PHOTOS: BRADLEY BISCHOFF; J. PAGE, PARKS CANADA “These are my
last two babies,” says Rick Smith, foreman at Parks Canada’s Ya
Ha Tinda Ranch, 75 kilometres west of Sundre, in Alberta’s
foothills country. A biting December wind blows off Warden
Mountain to the west as he strokes the muzzles of eight-month-
old colts Quill and Quigley. It’s no coincidence both their
names begin with Q. Entered in a dusty horse register kept in a
1918 cabin near the corral are the names and statistics of every
horse born here for the past 70 years. Colts born on the ranch
each year were given names according to a revolving alphabetic
sequence: 2004 was the year of the Qs. There will be no more Rs.
In a cost-cutting move, Parks Canada has decided to buy ready-
broken horses instead of breeding their own. Since 1917, Ya Ha
Tinda has been breeding, raising, training and wintering the
horses that patrol the backcountry of Canada’s western national
parks, including Riding Mountain in Manitoba, Prince Albert in
Saskatchewan, Banff, Elk