Thunderbird Show Park

Who built it, and who owns it now

George and Dianne Tidball bought a horse in 1966 for $150 and moved to Fort Langley in 1969. In 1970 they bought land at 200 Street and Highway 1 and built Thunderbird Equestrian Centre there. It held its first show in 1972. By 1998 development was closing in, and they sold it.

In 1999 they built the present park on 83 acres at 248 Street and 72 Avenue, with ground broken that April. Dianne ran it until 2005, when her daughter Jane took over. The BC Sports Hall of Fame inducted George and Dianne in 2017. It records that they bought the western Canada rights to McDonald’s, served Canada’s first Big Macs in Richmond in 1967, and in 1971 started The Keg.

On March 24, 2026 Thunderbird announced that the Tidball family was passing ownership to the Mathesons. Dana Matheson co-owns the Langley Rivermen, Westshore Wolves and Langley Rams. The announcement says operations and management continue as before.

Sources: Thunderbird Show Park, history; BC Sports Hall of Fame; Thunderbird announcement and newswire copy, March 24, 2026. Read November 5, 2026.

Going to watch

• Spectator entrance: 6975 248 Street. The main show office is 24550 72 Avenue.
• Getting there: from Highway 1, take the 232 Street exit and 72 Avenue east from the roundabout on the north side. Drive 3.5 kilometres over the railway tracks and past the competitors’ entrance, then turn right on 248 Street.
• In a wheelchair: Thunderbird suggests the 72 Avenue entrance, the easiest approach to the Grand Prix ring. The grounds are wheelchair and stroller accessible. The wide gravel roads are shared with horses, golf carts and bikes.
• Food: Thunderbird lists the Bale & Bucket, a coffee shop and a bar on its Grand Prix day guide.

Dates and tickets change, so use Thunderbird’s visiting page, its tickets and the Grand Prix day guide. Open the grounds map first on a site this size.

What you are watching

A horse and rider jump a numbered course against a time allowed. Under the International Equestrian Federation’s rules for the standard scoring table, a knocked-down fence costs four penalties, and so does a first refusal. A second refusal means elimination. Each second over the time allowed costs one penalty.

A round with no penalties is clear. Only riders tied for first place may jump off. Events are rated from one star to five, and five is the top.

Source: International Equestrian Federation Jumping Rules, 27th edition, updates effective January 1, 2025, Articles 236 and 245. Competitions run under other tables score differently.

The farmland around it

The park sits in rural east Langley. Provincial boundary data, queried November 5, 2026, places the show office address inside the Agricultural Land Reserve. The Reserve limits subdividing, so parcels around here tend to stay large. Campbell Valley, in the south of the Township, carries the public riding trails in its regional park. Around Thunderbird the land is private.

Horse properties near the park come up rarely. If you are weighing one, confirm four things first:

• Reserve status. It decides what may be built, and whether a second dwelling or a boarding business is allowed at all. Check the parcel on the Agricultural Land Commission maps.
• Services. Well, septic, hydro and gas, and the volume of water, not only whether there is water. A barn raises the demand.
• Access. Whether a loaded trailer can turn around without backing onto the road.
• The ring and the fencing. Footing is the expensive part and fails quietly. Ask what the ring is built on, and whether the fencing is horse fencing.

The farmland-reserve acreage guide covers the reserve rules for buyers of land nearby.

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