A High River woman says she was threatened with jail time for riding her horse down the streets of the southern Alberta town.
“I love my horses, yes,” said Shelby Opheim, who operates a rescue farm for horses. “My auntie was a barrel racer so I kind of got into it when I was younger.”
She rides her horse Charlie everywhere – even through the drive-thru for coffee. Opheim said this helps Charlie get comfortable in different environments.
“I can scream, I can yell,” she said, while waving her arms in the air. “Stuff like this shouldn’t scare them. So this makes them safe. When he goes to a home, nobody is getting hurt and he’s not going to go for meat.”
About six months ago, Opheim and Charlie began getting into trouble with the law. Opheim said peace officers threatened legal action because she was riding her horse around town.
“They have pulled me over six times in the last six months. The last time was Tuesday. They told me that I was no longer allowed to ride in town. I couldn’t have horses here. I could be arrested and put in jail.”
People who live in the town said they didn’t want trouble, but added they were concerned about the horse in traffic.
“My biggest thing was I had concern for her with the traffic,” resident Rhea Steiner said. “Knowing horses, horses are just animals and they don’t know what traffic is all the time.”
Peace officers sought legal advice and barred horses from High River, but that didn’t sit well with Opheim.
“Our bylaw says that we can. Our High River page, if you actually go on, says horses are a means of transportation,” Opheim explained.
“The only issue is they poop.”
Earlier this week, High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass got involved.
In the end, Opheim was right. Snodgrass said the peace officers got legal advice before first going to town council.
“We’re the town of High River. We’re a small ag-based community,” he said. “Shelby’s more than welcome to ride her horse in through town. You respect the public, you respect the other drivers, you’re doing it safely.
“The other thing is the drivers in their vehicles need to be doing the exact same thing.”
Opheim said she will continue to ride through town as long as she’s allowed.
High River is located about 30 minutes south of Calgary.
— with files from Doug Vassen, Global News.