Horse of Iron

I read Lawrence Scanlan’s Little Horse of Iron: A quest for the Canadian Horse after we’d been thinking of getting an elderly Canadian gelding. Knowing little about the breed, other than they’re beautiful and strong, we sought advice from friends and neighbours. Lovely horses but with their own minds, was the gist of it. You have to be firm. Oh dear! Not, as they say, in my skillset!

A neighbour had a Canadian horse, Barney, years ago (in these photos). They hauled logs together. He said he’d never seen a horse who worked as hard and as well. You might like this book about them, he said. and loaned us his copy of Little Horse of Iron.

I knew the writer Lawrence Scanlan from his 2006 book The Horse God Built, about Secretariat and his groom Eddie Sweat. It tells you a lot about one of the greatest racehorses ever, and also is so good it makes you cry. So I was happy to read more by him. I was not disappointed.

Story of the breed and one horse

Lawrence Scanlan tells two stories in Little Horse of Iron. One is that of the breed itself. The other is about one specific Canadian horse, then 5 year old Saroma Dark Fox Dali. Dali is Scanlan’s horse, his first horse, and this is the story of their first year together.

The chapters move back and forth between the breed and the individual. Scanlan starts at the beginning of the breed: horses sent by the King of France to the cold, windswept colony of Quebec. These beautiful big horses had to do some major adapting to their new climate. And they did. Over generations, they became stocky, small and strong. Like tuckamore, they fitted themselves to their environment.

The horses who became known as the Canadian breed survived by their strength and their wits. They are hardy, resilient and smart. They think for themselves. And that, if you’re used to a horse leaving the thinking to you, can cause problems. “Hard-headed” is a word I’ve heard about them, also “opinionated.” So building mutual understanding can be a long road with many pitfalls (emphasis on falls Scanlan might say). It seems to me that the relationship between a Canadian horse and a person has to be equal, not hierarchical. A partnership.

Our neighbour said, when they were in the woods, Barney just walked over to the log he was supposed to haul and got himself into position to have it hooked up. He didn’t wait for direction. He knew what he was doing and so just did it.

Lawrence Scanlan tells you the stories of the logging horses, driving horses and endurance riding horses. He tells you the history of them and also the contemporary situation. He travelled around Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes meeting breeders, owners and trainers. People engaged in all types of equestrian activities with their Canadians. He visited the Ross Farm Museum in Nova Scotia that uses Canadians to do all the tasks that horses did when farming relied only on horsepower.

Dali

And he tells about his horse Dali. First he searches for “the right horse,” the one you connect with and who connects with you. Finally he finds him: Saroma Dark Fox Dali. A fairly green 5 year old horse and a fairly green 50 year old rider. Oh, yes, there are lots of laughs – at least for the reader! Also scary moments, and heartbreakingly emotional ones.

Scanlan had a lot of very good horsepeople around him. And he passes on their words of advice. Their wisdom applies in particular to Canadians, but also all horses. Training methods, riding advice and insights into how a horse thinks are based on their many years of experience.

It’s a joyous book, and illuminating about a breed not particularly well-known even, maybe especially, to us in Canada. It ends on a cliffhanger – some unanswered questions about this year-long partnership of Dali and Larry. So I began googling. The Canadian Horse Breeders Society has a wealth of information on the Canadian horse. And, yes, I found Dali there in the genealogy register, and got my questions answered.

We didn’t get the Canadian we’d been thinking about. Our two were finally becoming friends instead of the reluctant roommates they’d been for nearly a year. And our newer horse seemed agreeable to me riding her. Seems a year is a good test for what will be. So we decided to leave things as they were. But, in future, who knows? Should a little horse of iron come along again, I know the book I need. (See it on Amazon. Thanks to Dave Monahan for the book and letting me use Barney’s pictures.)