To the Expositor:
Spring is finally here, and rainy weather has been abundant. Horseback riding in the rain has been slow to say the least. I had the opportunity to start thinking about the overnight trail rides I offer my many clients up over the beautiful Niagara Escarpment, narrow trails through wooded canopies of maple trees, and lots of wildlife spottings, and headed up to my little piece of heaven, my property at Perch Lake to open camp for the season, and wish I hadn’t gone. To see the bleak, bare, clear cut areas, the swaths of dead trees, the reality of the destruction of what has happened over the winter months in our wonderful forests that I have shared so many years with clients. The thought that my business’s biggest pride of “enjoy nature with no roads and traffic, no streetlights and noise, just the trees and the stars” will change my business forever and the fact that I will lose a huge part of my business is devastating.
Clients have already called and told me they will no longer ride my trails as they want to remember the Island and its beauty the way it was. I want to sincerely applaud Dr. Bill Studzienny for publicly standing up with his business and expressing his views over the issue of turbines and thank him for standing up for the small businesses like Honora Bay Riding Stable that will suffer and lose huge amounts of business beginning this year while a few people who have made decisions that affect everyone walk away and forget about the small peas who work very hard to earn a living here on a tourism dollar. I would love to invite every councillor and Northlands Power employee to please come and spend a day and work beside me (and keep up) at my stable to see what it takes to make this business a success (PS: bring your own lunch and dinner…we don’t stop for either until the day is done, you can count on a 15 hour day at minimum) I challenge you to count your pennies to feed every horse (34) in a dry drought summer (last year), feeding only quality feed, pay the vet and farrier bills, insurance etc, and keep students riding daily on healthy well trained horses and loose up to half your business in one shot and still keep your head up. We might as well put a four-lane highway in over our forests and teach riding lessons on the 401.
Kudos to Dr. Bill Studzienny for speaking up!
Have a great summer.
Sincerely, Kyla Jansen Honora Bay
