Memories of Jack Mills ‘take the reins’

It was a horse lover’s heyday Sunday when people who knew the late J.V. “Jack” Mills of Crozier showed up at the farm on Highway 11-71 just west of town to honour his memory.
More than 50 people, including some 30 riders with their horses, turned out, and they didn’t waste any time getting down to what mattered most–having fun.
Dubbed the first-annual “Fun Day,” the revival of a “horse and rider” event once held by Mills–who passed away in May, 1999 at age 80–featured games, trail rides, laughter, and good times in the tradition he had forged years earlier.
Riders tested their skills as they tried to beat the clock in barrel racing, teamed ribbon races, egg-and-spoon, and relays.
They also challenged their co-ordination. They galloped their horses into the paddock, got off, rested their forehead on a standing baseball bat, and then ran around it 10 times.
Dizzy as could be, they then had to remount their horse and ride out.
“At an open [horse] show, we can’t get this many people out,” Heather Pryde of Emo said Sunday. “I think this is a real tribute to Jack.”
“We would have been happy with five [people showing up],” echoed co-organizer Gayle Arpin, who considered Mills her best friend. “It was awesome–we were so overwhelmed.
“This was a good way to honour Jack. He had an impact on so many,” she added, noting Mills’ wife, Nita, who survives him, was “the wind beneath his wings.”
Arpin and her husband, Chuck, now own the J.V. Mills farm, where they plan to live by the end of the year.
The J.V. Mills farm was built in 1964 and quickly found its way into the hearts of horse lovers across the district. Mills boarded horses (up to 40 at one time), provided acres of recreational riding, and an environment of learning about and caring for animals.
Mills also was well-known for leading trips on horseback to Wasaw Lake, where he and a handful of young riders would camp out before heading back to the farm the next morning.
“It was a place that all kids came to. It was home for a lot of [them],” recalled Pryde. “Jack was a second dad to a lot of people [and] if you loved horses, you were here.”
“People were drawn here,” echoed Jody Caul, Pryde’s sister.
“I don’t know what it makes me feel to be here again–young, I guess!” chuckled Teddy Bone of Devlin. Now in her 70s, Bone was the first to board a horse at the Mills farm back in 1967.
Jan Halvorsen of Crozier rode her horse nearly 12 km round trip to participate in the “Fun Day.” She, too, was among the first to board a horse at the farm in the mid-60s. At the time, Mills was the one who knew it all when it came to horse sense, she said.
Halvorsen also noted Mills’ respect for animals–including a special goat and rooster of which he was especially fond–rubbed off on just about everybody who knew him.
“Jack knew how to treat horses and people,” remarked Halvorsen. “He just loved it all and he taught us how to do the same.”
“It’s kind of hard [to talk about Jack],” noted Karen Davis, who worked for Mills in the 1970s while boarding her horse there. “He was like a grandfather to me.
“Work always came first but he always had time for everybody,” she stressed.
Future “Fun Days” already are in the works, with the next one planned for the fall.