An upcoming documentary will put a local horse rescue in the spotlight — and hopefully it will be a galloping success.
Blackbird Ranch Equine Rescue and Rehab is the focus of a three-episode documentary series called Horse Rescue Ranch by Calvin Henrion that will be screened on Bell FibeTV1.
Kim Lyons and her daughter Jodi Gagnon launched the ranch in 2011. Corinne Nykorak helped out by taking photos to showcase the horses — and she even adopted one. Another adopter named Courtney also began to get involved.
Over time, Jodi moved to Ontario and Courtney moved to Alberta. Today, Kim Lyons and Corinne Nykorak continue to run the operation together.
“We started out taking in the unwanted and misunderstood horses for rehab and then adopting them out. We realized a need to help the cast-offs and throw-aways, those that have served their purpose and either are no longer wanted or unable to be cared for,” Nykorak said.
“We take in horses from auction and owner surrenders, as well as taking in some from the provincial vet when horses have been seized. We still take in some that are able to be adopted — it helps pay our bills — but we have a soft spot for the ones that just need a soft place to land to be loved before their time comes to cross over to The Rainbow Bridge.”
Some horses stay with them for a short stint while other remain at the rescue for many years.
“We’ve had some of our permanent residents — who are not able to be adopted due to age or injury — for 14 years, while some we’ve only been able to love for a week. We try our hardest to let them go with dignity,” she said.
“We currently have 20 horses in our care, a few adoptable and most permanent residents. We are a donation-based rescue, so we can only take in as much as we can afford to feed and vet. If we run short on funds, we pay for it out of our own pockets. We love all of the rescues as if they were our own.”
For Henrion, he came up with the concept of making a documentary about the horse rescue several years ago based on his own personal experience of parting with a pet, a Great Dane named Ezra. Ezra has some reactive aggression issues that proved to be beyond the family’s training abilities.
“It broke our heart because she was amazing with us but was unsafe to be around other animals and people,” said Henrion, who is originally from rural Saskatchewan and now lives in Stonewall with his wife Chelsey and son Conrad.
“We were happy to keep her for ourselves and sacrifice our social lives a bit. However, my wife and I were expecting our first born, which put us in a situation where we needed to find a new home for Ezra. We wanted to bring our baby into a safe environment with animals we could trust.”
They ended up finding a couple who took care of Ezra for a weekend at a time, building up to progressively longer periods until they decided to take her in permanently. During this drawn-out process, Henrion kept thinking how difficult it must be for rescue organizations to find homes for all the animals they bring in.
He began reaching out to different animal rescues to see if anyone was interested in telling their story. At first, he didn’t have much luck. But when he asked the owner of Sundog Kennels, where he had kennelled Ezra and his other dog Remi, they suggested Blackbird Ranch Equine Rescue and Rehab.
“Hearing Corinne and Kim’s mission and story was an eye-opener,” he said. “They weren’t just saving horses but the ones that nobody else wanted. They give them love and care, no matter what their destination was — often giving the animal an opportunity to end up in the perfect homes like we found for our dog Ezra.”
He connected with Blackbird Ranch and shared his idea for the documentary. Nykorak and Lyons decided to get involved to help showcase their horses and spread awareness about the rescue.
And when Henrion told his mentor Charles Lavack about Corinne and Kim, he was also intrigued.
“Charles and I decided to pick up our cameras, borrow gear and schedule a day to interview them and get some footage. We put together a little demo video and a pitch document and started showing it to production companies in the city,” he said.
“Manito Media wanted to champion the project and help us put together an even better package to pitch to broadcasters. It was kind of a full-circle moment for me because I started my career working for Manito Media over a decade ago, and it’s through them that I actually first met Charles. So it was pretty amazing that possibly my first production is helped off the ground by them.”
Manito Media began pitching the idea to broadcasters, and they eventually got the green light from Bell MTS for three 15-minute episodes for their community television platform Bell Fibe TV1.
The filmmakers began capturing footage and writing scripts before sending them to an editor and working on cuts.
“It’s watched and worked on by many layers of people before it’s delivered to Bell MTS. We asked one of the best storytellers in the business to be our story editor, Jeff Newman, who is another person I started my career with,” Henrion said. “We have a solid crew, and I couldn’t have imagined in a million years that I’d be so lucky to be guided by such amazing talent.”
Henrion aims to deliver the final product by the end of April, and he expects the documentary will be ready for viewing in mid-2026.
“I hope this documentary is a step forward in my career. But, more importantly, I hope this show brings attention to all the hard work the ladies put in — and hopefully brings in more support through donations and volunteers,” he said.
“I want this to be an eye-opener for viewers that horse ownership is not an easy task. You need to be ready for the responsibility. Also, rescues aren’t out to get your animals taken away. They just want horses to be properly cared for, and I think that’s something we should all want.”¬
For Nykorak and Lyons, they’re happy to share details about their labour of love.
“The documentary shows a little bit about all of the different things we do and how we do them, and it shares the stories of a couple of our horses. I think it will enable people to see what we do. Most people don’t know about us or horse rescue in general,” Nykorak said.
“The crew have followed us to auction and loading up horses we purchased there, followed us to drop off a horse that got adopted, filmed a horse going to its new home and much more — from vet visits to people coming and using the horses as therapy while going through something traumatic and one of our fundraisers.”
The process for developing the documentary has been informative, she added.
“I think we learned as much from the crew as they did about us and we’ve gained some good friendships. There are a lot of moving parts to doing a documentary and, honestly, our part is easy since we just go about doing our everyday things. Behind the scenes is a lot harder,” she said.
“We have been filming the documentary for almost two years. We’d also like to give a huge shout out to Calvin Henrion along with his crew for taking a chance on us and believing in what we do and doing so much to make sure the documentary got picked up. And a huge thank you to Manito Media–Media RendezVous for also taking a chance on us and producing the documentary for us.”
Looking ahead, she hopes that viewers will take away an important message.
“Horse rescues are not bad. There is a stereotype about rescues and some people think we are against people using horses for ranch work. We just want to help the horses that need help, whether it’s to find a new home or be laid to rest. There is a lot to rescuing horses and it’s not all sunshine. There is a lot of manual labour, cost, anxiety, hurt,” she said.
“Every time we take in a horse, we hope that we can help them. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t, but we make a promise that we will be there for them either way. The documentary shows all of it. Rescue is hard. It’s long days after our full-time jobs, sometimes long nights, worry about funds, worry about weather — but we wouldn’t change what we do. We do it for the love of the horse.”
Anyone who would like to make a donation to Black Bird Equine Ranch and Rescue can email donationsforblackbirdranch@hotmail.com — and the same email can be used to share any fundraising ideas.
“We are on Facebook, so give us a follow,” Nykorak added. “If you have any questions or want to meet us or the horses, send us a message.”
All are welcome to get free tickets to a private screening of the Horse Rescue Ranch documentary on Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. at The Flicks Cinema in Stonewall. The event will start with an intro by the folks behind the show, followed by a question-and-answer session after the screening.
Tickets are required to save a spot for the private screening, and you can get them through a link on the Horse Rescue Ranch Facebook page, where you can also watch the trailer. The link for tickets is also available on the Blackbird Ranch Equine Rescue and Rehab Facebook page.
The air date is scheduled for June 4 on Bell Fibe TV1 and the Fibe TV app.
