There may not be any rhyme or reason to it, but Nancy Campbell has loved horses since she was a toddler.
“It’s a disease, you know,” she says with a laugh.
The retired teacher and principal, who taught French at various schools throughout Wellington County, was born in Toronto and had no exposure at all to horses early on in life.
Yet during family drives as a young girl, Campbell would always ask her father to stop if she saw a horse in a field.
She recalls that one day, at age three or four, after pestering her father enough to pull over and having the fortune to pet a horse over a fence, she slept with her shirt under her pillow all night because of its newfound horse scent.
Her parents eventually moved to the country and it wasn’t long before they bought her a pony named Swish. Several horses followed and Campbell gave riding lessons to help pay her way through university.
In 1973 she moved to the 82-acre farm in Wellington North she now shares with Bruce Schieck, who she married in 2001 and with whom she now operates Firefly Hill Farm on the site.
“He is very tolerant,” Campbell said with a smile of her husband.
She explained Schieck spends much of his time on his family’s dairy farm in neighbouring Mapleton Township, but he is very understanding of her horse obsession.
The farm now boasts eight horses – all Belgians – including Araris, a three-year-old stallion that won first place in its class at the North American Belgian Championships (NABC) in Brandon, Manitoba in July.
“Bruce thought I was just going to get one or two,” she said with a laugh.
Campbell said she was surprised to claim the NABC honour with the horse, which she raised herself from a foal (she notes both Araris’ dam and sire still live on her farm, which is not that common).
For her, the experience of showing horses is its own reward.
“It’s the people and the atmosphere [that make it worthwhile],” she said. “And it’s fun trotting around with your horse and making him look pretty.”
Campbell, a mother of two, stepmother of four and grandmother of nine, has been showing Belgians for years now, but her initial attraction to draft horses, came from a desire to learn how to plow.
With the help of Lyle Rawn, Norm Craigie and Andrew McRobbie, three well known plowmen from the Mount Forest area, Campbell learned how to handle a single-furrow plow with the aid of a Belgian.
But it wasn’t long before her interest in Belgians evolved from plowing to breeding and showing, thanks to the input of Reg Black, who now lives in Arthur and became internationally renowned for breeding world champion Percherons.
“He changed my mind,” Campbell recalled fondly on Black’s influence. “I never did plow after that.”
But even with the change in paths, she never wavered from her admiration for Belgian horses.
“They’re really good to work with,” she said, noting the breed is very versatile, as they can easily be saddle ridden or hitched and they can also lead a plow and pull tremendous weight, among many other uses.
According to the NABC website, the origins of the breed can be traced back to the 1850s and one man’s vision.
“Realizing stronger horses would be required to pull heavier machinery during the industrial revolution of Europe, horse breeder Remi Vander Schueren began to interbreed the four draft horse types found in Belgium,” the website states. “The result was a single breed, which he named the Belgian draft horse.”
The site says Belgian horses were first imported into Canada in 1902.
Campbell noted the size of Belgians – Araris stands at about 18 hands and weighs around 2,000 pounds – can at first be intimidating, but the proper precautions, aided by the nature of the breed (she often calls them “gentle giants”), help keep breeders and handlers safe.
“You have to be careful,” she said. “You learn pretty quickly you can easily get hurt.”
In addition to Black, Campbell credits Beth Palmer and Don Orr, of Remlap d’Or Belgians in Schomberg, with helping her get started, and also accompanying her to Manitoba this summer for the NABC.
“I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Campbell, who added she also receives a lot of help at shows from Guelph friend Jean Mack.
The showing pinnacle, she says, is the NABC, which is held every four years alternatively in the U.S. and Canada.
In addition to Araris’ win in the three-year-old stallion class at this year’s show, he and Campbell also claimed third in the draft horse under saddle category.
As an added bonus, she and Araris got to carry the American flag during the championships’ closing ceremonies.
Campbell admits it would have been better if it were the maple leaf – at the 2008 NABC in Indiana, she and horse Molly carried the Canadian flag – but she stepped in this time to carry the stars and stripes after the original American flag bearer pulled out at the last minute.
“We did our neighbourly duty and carried [it] for them,” she said with a smile.
The 2012 showing season will wrap up at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, starting Nov. 3, where Campbell will show Araris, as well as another one of her Belgian draft horses, Daenerys, in the fair’s breeding classes.
Once winter sets in, Campbell hopes to relax a bit more, though she will still run her mares with a sled on her farm property.
She also plans to continue practicing with the Belgian Mounted Brigade, a group she co-founded with Palmer, that performs complex drills aboard Belgians to music. The group has performed at fairs and other local events and also at the CNE.
“We just do it for fun and to promote Belgians,” she said, adding the group practices regularly in Rosemont, east of Shelburne.
“People love to have us in parades, because people love Belgian horses,” she said.
But in recent years the number of riders in the group has dwindled and Campbell is always looking for new riders and horses (anyone interested can email her at nanccfirefly@gmail.com or Janice Stone at janice@guildclassiccars.com).
The plight of the Belgian Mounted Brigade mirrors what Campbell says is an unfortunate trend when it comes to the breed’s presence in Canada.
“There’s not the numbers there used to be,” she said, noting there are far more Belgians south of the border. “People here can’t afford to keep them and they’re selling them off.”
But Campbell remains dedicated to the breed that has enthralled her for decades.
“They’re so pretty and they’re good natured,” she said of her beloved Belgians.
