave closed up shop she came across the inventory.
"By somehow or rather I ended up with those hats. I honestly don't remember how but it was some sort of deal on the side," explains Warner. "I didn't have a very large collection. Either I had your size or I didn't, it not a matter of hat sales being important it was just the hats where there and if you found one that was the right size and you wanted it then fine, I'd sell it to you."
During the five years owning the storefront Warner said she saw all types of hats come through the door, some of which had seen better days.
"A lot of them didn't look much like hats anymore they were pretty dirty and pretty curled up," she laughed. "Grubby hands when your roping calves and branding and castrating and then wiping the sweat off your forehead and putting your dirty hands on your hat, they get to look pretty dilapidated quite quickly. The kind of hats you see at the Stampede really aren't the kind that many ranchers wear, they start off like that but they sure don't look like that for very long."
Warner now resides in High Prairie with her better half Mark. She recalls the story of how she met the charmer a little later in life.
"He had some land next to mine and he decided that when he was doing some disking that he should extend the boundaries. These boundaries overlapped onto my land so I went out very mad and told him to get off and I stomped back off to my farmhouse and the following day he came looking rather sheepish and I said to my friend who was visiting at the time 'Oh my god here comes that man again' and he came to the door and said 'would you like to go to the Stampede,'" reminisced Warner. "So I said yes and I told my friend afterwards 'I don't know why I said I'd go' but there didn't seem like anything better to do so I might as well go for one trip and we hit it off."
The pair are retired now and sold their land a couple of years ago. To fill her days, Warner says she watches TV and has been building her skills on the computer front by emailing friends, playing her favourite game, solitaire and googling things, she laughed.
"I can function on the computer but I'm not good at it," chuckled Warner.
