Spotlight on Rhonas Thomson

The Saga Continues

Maritime Reiner

If you're just tuning in, you need to read Part 1 of The Spotlight on Rhonas Thomson. This incredible lady's cumulative experience is obvious to anyone within a short period of time.

In October 1999 Rhonas moved to Nova Scotia with her trusty 10 year old mutt 'Coco', an Irish Setter x border collie mix. "I work for the nicest people and have a dream job. Although I work for them, Donald and Beth Sobey and their family treated me like family which made the move so far from home (Shetland Islands , Scotland) seem like nothing." Rhonas felt an instant connection with the farm owners Mr & Mrs Sobey and cares for them far beyond the standard employee, employer relationship. In fact, the passing of Donald Sobey in March was an unbelievably sad time for Rhonas and is part of the reason we delayed part 2 of her story. These are obviously people who are passionate about their animals and those who care for them. We are lucky to have such people in our province.

Rhonas admits she may have been a bit nieve about the distance when she first moved to Nova Scotia because of all the travel in her young life. She thought, it's 12 hours on a boat to Aberdeen, with a flying time of 7-8 hours, no big deal!

When she started her new position she cared for 4 quarter horses, mainly pleasure bred and 4 Shetland Ponies from Shetland. Considerably less of a workload than she was used to.

With just enough to fill her days, Rhonas took an online Animal Science course in the evenings.

In 2001 she took the home bred 3 year old quarter horse to a MQHA show in Sussex to show in the halter class under the advice of their farrier at the time. She spent hours getting the mare ready for the show pen for her class of 5 minutes, then she had the rest of the day to watch and wonder. She credits Derek Hanscome for not allowing her to make a fool of herself and helping with the turnout. Halter classes are not the same on both sides of the Atlantic!

While getting ready for the halter class, Rhonas's newly adopted rescue dog Benson (adopted in Sept 2000 @ approx 5 months old) introduced Rhonas to Mona Lewis whose student was stalled across the aisle. He was supposed to be "sit staying" outside the stall and instead was sitting on Mona's knee having presented her with one of Rhonas's brushes!

Later in the day the reining started, which very much spiked Rhonas's curiosity. She enjoyed the speed and spins and stops even though she had no idea what was being judged. She saw Mona coaching a rider and slid along the bleachers to ask questions. And so it began. It's all Mona's fault! She invited Rhonas to come join them a few weeks later at the NS reining futurity. Mona is a huge supporter of the sport and helped immensely, for which Rhonas is forever grateful.

The existing pleasure mares were bred to Mona's super smooth stallion Jays Flashy Jac. Rhonas feels privileged to have been offered a ride on him. He was a well oiled machine. Similar to some of the fancy dressage horses she had ridden back in training, only everything was so uncomplicated. She liked that a lot!

In 2003 Rhonas went to the NRHA Futurity Finals for the first time. The farm purchased a couple of reining bred mares already in foal from Oklahoma and North Carolina with help from Mona Lewis and Francois and Josianne Gauthier. One a daughter of Hollywood Dunnit and one by Surprise Enterprise. Since then the mares have been bred to the top reining sires in the industry thanks to AI.

Rhonas credits Herb Best & New Glasgow Vets for helping her with all the dos and dont's of importing semen and breeding. She followed their instructions to the letter and shared them many times. Most of her previous pony breeding experience involved opening a gate then waiting for 11 months to see what you get!

Since Rhonas arrived in Nova Scotia she has had a hand in building and designing a new barn and indoor riding arena, and has managed all the breeding and management of quarter horses and ponies at the farm. She has visited some fantastic world class breeding and training farms in Texas, Oklahoma & North Carolina. She has met some great people in the reining world, which has become her passion.

One day, out of the blue at Sunday supper Mr. Sobey showed Rhonas a set of building plans for a new barn on a property he'd bought 4 kms from the original farm. She was amazed by the full size drawings, but had some reservations about some of the layout and blurted out her thoughts to simplify things honestly. Next thing she knew she was in meetings with engineers and architects.

Originally for the family horses only, as most construction does, "it grew arms and legs". Upon completion Mr. Sobey thought it should be shared with the horse loving community, so we started taking a few boarders and teaching beginner lessons. Now Rhonas has an average of 45-50 head under her care. Some of which have been the result of inviting a young trainer to join the farm 8 years ago. Maxed out at 72 one spring when they made room for 7 locally raised standardbred mares, 4 of which were in foal, after they lost their barn due to fire.

Rhonas has been giving tours of the farm to Truro Agricultural and Dalhousie University students for years and in the tour she explains, "If it is pretty or aesthetically pleasing to the eye, it's probably nothing to do with me but if it seems like a solid practical idea which aids the running of the farm and efficiency it's probably something I had taken from my experiences at other places I worked, or the wise words of my father who was an Agricultural Engineer, and dropped it into the planners ear."

The farm has also been shared with Senior Home visitors, Autistic children's groups, 4H associations, Residential Support groups, photography classes, featured in "Best barns in Canada" and other magazine articles, and been the backdrop to a wedding and an album cover for George Canyon! Pictures of the gorgeous well bred Sumac Farms horses have even been published on Purina feed bags.

In 2010 Rhonas was instrumental in hosting the first Sumac Slide. With temporary stabling costing $10,00 just to put up and take down, the second 39 stall barn was built.

She also went to the World Equestrian games in Lexington, Kentucky and the Quarter Horse Congress with 5 women in a Winnebago that year!

Airlines changed routes around that time and began sending only smaller planes to Halifax from the US, sacrificing the ability to import fresh semen without the risk of major hold ups and flight changes.

Rhonas flew to California in 2013 & 2014 to learn the skills of AI, Ultrasound, utilizing frozen semen, stallion and mare management etc. so she can continue to breed the mares to the best stallions from all over the world. This knowledge saves many vet visits, although she still strongly relies on them for backup and expertise.

One of Rhonas's favorite things to do is start the babies. Having raised them she has the added advantage of having their trust before she starts them, which she didn't appreciate originally. When they're born at the farm, she's the first person to do most things with them. Touching, leading, tying, trailering, de-worming, picking their feet up, laying on them, blanketing and all of that is done when they're still with their mothers. Rhonas loves to put the first rides on them too. She took a break from this for a few years and encouraged young local trainers, but she really missed it. She uses experiences from all of the disciplines she's learned from over the years. After a couple of months starting, they go to finishing school, originally with Mona Lewis who won Sumacs first Morrison trophy and since 2007 with Sophie Laverdiere who won our first Lawson trophy which sits proudly next to the owners fireplace.

Rhonas considers herself lucky to spend her summers showing all over the Maritimes and Quebec. "It's your shop window, when you turn up to ride one of the horses you have raised!"

Over the years she has given 30+ people jobs on the farm. Recently the average number of horses on the farm hovers around 50. The owners portion is about a dozen including ponies and young stock.

Rhonas Thomson has earned the respect of anyone who has met her. She has truly put together a life most of us envy. She has done this with focus, determination, hard work and intelligence. She is living proof that you really can live a life you love, if you follow your dreams, believe in yourself and are willing to put in the hard work!

Lisa Spidell, from the memoirs of Rhonas Thomson ~ June 25th 2021