Why a Booktrail?
Celebrating 100 Years of the Canadian Government’s Only Working Horse Ranch
Ya Ha Tinda
What you need to know before your trail
The story of the Ya Ha Tinda and its evolution into the only continuously operating federal government horse ranch in Canada is much more than the story of the people who worked and lived there. Its ancient history is an amalgam of geological evolution, with archaeological evidence of ancient indigenous people’s use of the land for over 9,400 years and a biophysical inventory of flora and fauna unique to this particular landscape. So important is this small footprint, that it has been the source of a constant struggle for control between governments and special interest groups since the early 1900s, when the Brewster Brothers Transfer Company first obtained a grazing lease in the area for raising and breaking horses for their guiding and outfitting business in Banff and Lake Louise.
Travel Guide
“The Ya Ha Tinda is private property owned and managed by Parks Canada. It is not a National Park. This ranch is the only federally operated working horse ranch in Canada. Horses are wintered and trained here to be used as working horses for patrolling and protecting Canada’s Western National Parks. As an active working ranch, staff regularly use tractors, trucks, quads and other equipment on the property.”
There’s a lot of wildlife in the area including grizzly bear, wolf, cougar, moose, deer, and bighorn sheep. There are some 1,000 elk wintering in the area.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Ya Ha Tinda
Destination: Banff Author/Guide: Kathy Calvert
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