photo by Sylvie Gammie

Dawson City Horse Show

Submitted by Sylvie Gammie

The Top of the World Equestrian Center was recently site of the 8th Annual Klondike Classic Open Horse Show.

The show, hosted by the Klondike Horseman’s Association, with the assistance of the Dawson City Bits n’ Bridles Horse 4-H Club, was held on the weekend of August 21 and 22 at the Sunnydale location.

Along with some of our local riders, participants came from all over the Yukon ­ Mayo, Burwash Landing, Whitehorse, Watson Lake, as well as Skagway, Alaska. Forty-two riders were signed up for the various classes with 36 visiting horses.

Our judge this year hailed from Fairbanks, Alaska. Renea Fox works with youth in Alaska in halter, showmanship, trail, horsemanship, and equitation, but is also very versatile and involved in many other disciplines. We were very fortunate to be able to share her knowledge and expertise.

The show got underway Saturday morning with the Dressage division, followed by English flat classes. A quick break for lunch, and it was time to start the jumping classes, with divisions ranging from 6” to 2’9”. Our Gold Rush Gambit concluded the afternoon, with several riders succeeding in taking home some of the prize monies.

The Musical Freestyle Extravaganza was held in the evening. This is certainly one of our more popular events, and as usual, spectators filled the bleachers. Riders of all ages and skill levels choreograph a riding routine to their favourite music, with costumes for themselves and their horses to match. The results are always most entertaining.

Only one rider took a spill during her routine, but walked away with a smile and a wave ­ okay, maybe a stiff walk and slightly bruised ego, but nothing permanent. It was a good reminder to all that no matter how easy these riders make it look ­ and a lot of them do ­ they are riding animals many times their own size and weight, with minds of their own, and often unpredictable. To my thinking, this makes their accomplishments and victories on horseback all the more amazing.

Sunday morning dawned chilly but beautiful, and after Halter and Showmanship classes, it was time for Trail. An intricate course of obstacles was set up in the field, including a gate, back-throughs, side-passes, mailbox, bridge, etc. Trail is all about the rider’s control of his/her horse, and the ability to get them through anything that might pop up on a ride, be it on the trail, through trees, or across creeks.

Once Western flat classes were done, it was time for gymkhana games ­ barrel race, stake race, and keyhole race ­ very exciting. Our pop and whisky races wrapped up the afternoon on a fun note.

Over the weekend, points are awarded for the top 5 places in each class. Top

point earners in each division received ribbons and prizes. These were ­

Walk/Trot Division: Hi point ­ Loralee Johnstone (Mayo) with Jewel; Reserve (2nd) Rachelle Desharnais (Mayo) with Willow

Novice Division: Hi point ­ Kristin Witham (Whitehorse) with Westminster Abby; Reserve ­ Elise Doland (Skagway, AK) with Redd Ribbon

Junior Division, English: Hi-point ­ Caitlin Gammie (Dawson City) with Dun It Like A Star (aka Twinkle); Reserve ­ Brooke Nielsen (Whitehorse) with Jewel

Junior Division, Western: Hi-point ­ Caitlin Gammie with Ms Sylvia Doc San (aka Cally); Reserve ­ Allie Doland (Skagway) with Zippos Diamond Doc

Senior Division, English: Hi-point ­ Jodi Harms (Whitehorse) with Kluane; Reserve ­ Julia Fellers (Dawson City) with Starlite Finale (aka Blue)

Senior Division, Western: Hi-point ­ Sandra Prosko (Whitehorse) with Riki; Reserve ­ Brandi Mitchell (Whitehorse) with Wy to K Gossip.

Overall Top point earning horse: Jewel (Whitehorse) shown by Brooke Nielsen

Overall Top point earning rider: Caitlin Gammie

All riders were placed in teams of 4 for the weekend, to promote participant interaction and camaraderie. The top point earning team consisted of: Sandra Prosko, Brooke Nielsen, Cassy Andrew, and Morgan Stehelin (all from Whitehorse)

Of course, lots of volunteers are required to put on such an event, and we were very fortunate to have a great group of people helping out ­ Shirley Pierson, Leah Adam, Caitlin Gammie, Shelly Rowe, Sandra Prosko, Brandi Mitchell, Christine (from Henderson Corner), Jodi (from the General Store), Garry Gammie, and many more. Special ­ and HUGE! ­ thanks to Julia and Jay Fellers for the use of their wonderful facility, and for all their hard work to help make this happen.

