Working Equitation Canada (WECan) has selected four riders and one alternate for Canada’s first team to compete at a working equitation world championship.

Selecting athletes for any team is hard. Selecting athletes for the first Canadian team that a fledgling organization has ever sent to a World Championships is doubly difficult. However, using subjective selection criteria which results in the highest ranked rider being left off the team pretty much guarantees that sport enthusiasts will question the selection process, the organization, and whether they want to be involved in future.

In 1999, on Vancouver Island, a different kind of animal wellness movement began to take shape. Purica was founded on a belief that natural ingredients, when scientifically formulated, could unlock extraordinary potential for horses and their owners. What started as a simple idea has grown into a 25-year commitment to transforming equine health through precise, science-backed nutrition.

Some weather experts consider drought to be any time in which precipitation falls by 25 percent below average. On a horse farm with seasonal hay and pasture production, this requires attention to the amount of snowfall prior to the growing season and to the rain that falls prior to and during the growing season.

Regenerative Land Management Practices - My partner, Patrick, and I — along with our herd of four horses — have spent the past year settling into our five-acre property in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. It’s been a whirlwind of learning and experimentation, from creating a healthier, more natural habitat for our horses to exploring food production, biodiversity, and regenerative land design.