One thing is for certain about Bobi Bracewell, she loves animals.
On Sunday, Aug. 18, she was pushing her daughter Indy-Rose in a stroller. She had four dogs on leashes in tow as they arrived to watch her partner Mike Piderman play in the Williams Lake Slo-pitch League year end tournament.
"One of my dogs is at home," she said, smiling.
Born in Williams Lake, Bobi was raised in the Tatlayoko Valley by her parents Alex Bracewell and Connie Bracewell.
Her late grandmother, Gerry Bracewell, arrived in the valley in the 1940s and went on to become one of the province's first female guide outfitters in the West Chilcotin.
Gerry died in June 2024 at the age of 101.
"She and I had a very close relationship," Bobi said of her grandmother. "We did everything together. I think I started trail riding with her as her regular when I was three."
Growing up Bobi attended Tatla Lake School and then finished her schooling off at Williams Lake Secondary School.
Today she lives at Esler, on the outskirts of Williams Lake, with her partner Mike Piderman.
"We have been together for seven years," she said.
She owns Wyld Whisper Trails, a trail riding business, and Wyld Whisper Training.
"People call me up when they come over from Europe or they come here for the Stampede and they want to enjoy the horse experience."
Indy-Rose rides with her mom and next year Bobi hopes her daughter will have a horse of her own.
"Trail riding is in my blood and it will be in hers," she said.
Some of the people who come to ride with her are first-timers.
"I definitely get people that are super nervous and have anxiety and they shake the first time and then I just lead them out and they eventually calm right down once they get the rhythm of the horse."
Her riders are as young as three-years-old, while others are seniors.
"I had some grandparents out the other day who were 86. They just loved it."
Rides can last an hour or up to about six hours - offering a variety of distances, with a choice to ride horses who want to run and older horses who are ready to retire and are quite happy to hang out and go slow.
Connie sold the homestead ranch a year ago, which is how Bobi ended up with 18 horses.
"I didn't want us to lose the horses," she said, noting about seven of them are used for the trail riding.
Her dad, Alex, still has the family business at the end of Tatlayoko that Gerry ran and Bobi said her brother Aaron has stepped in to help Alex out with it.
Bobi does miss the Tatlayoko Valley and said horse riding trails in the Williams Lake area do not compare, but she loves the community of Williams Lake.
"I think if I had a choice between living there or here, I would choose here just because of the community. I just love it. It's wonderful."
Aside from horses and dogs, she and Mike have five ponies, some bunnies, five goats and are thinking about adding pigs and donkeys to the mix.
"I would like to open a petting zoo for birthday parties or even a daycare some day," she said. "We are just seven minutes from town and on the bus route."