As well, this would not happen without the support of our sponsors ­ see our ad in this issue ­ and we are immensely grateful for their continuing and very generous support. Thanks to the K.V.A. for some of their Community Development Fund grant monies ­ a very timely contribution allowed us to purchase more panels to build stalls to hold some of our many visiting horses.

We are already working on our show for next year ­ and hope to make it bigger and better still! Watch for it, and plan to join us!

Uffish Thoughts: Keeping Up Appearances Requires Public Attention

by Dan Davidson

Those bright colours in the Klondike are not all impending signs of autumn. They are freshly painted buildings. I could probably write an entire column this week by simply listing the number of places in town that have been painted in the last two months.

For instance: our house and two others on this block, at least a dozen others around town, the Robert Service School, the Triple J. Hotel, the Anglican Rectory, Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and Manse, the Front Street mall (including the Nugget and Ivory Shop, No Gold Gallery and Maximilian’s) and the Masonic Lodge.

Some have retained the colours they had to begin with. Others, most notably the school, have opted for a new look, going from solemn government gray to a more cheerful pale yellow.

We’re big on facades in Dawson City these days, quite unlike the drearily dressed town I first visited in 1978 with a bunch of students from Beaver Creek. Then, memory tells me it looked a lot like the black and white streets of Pierre Berton’s well known documentary film “City of Gold”.

Small wonder. At that point in its history Dawson was just months away from losing its town council to a YTG administrator. A year later half of its building foundations would be lost to a flood.

Twenty-five years later we did a little better. We lost our elected government again, but managed to survive a summer of being surrounded by fires. And we seem, on the whole, to be much more cheerful about the future. After all, paint jobs are a substantial investment, if I can go by what ours cost.

You’d think that people with a stake in the future would be a little more interested in salvaging what they can from the present, wouldn’t you?

Yes, I’m back to that dreary old topic of responsible government.

Despite the fact that the majority of Dawson’s voters chose to put a council in power ten months ago, it was just six months later that the council was removed, judged fiscally irresponsible and turfed after a half year filled with struggle and acrimony. Leaving aside for now the fact that some of the loudest voices among the minority clamoring for that council’s removal have plenty of fiscal housekeeping to do themselves, the council did end up in a mess and the municipal ship of state did need to be bailed out.

Since it is painfully obvious that no one in senior government had any interest in taking on that job until the crew had been jettisoned - a process which has continued from April through the summer - it is probably in the town’s best interests that things have worked out as they have. This way, at least, there is some chance that relief and refinancing may come our way, and that some of our infrastructure problems may be addressed.

It may be possible for this government to do for its appointed trustee and advisory committee what it would not do for the government elected by Dawson’s citizens.

But, as former supervisor André Carrel is so fond of saying, no voting public should be allowed to get away with simply casting a ballot every three years.

“Me make X - it’s not enough,” was the way the government’s appointed supervisor put it to the crowd in the YOOP Hall on January 23, 2004.

And you know what? He’s right. It’s not.

There was a flurry of interest in municipal affairs for a little while there, but it died down after Trustee Ray Hayes took office and died down further when the advisory committee was appointed in the middle of the summer. In no time flat attendance at meetings in the council chambers was down to me and a few people in delegations. There was no one sitting in to see how it’s done, to take note of the actual conversations and get the official line on the issues.

Presently the only way to do that is to attend the meetings, because someone stole the town’s video camera from the school where it had been in use televising the evening fire briefings during July.

When the painters started preparing the Front Street buildings for their fresh paint they found that there was some work to be done first. Beneath the faded colours the facades had worn and some were rotting. Structural work was needed to protect the building beneath the false front.

I’m heading for an obvious metaphor, of course. What we have in place right now for local governance is a facade. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Facades do shape reality to some extent and this one is a necessary artificial means of showing the people that we aren’t just being managed from afar. I think these people are working for us.

It’s just that they aren’t the people who should be working for us. They understand that. The committee is working on a vision statement to guide their efforts. I haven’t seen a draft yet, but the discussion I’ve heard shows that it will contain wording about being in place only until it can pave the way for new elections.

This is good news. It would be even better news if more citizens were there to hear it being discussed. Paying attention to the facade could help to make the reality beneath it stronger in the future.