BRANDON, Canada — Heather Arthur pushes a wheelbarrow loaded with horse dung to the exit of her barn. She sets down the wheelbarrow, approaches the barn door and slides it open.
Sunlight pours into the room, revealing steam rising from the dung. Arthur takes the wheelbarrow again and steers it out into the sunny, -11 C expanse at her farm outside Brandon.
The Arthur family of Heather, her husband Chris, and their two kids Hailey and Alex, have made it a hobby to house Clydesdale horses. The family has seven on their property, and that means about two wheelbarrows full of dung every day.
The breed was traditionally used for its power in towing. Before humans invented equipment like the automobile or the farm tractor, the 2,000-pound Clydesdales were the go-to for agriculture.
Today, the Arthurs have seven, and while they consider them a hobby, they have some work to do.
In the winter, the family suits-up the Clydesdales with harnesses and bells and offers the kind of sleigh rides typical of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Chris tells the Sun he keeps a business licence to do that in Brandon, and also maintains trails around the farm property for local rides.
In the warmer months, the horses may be seen at a wedding, delivering a bride in a carriage. Or, they may tow dignitaries into events at the Keystone Centre, like at the 2025 Winter Fair this March.
They can also be seen on income tax forms — as a write off.
“I do enough farming with them that they qualify as a tractor,” Chris said. He describes using the six-foot-tall horses to pull a mower that cuts crops at harvest, and to pull a plow to turn the soil in the early season.
While the Arthur family uses their Clydesdales for many things, profit is absent from the list. Chris said the income is drowned out with costs such as food, cleanup, health and transport.
“It’s a cash cow, but the cash is going out,” he said with a laugh in his barn. “My joke is always, ‘If I keep working for the government, I can afford to keep farming.’”
Asked about the investment of time and money, he said the family keeps the horses around for intangible reasons. And those reasons show themselves inside the family barn.
With straw bales, three cats running around, two dogs, seven Clydesdales and a brand new, different horse in the corner, life takes a different tone inside the barn compared to the bustling streets of Brandon. Chris said it comes in handy.
“There’s days when there’s nothing better than to come into the barn and listen to them eating,” he said. “They’re as much a therapist as anything when it comes to my mental health.”
He describes how his kids and wife have connected with the animals, too.
His daughter Hailey has filled the role of youth “queen” of the Manitoba Clydesdale Club for the past few years, showing horses at events. And his son Alex also competes, one year dressing as Luigi from Mario Brothers, with dad as Mario and their horse Bob in a Yoshi costume.
During a visit to the farm in December, Alex lay forward in silence on the Clydesdale.
“Alexander took to Bob when he was two years old and he’s been leading Bob ever since,” Chris said. Describing Heather, he said, “She fell in love with Jack — and in order to get Jack, she had to take me.”
Heather said she had no experience showing horses growing up. But now she is taking to the hobby, and competed in a recent show in 2023. She’s looking for a spot on the wall for a framed photo of the event, gifted to her for Christmas.
She said Clydesdales are particularly nice — and each Clydesdale has a different personality.
“They have a temperament that is just phenomenal,” she said in the stable, while petting one of the horses. “He’s kind of getting old now and he’s got his attitude.”
When asked about the future of the horses, the family said they have different ideas. But everyone wants to keep the Clydesdales.
“I don’t think I can escape them now,” Hailey said, when speaking about her future life as she grows up. And her brother Alex said the competitions have introduced him to a community across the province that he’s growing up beside.
“It’s just fun,” he said. “When we’re going to all the horse shows, there’s all the other things, like seeing the competitors and their horses.”
And while it seems like hobby horses create a lifestyle so far from the city — the hobby horses really only make surface changes. Even the Arthurs use the drive-through at Tim Hortons. Just every now and then they‘re doing it behind a four-horse-drawn cart.
–Connor McDowell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Brandon Sun
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