Little Horse of Iron: A Quest for the Canadian Horse

Patrick Colgan is Director of Research and Natural Lands at the Royal
Botanical Gardens.

Scanlan, a journalist and author of several books on horses (see also
1999: 5032), presents the history of the Canadian horse and his own
experience owning and riding one. The history unfolds from the Sun
King’s 17th-century shipment of breeding stock to New France, the
first King’s Plate race in 1836 in Trois-Riviиres, prominence in
Krieghoff paintings, subsequent extensive sales south of the border, and
the grim military role of the horse.

Threatened with extinction a century ago, the breed has rebounded
thanks to the Canadian Horse Breeders Association, a now-closed
experimental farm, and promoters as varied as a working historical farm
in Nova Scotia and African Lion Safari. The stamina and versatility of
the Canadian horse, and its relation to the Morgan horse, are detailed.
Pedigrees and characteristics are discussed extensively with experts and
fanciers.

Scanlan’s own tale involves a search for a horse in Ontario and
Quebec, the purchase of 15-hand Saroma Dark Fox Dali, and the subsequent
vicissitudes of care, training, and riding. Soaked with his affection
(obsession?) with the horse, Scanlan’s journal will thrill and tire
different readers as horse and rider finally come together at a “sweet
turn in the road” amid an assemblage of supporting characters. In a
quintessentially Canadian epilogue, the book concludes with the tussle
between Ottawa and Quebec over whose icon the horse is. “[E]qual parts
history and personal quest,” Little Horse of Iron will interest the
horsy set.