The childhood saddle used by Kathleen (Kas) Beynon and her sister has returned home to be prominently displayed at the old ranch house on the WineGlass Ranch that is now the Wayfinders Retreat.

She did have other choices, but it was here Kas, now 90, wanted this piece of ranching history displayed. The WineGlass holds many childhood memories for her, and she thought people would enjoy seeing the saddle and reading its story.

"We use to come over here in the summertime to go swimming. Then in the fall, we'd go skating. We always liked to come over here because they had running water, and we always had a bath and whatnot."

"I was excited about seeing the house again and being here. It brought lots of memories," she said, visibly moved by the visit. 

On the front of the saddle stand are reprints of a pair of cherished photographs and a story she wrote about riding the Old Grey Mare to Bushy Ridge School, 2 1/2 miles away.

It reads:

"When my sister Marion started school, she had to have a quiet horse to ride. She had two-and-a-half miles to ride, and she was just six years old.

My aunt and uncles, the Towers, had an old horse out to pasture that their daughter had ridden to school. The daughter was now at Olds Agricultural School.

I was too young to remember what the transaction was, whether they gave her to us or whether we bought her. Anyway, we got the Old Grey Mare, and I think the saddle came with her.

The next year I started school. Marion rode in the saddle, and I rode behind. There were lots of arguments over that, but Marion always won.

Uncle Johnny Arnell drove a cream truck. He would drive around the district and pick up everyone's cream and take it into Model Dairies in Calgary. The Old Grey Mare wasn't used to automotive traffic, and one day she took a great side-step and dumped me and Marion into a snowdrift. Never mind, Uncle Johnny picked us up, dusted us off, and put us back on the Old Grey Mare, and we went on our way to school.

The Old Grey Mare has long passed away, and the saddle is now back where it came from."

She remembers not being particularly fond of it at first.

"A few years I hated it," she said, pointing to the saddle. "I had to ride on here (behind the saddle) and I had to hold on to the straps. My sister (Marion) would let me put my fingers in here to hold on to the back of the saddle. So I rode back here all the time. It wasn't until she went to Calgary to go to grade 9 that I got to ride in the saddle."

Kas was joined by some family members to share the moment. Attending were Nancy (Beynon) Hartsburg, John and Elaine (Beynon) Kowalchuk, as well as Dwight and Deb Beynon and their oldest daughter Carla (Beynon) Minogue. Edith Wearmouth also dropped by for a visit.

These and more stories were shared by Kas with Paul Wagman and Bryce Talsma, of Wayfinders, while she toured the inside of the retreat.

"This piece is going to mean a lot to people who are here healing, and come back to a place of retreat from the chaos," says Wagman. "This whole property is full of that positive healing energy, and we're putting it back to a 1920s ranch house. It's a retreat, and it feels like that."

Wagman says the saddle display will be the centrepiece in the entry of the retreat.