No more Horses

I went down to Oshawa today and then headed back north to visit a friend in Lindsay.  I was sort of looking forward to the drive. While I have not been on Simcoe Road for a number of years, there was a time when I drove it on a daily basis.  I know it well.

It is, in good weather, a pleasant drive. The road which has relatively few straight stretches skirts small towns such as Columbus, Raglan, Sonya, Seagrave and of course Port Perry. There are small farms and clusters of houses scattered along the old road. Small ponds and creeks are hidden in the valleys of the gently rolling hills. 

But the best part of the road is the section just north of Oshawa where the road carves its way through the hundreds of acres that make up E.P. Taylor's Windfields Farm. It is a glorious section of prime farm land used for growing hay and for providing pasturage for the racing thoroughbreds. At this time of year one can always count on seeing the current crop of foals dance and gallop around the paddocks while their mothers replenish themselves on the rich grass.  Scattered amongst the paddocks and field are series of barns and houses. I visited one of the barns once with my daughter's Pony Club. I should live in a house so nice! But then Northern Dancer or one of his sons was living there earning lots of money through his stud fees. I never got to see inside any of the houses but the larger ones, which I assumed were for the managers etc of Windfield looked pretty nice. I always thought it would be a pleasant life - working with horses and living in a well maintained house provided by the company.

In the fall one could drive by the open sided hay barns and see the hundreds of square bales all stacked ready to feed the valuable horses throughout the winter, and watch the piles of bales slowly shrink as we moved through the winter months. I always looked forward to marking the seasons by what was happening in the fields of Windfield Farms.

But no more. The whole area is being transformed into a suburb. Already there are spots where the land has been dug up, survey stakes are scattered about and there are large signs announcing what developer will be building there. The barns are either torn down or sadly and slowly disappearing into the ground as they rot. The remaining houses have not fared any better. The windows are boarded up and the stucco is starting to peel off the outside walls. This time next year it will be all paved over; in ten years almost no one will remember the dancing colts.

I know that the population of Canada is growing.

I know that all of those people need to live somewhere.

I know that almost everyone with a family dreams of living in their own house - my kids benefited from that dream.

and I know that Windfields was not a good use of agriculture land. Raising thoroughbreds is a rich man's game, a game that I could never have dreamed about being part of.

I know all of those things - but I am still sad that the horses are gone.