Airbnb a real blessing for horse owners

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This article was published 21/10/2023 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CULROSS — This Airbnb takes horses and humans.

On Friday, Jazz and Bo-Jangles occupied their pens in Blessings at the Creek farm. Sometimes they’re in the paddock out back, sometimes they’re in the pasture.

And sometimes horses from Alberta or Ontario use their barn while the owners sleep nearby.

“It’s been fun,” said Elizabeth Dyck, the Culross farm’s co-owner. “It’s been a whirlwind of excitement.”

She and her husband are nearing their 10th year on the 12-acre property.

Only recently — maybe a couple years ago — did Blessings at the Creek become a “hotel for horses,” by Dyck’s timeline.

“They’re like big, overgrown puppies,” she said, pulling Jazz close for a hug. “(Jazz) just loves people.”

Jazz has seen a few: travellers have arrived from Alaska, Sweden, Australia and across Canada, Dyck said.

Many people are equine-free and trekking across the country.

Around six groups have brought horses to the Airbnb, Dyck stated. Most are Canadians moving west to east, or east to west, and looking for a place to house their animals for the night.

She charges $85 per guest per night; Airbnb fees and taxes bring the stay to around $109. There’s a stable fee of $10 per horse nightly.

The cap is generally six horses at once, Dyck said. It’s been reached at least twice — one guest also brought 12 puppies (he was transporting them to new owners, according to Dyck).

In that case, Greg, Dyck’s husband and partner at Blessings at the Creek, set up a heating lamp in a doghouse.

“It’s been really exciting hearing (travellers’) journeys,” Dyck said. “Some people want to see the world. This, to me, is seeing the world.”

She’s heard about guests’ travels over board games and home-baked pie — the Dycks grow cherries and raspberries on their land, which becomes a U-pick location in the summer.

She often tells visitors to not give up on their dreams. After all, she waited 20 years for her farm, she said.

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Dyck, 61, has been an equine enthusiast for most of her life. A Shetland pony in Brandon caught her eye when she was eight years old.

“Just a nasty, stubborn pony, but that was my first starter,” Dyck reminisced.

She rode for years; once 16, she sold her horse for a four-door Chevy Nova with black racing stripes.

“(It’s) something that kind of made me feel like I was riding a horse,” Dyck said.

She moved away from Brandon and left horse riding behind. She and Greg married; they had four children while living in Lorette and then Winnipeg.

While in the city, Dyck pined for a farm and horses. She fed her hunger by working at a Winnipeg horse riding school and taking lessons.

She and Greg decided to move to the country in 2014, once their offspring were teens. Most of the family moved to the large, two-storey home in Culross, around 45 kilometres southwest of the Perimeter Highway.

“It’s sort of an oasis,” Dyck said.

The farm is surrounded by fields and a creek runs through it. Lilacs surround the property in the spring.

She volunteered at Circle Square Ranch that summer and told Greg she needed her own horses. One quickly became two, and a pony was added to the mix.

Then came the horse lessons Dyck taught for local children, and the U-pick rows open to the public.

“I’m a people person. I love people,” Dyck said. “I love to connect.”

Her family listed Blessings at the Creek as an Airbnb in 2018. Former kids’ rooms are now guest bedrooms; their pond becomes a skating rink for visitors in the winter.

The farm became a horse hotel when one family, driving through a dreary night, pulled into Blessings with their two horses and spent the night.

She’s classified as a superhost on Airbnb with a 4.98 rating out of five stars, based on 99 reviews, as of Friday.

Guests rave about the breakfasts, the views, the dog and cats and, occasionally, horse riding lessons and horse training demonstrations.

“You have to make it to Culross MB !!!” James from Montreal wrote in a comment.

Culross is a small community with a grain elevator near Elm Creek.

“We’ll give them their space, but if they want to get to know us, and they want to chat, then yeah — let’s chat,” Dyck said.

The family won’t host if they’re not around.

“I think Airbnb is starting to get a pretty bad rap, and I don’t like that,” Dyck said, adding she’s not for buying properties for the sake of short-term rentals. “It’s about connections.”

Blessings at the Creek is listed on Horse Motels International, a website detailing stays in the United States, Canada and overseas.

Questions to Horse Motels International about the number of horse motels in North America and abroad were unanswered by print deadline. The website showed two other Manitoba hubs — Bar 16 Stables in Strathclair and J L Farm Stable in Winnipeg.

Diane David, executive director of the Manitoba Horse Council, didn’t have numbers on how many horse Airbnbs are in Manitoba.

However, equestrian competitions draw tens of thousands of people annually, she noted.

Three major equestrian events in Manitoba involved 507 participants and 89,600 spectators collectively, an Equestrian Canada report from September found.

Forty-five minor events included 833 participants and nearly 2,000 spectators, but those figures are likely underreported, according to David.

“Riders travel to Manitoba to be able to ride on some of the most beautiful trails in the country,” she wrote in an email. “Equestrian trail riding and camping is a growth market for the tourism industry.”

The equestrian industry contributed $379 million to Manitoba’s gross domestic product last year and involved four million jobs, Equestrian Canada reported.

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Dyck hopes to pass Blessings at the Creek to her children when she and Greg are ready to leave, but not any time soon.

There are new farm projects to tend to, another grandchild on the way and horses — her own and others’.

Perhaps the next major change? A cow, if Dyck’s neighbour gets their way and houses one near Jazz and Bo-Jangles (and provides the family with a hay shed).

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com