November 14, 2026
The Vernon District Riding Club has a history dating back more than 90 years. Originally formed as the Vernon & District Riding Club in 1932, it was reorganized in 1934 under the name Vernon & District Drag Hounds. The Drag Hounds disbanded sometime between 1939 and 1943, as many members enlisted during the Second World War. In August 1943, the organization was re-established as the Vernon District Riding Club, with M. H. Symonds as President, Lydia Bishop as Vice-President, and Phyllis French as Secretary-Treasurer. Members of the Rendell, Kidston, Ellison, and Cameron families, among others, also attended the first meeting.
The club held its first horse show at Kin Race Track in 1944, followed by two shows at Polson Park. Events continued at various locations until 1955, when the club purchased 12 acres of property on Aberdeen Road. Members also travelled regularly to horse events throughout the Okanagan and beyond. Their first trip was to Vancouver in 1944, followed by a journey by barge to Penticton with their horses in 1946 and a railway trip to Kamloops in 1948. That same year, the Vernon, Kelowna, and Penticton clubs joined to form the Okanagan Light Horse Improvement & Show Association.
The club organized a variety of activities, including trail rides, play days, horse shows, gymkhanas, dances, and films. In 1949, members even began playing polocrosse. That year, junior member Molly Rendell (later Boyd) received the Canadian Horse Show Association Equitation Award for earning the most points in equitation at recognized shows in British Columbia. By 1955, the club had won the Okanagan Horse of the Year trophy eight times, and member F. W. LaLonde had been named Sportsman of the Year. Notable horses associated with the club included King Beauty, Starlight, Canadian Rex, and Valley Belle.
Club activities also included overnight rides with bonfires and camping, as well as Easter egg hunts on Middleton Mountain. A large Junior Club was established, with Mada Rendell and June Osborn organizing paper trails across the Coldstream Ranch for young riders to follow. These outings sometimes brought unexpected encounters, including bears, rattlesnakes, and even a still-live bomb. The club has continued to attract multiple generations of local families, with some current members representing the third and fourth generations to participate.
The Greater Vernon Archives holds a scrapbook documenting the club’s history, donated through the Mackie Lake House Foundation. In addition to photographs and information about club activities, it contains horse-related material, humorous sketches, advice on buying a horse, guides to identifying horse colours, and explanations of equestrian terms such as canter, gallop, and trot.
Although the scrapbook’s coverage ends in the mid-1970s, the Vernon District Riding Club remains active and continues to maintain its property on Aberdeen Road. Its history offers a record of the development of organized equestrian activities in the Vernon area and the families who have participated in them over several generations.
Archives Manager, Gwyneth Evans