By Caelan Beard 

After three years without horses, the equestrian community in Yellowknife is preparing to bring horses back to the northern city. 

During the wildfires in the summer of 2023, when the city of Yellowknife was evacuated, the 21 horses who lived there were evacuated, too. While they all made it out safely to farms across Alberta, horses have yet to return to the capital of the Northwest Territories (NWT). The following year, the former riding school North Country Stables closed after the unexpected loss of owner and veterinarian Tom Pisz in June 2024.

These absences have been keenly felt by local horse lovers, who have been doing their best to keep their equestrian community going, even without access to horses. Riding coaches Abbey Wilson and Caterina Walsh, who taught at North Country Stables, have been running educational programs, bonding events, and summer riding camps in Alberta for their former students.

Caterina Walsh with the youngest NT Equestrian athlete - her daughter, Giulietta. Photo courtesy of Abbey Wilson 

“We’ve been working really hard since the evacuation to try to bring horses back to Yellowknife,” says Walsh. “That loss was really devastating for our community, especially our youth, volunteers, and staff.” 

Yellowknife used to have a non-profit called the Aurora Horse Association, which worked with North Country Stables to run equine camps and other events. Last year, Wilson and Walsh led efforts to establish a new non-profit, NT Equestrian Society. According to their Facebook page, the newly formed non-profit aims to “bring the opportunity of equine interaction, recreation, and competition to as many people as possible within Yellowknife and the NWT!”

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“We have been bringing together parents, volunteers, athletes, coaches, [and] community members to try and work together,” Wilson says.

NT Equestrian’s latest venture, led by Wilson and Walsh, is to bring horses back to Yellowknife this summer through a temporary pop-up stable. 

Keeping horses in the north is not easy, but NT Equestrian athletes hope that someday horses can return to Yellowknife to stay. Photo courtesy of Abbey Wilson 

Pop-Up Stable

The plan is to bring three horses up so they can run lesson programs, community outreach, and volunteer opportunities. They want the pop-up stable to be accessible to the whole Yellowknife community and people visiting from other communities — from beginner to experienced riders. 

The goal is to provide educational experiences and more so people can experience the numerous benefits that come from horseback riding and just being around these animals, Walsh says. That includes “physical fitness, responsibility, leadership skills, and improved mental well-being.” 

The three horses — named Poncho, Solo, and Mira — are coming from Alberta and Hay River, NWT.

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Two of the horses, mares Solo and Mira, are being loaned by their owner in Hay River. Poncho, a gelding, is owned by an NT Equestrian athlete. All are generously donating their horses’ time to the program.

One horse, Solo, has been to Yellowknife before; she was previously used at the lesson program at North Country Stables. “She’s really sweet,” says Walsh. “Just a very calm, gentle-tempered horse.” 

“All these horses will serve the program really well and play to their own strengths — whether that be really good trail horses, or really good beginner lesson horses, or horses for more advanced riders,” Wilson says. By restoring the access to horses, they’re hoping to revitalize the “valued connection that we lost with these animals,” adds Walsh.

Challenges of Keeping Horses in the North

Bringing horses up to Yellowknife and keeping them there comes with its own set of challenges. 

Yellowknife, with a population of around 21,000 people, lies on the northern shores of Great Slave Lake about 400 km south of the Arctic Circle. It’s the only city and the largest community in the NWT, with limited services for horses. There is no farrier (the horse community was previously serviced by a farrier who would drive up from Edmonton a few times a year), and with only one veterinary clinic, the city is experiencing a veterinarian shortage.

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Abbey Wilson riding Zalika. Photo courtesy of Abbey Wilson 

It’s a five-hour drive from the Town of Hay River to Yellowknife, and even farther to Alberta. When the horses were evacuated in 2023, many of them made the 16-hour trip to southern Alberta where they had a place to stay. That was the first time some of those horses, including several seniors, had been on a horse trailer in more than ten years. 

NWT is not the easiest place to keep horses. Temperatures are extreme — dropping to minus 40 degrees Celsius in winter and rising to 30 degrees Celsius in summer. In recent years, summers have broken records as some of the hottest and driest on record, and wildfires remain an ongoing concern.

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Winters are long and dark with as little as four hours of daylight during the darkest days, while summers bring nearly 20 hours of daylight at the height of the season. The equestrian community no longer has access to a riding arena in Yellowknife. It’s a long drive to Alberta to get feed, hay, tack, and other supplies. The terrain also poses a challenge to horsekeeping, with a lot of rocks and a lack of topsoil.

But NT Equestrian has been working to find creative solutions to these challenges, and they’ve had support for their pop-up stable from local businesses and local government: Arctic Farmer donated land, RTL Construction donated soil, Lupo Limited donating fencing and labour, and the City of Yellowknife helped to get the land ready for horses.  

In the fall of 2025, NT Equestrian held a raffle to raise money for the remaining infrastructure needed, including fencing, shelter, and equipment. Local businesses including Canadian North Airlines, Blunt YK, Under Pressure Massage Therapy, and Yellowknife Brazilian Jiu Jitsu donated prizes, and several more businesses helped to sell tickets around town. In the end, they sold 893 tickets and raised $4,820 to put towards the pop-up stable.

For the summer of 2026, the horses will come up in July and stay until September. The following year they hope to bring horses up for six months. 

Though the pop-up stable will be seasonal, NT Equestrian hopes to someday bring horses back to Yellowknife to stay. They’re thinking about the future of the sport in the north and how to support a growing equestrian community. “It’s kind of a pilot project for us to get started so that eventually [we] can have a more permanent setup,” explains Wilson. But for now, the prospect of horses coming back to Yellowknife, after three years without them, feels pretty good. When asked how it feels, both Walsh and Wilson tear up.

“It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of people,” Wilson says. “We’re just incredibly thankful to the community and for folks stepping up and helping bring this sport and this recreational opportunity to people.” 

Their youth riders in particular have been working diligently to keep their passion alive — from travelling to Alberta for summer camps to selling raffle tickets and fundraising for NT Equestrian. 

“It’s a beautiful thing to see how excited they are to work hard together to get horses back here,” says Walsh. 

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Main Photo: NT Equestrian riders have been working hard toward the goal of bringing horses back to Yellowknife. Photo courtesy of Abbey Wilson