I Heart Edmonton

Whitemud Equine Learning Centre By Emil Tiedemann I remember when I first drove down Fox Drive and noticed horses galloping along this long white and green rail fence just meters away from the street. Am I seeing this right?! Were there actually horses right in the middle of the city, home in the river valley, speeding across a meadow just off the North Saskatchewan and the Trans Canada Trail?  I think I smiled the whole rest of my drive home, in awe. How had I not heard of his place?! I turned to Google to make sure I hadn’t imagined the whole thing.  The Whitemud Equine Learning Centre Association is a public pastoral horse farm “open to anyone with an interest in horses,” and in fact offers equine sports and activities for thousands of all-ages Edmontonians every year.  Run mostly by volunteers, the Centre dedicates itself to improving the quality of living for locals through their world-class centre for equine learning, research, and therapy. And it’s b...

"Where people and horses meet in the heart of the city" BY EMIL TIEDEMANN T HAT is the slogan for the Whitemud Equine Learning Centre on Fox Drive ( 13204-Fox Drive , to be exact), a place that somehow seems right at home in the middle of the city. Located within Edmonton's pituresque river valley, this non-profit organization (WELCA) offers "unique education and recreation at a beautiful pasteral horse farm in the heart of the city." And has been for close to a century! Although WELCA was established in 1999, the farm has been around since the 1920s, when Ontario-born Dr. Frederick Anson Keillor purchased the land and invited locals to his farm for hiking, bird watching, picnics, swimming, and of course, horse riding. During those early years Dr. Keillor, who served in WWI, also opened a ski club, four canoe clubs, and the Granite Curling Club , all in the vicinity, while moonlighting as a city coroner and manager at the South Edmonton Vet hospital. He late...