For the past five years, Red Deer’s Arto DjerDjerian has been photographing daily life at Canada’s only federally operated working horse ranch, the Ya Ha Tinda, west of Sundre.
Djerdjerian has taken thousands of pictures of energetic colts being turned into working horses for patrolling Canada’s western national parks, including Banff, Jasper, Waterton and Yoho.
“I was like a fly on the wall,” he recalls, acting as an unobtrusive observer of everyday life.
While it changes with the seasons, in many ways, the facility has remained unchanged since the government ranch was started in 1917.
Every fall, about 150 horses that have been ridden by park rangers are brought back to Ya Ha Tinda to be corralled. They are fed at the ranch throughout the winter, then taken back to the various parks every spring.
Four of Djerdjerian’s equine photographs will be in Unbridled, a new exhibit that opens Friday at Banff’s Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. It will showcase contemporary and historic art that highlights the human-horse connection.
“I’m the only living photographer whose works are being shown,” said Djerdjerian, who considers it a huge honour to be asked to be part of the group exhibit.
It will also include works from public and private collections by Joe Fafard, Fredrick Remington, Henry Glyde, Carl Runguis, Catherine Robb Whyte and nearly 50 other artists.
The Whyte Gallery is paying homage to horses because Banff and the Canadian Rockies were shaped by this “steadfast animal.”
Djerdjerian feels there’s still no better way to patrol the park’s steep slopes and forests than on horseback.
The Ya Ha Tinda government ranch, which is owned and managed by Parks Canada, covers 3,945 hectares and runs 27 kilometres along the north bank of the Red Deer River, northeast of Banff National Park.
Its natural grassland and mixed forest is home to grizzly bear, wolf, cougar, moose, elk, deer and bighorn sheep.
Djerdjerian became familiar with it in the 1980s, when his trail riding group would travel from his former home in Fort McMurray all the way to Ya Ha Tinda to enjoy the “spectacular” scenery.
He finds a certain romance in the working ranch itself, which continues to operate under the federal government in this age of tight budgets and privatization.
With this photography project, Djerdjerian said he wanted to indulge his own love for horses, and also to create a visual record of ranch operations, in case the Ya Ha Tinda isn’t around forever.
He approached Parks Canada with his portfolio to gain admittance to the private horse corrals and barns.
Based on the quality of his work, and his commitment to the project, Djerdjerian received permission to take whatever pictures he wanted, as long as he didn’t interfere with ranch operations. He’s been returning four or five times a year since 2013.
The photographer’s connection to horses goes back to his childhood. Djerdjerian recently received a packet of drawings he had done as a kid, and was surprised to see how many of them were of horses.
The Cairo native, who was raised in Montreal, said, “They have always been a passion of mine.”
Djerdjerian, who has been transitioning out of commercial and into art photography, is hoping to launch a solo showing of his Ya Ha Tinda photographs in Red Deer or Calgary.
Meanwhile, Unbridled will have an opening reception at 7 p.m. on Friday, and will continue to Jan. 31.
H
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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