For nearly 250 years the people who built, defined, and defended Canada relied on horses to help get their job done. One breed stood out during that period for its outstanding role in Canadian life. It's known as "The Canadian, Le Canadien." In 2002, Parliament officially declared The Canadian to be Canada's national horse. The origins of the breed are in horses sent to New France at the express order of King Louis XIV. Beyond Quebec, Canadians carried settlers and the first North West Mounted Police into western Canada. They were also on hand to drag artillery and supplies through mud and thunder to Canada's victorious troops during the Battles of Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele.

Part history, part memoir, this tale of Canada’s heritage horse is a moving odyssey into the past — and one man’s heart. Saving what’s left of our history often falls to a passionate few. This is the case with a group of horse breeders who have pledged to re-establish Canada’s heritage horse, aptly called the Canadian — a breed descended from the Norman horses that took European knights into battle. Habitants of old Quebec called this uncommonly strong breed le petit cheval de fer — the little horse of iron — and in many ways the tumultuous story of this horse mirrors the history of Canada. Little Horse of Iron tells the story of one man and his horse. At the age of 50, Lawrence Scanlan bought his first horse — a Canadian called Saroma Dark Fox Dali. A spirited and untrained young Canadian gelding, Dali taught Scanlan a great deal about patience, fear and courage. Always candid and often amusing, the year-long diary of their relationship deftly explores the joys and sorrows as both horse and human struggle to trust and understand each other. Along the way, we meet the people who prize the Canadian horse’s unparalleled contributions over three centuries — on the family farm, on the battlefield, on the race track and in the show ring. Marvellously detailed and rich in character, Little Horse of Iron is a heart-warming celebration of one horse, and of his breed — Canada’s own. From the Hardcover edition.

A First Nations former hockey star looks back on his life as he undergoes treatment for alcoholism in this novel from the author of Dream Wheels. Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother—and then his home itself. Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. His intuition and vision are unmatched. His speed is remarkable. Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Yet as Saul’s victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred—the harshness of a world that will never welcome him, tied inexorably to the sport he loves. Spare and compact yet undeniably rich, Indian Horse is at once a heartbreaking account of a dark chapter in our history and a moving coming-of-age story. “Shocking and alien, valuable and true… A master of empathy.”—Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Golden Age “A severe yet beautiful novel…. Indian Horse finds the granite solidity of Wagamese’s prose polished to a lustrous sheen; brisk, brief, sharp chapters propel the reader forward.”—Donna Bailey Nurse, National Post (Toronto)

Before crude oil and the combustion engine, the industrialized world relied on a different kind of power - the power of the horse. Horses in Society is the story of horse production in the United States, Britain, and Canada at the height of the species' usefulness, the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century. Margaret E. Derry shows how horse breeding practices used during this period to heighten the value of the animals in the marketplace incorporated a intriguing cross section of influences, including Mendelism, eugenics, and Darwinism. Derry elucidates the increasingly complex horse world by looking at the international trade in army horses, the regulations put in place by different countries to enforce better horse breeding, and general aspects of the dynamics of the horse market. Because it is a story of how certain groups attempted to control the market for horses, by protecting their breeding activities or 'patenting' their work, Horses in Society provides valuable background information to the rapidly developing present-day problem of biological ownership. Derry's fascinating study is also a story of the evolution of animal medicine and humanitarian movements, and of international relations, particularly between Canada and the United States.

An amazing variety of horse breeds roam North America’s vast and geographically diverse landscape. This detailed portable handbook celebrates the unique qualities of 96 regional breeds, from the sleek muscles of racing thoroughbreds and the stoic power of draft horses to the easy gait of pleasure horses at your local farm. Fascinating facts about each horse breed’s size, talents, and suitability for various types of work are accompanied by full-color photographs in this fun and informative reference guide.

A standard reference on horse breeds, illustrated and updated Celebrating the animal that has been a stalwart servant to humankind for countless generations, Bonnie Hendricks’s International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds is the most thorough compilation of horse breeds ever attempted. The nearly four hundred entries, arranged alphabetically, include foundation breeds now extinct as well as extant breeds from across the globe. Each entry details the breed’s origin and background, size, appearance, chief use, and status (rare versus common). A list of breed associations and government departments that supplied data and photographs for the encyclopedia has been fully updated for this edition. With its breadth and depth of coverage, as well as 530 black-and-white and 32 color illustrations, the encyclopedia continues to be a standard international reference.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.