Briarctic, the race horse

Briarctic

On Aug. 7th and 8th, 2021, Sharon and I took a trip to find a horse’s gravesite. I think we found it or very close to it.

When I was 14, I decided that I wanted to make a living at riding horses and thoroughbreds were the fastest and most beautiful horse breed. So, still being small in stature, I thought that becoming a jockey would be a good fit. At that time in Sarnia, there was a small group of doctors who were developing an interest in horse racing and began by owning shares in a horse that they named Drawbridge, after the Drawbridge Inn where they gathered. My Dad helped introduce me to them and their goals and mine started to align. They wanted to start an enterprise to develop race horses fro0m scratch, so to speak. They hired a young man from Ireland, Michael Byrne, who had experience with horse breeding and care. Among others, they bought a yearling colt who was a half-brother to Northern Dancer that they named Briarctic. I was the first person to ride him when the time came and then later to exercise him at Ipperwash beach. So we bonded at an impressionable age for both of our lives. Soon, however, circumstances beyond our control led us along different paths.

About fifty years later I noted, with mild interest, the running of the Kentucky Derby and I started to wonder what happened to Briartic. A google search revealed that almost all of my contacts that were in his life had passed away. His original owner, Dr. Bennett, had died around 2010. His racetrack trainer, Mort Hardy, had died around 2015. The first solid clue about Briartic’s last days was from a phone message from Mike Byrne in June that Briarctic probably died on “Gardiner’s farms”. However, Mr. Gardiner had died around 2000 and his wife around 2012. The former Gardiner farm manager, in that era, had died around 2005. So, Mike Byren was apparently the only other living connection to Briarctic. And he had lost touch with him around 1980.

I read on the internet that Briarctic had stood at stud at E.P. Taylor’s farm in Oshawa during the 1970’s. So there was a small chance that he had been repatriated there. The Northern Dancer cemetery and Trillium cemetery were very hard for Sharon and me to find because the farm has almost completely been converted into suburbs. The Northern dancer cemetery is now on private land owned by Ontario Tech. and was out of bounds. However, I hopped a fence to check out what appeared to be grave markers but Briarctic was not there. Soon, a security guard gently escorted me off the premises. We then found the Trillium cemetery, almost by chance, and wandered through it. There was a grave marker for all the horses but Briarctic was not there.

Gardiner’s Farms had been split into two and each part had changed hands numerous times since 2015. So, there was no memory of the “olden” times. However, I found a guy in a trailer on the farm who gave me the name of Derrin Glenning who had worked there in the 80’s and 90’s. We could not meet with him but he responded to my phone message. Derrin was recruited by Mr. Gardiner around 1980 and was his last surviving employee. He said that one when Briarctic was old (28 years) he hurt his leg while in his paddock during his normal activities. The injury was severe enough and deemed not to be recoverable at his advanced age. He was subsequently euthanized. Derrin said that he was buried near the S-curve under some tall trees in an unmarked grave.

I looked around the outer parts of Gardiner’s farm near Patterson Side Rd. and the stallion paddock and I think that I located this spot near some tall trees and an S-curve in a laneway.

I think that this trip was significant for Briarctic’s life as well as mine. Solomon wrote “who knows if the spirit of an animal goes up or down”. So animals are neither guaranteed to enter heaven nor excluded from it. Given the pattern of God’s economical use of resources and His value on friendship and family, I suspect that only those animals who are important to those who people subsequently enter heaven are given a pass as well. So, that weekend, I showed that Briaertic was important to me and that I want him to be included in heaven.