Little Horse of Iron: A Quest for the Canadian Horse

Lawrence Scanlan's wonderful little book was a present from my wife at Christmas, the year we got "lucky" and bought an 8 yr old registered Canadian Horse gelding for my thirteen year-old daughter to pursue her horse dreams. We'd never owned a horse before. We knew nothing of the breed, or what we were supposed to be looking for in a dressage horse, but something about D'Artagnon caught my daughter's eye when I showed her a You Tube video of him doing Second Level movements. Sight unseen, she fell in love with that wonderful little horse with the strength of ten horses and a big trot that moved him around the arena like a freight train trying hard to stay on the rails. Trying to understand why the horse was way too much for her to handle, my bible became "Little Horse of Iron", and the parallels between that rascal Dali and our D'Artagnon provided me with constant "road maps" and insight into our current situation. His descriptions of Canadian Horse behavior were spot-on, and the vignettes that take you through the history of this endangered breed provide glimpses of what the horse was bred for in the first place. I call D'Artagnon our War Horse, because his demeanor, his looks, and his strength were what French knights, Union Officers during the American Civil War, and horse team drivers were looking for throughout history. Who knew, however, that such a powerful and baroque breed could become as refined as a single-malt scotch where the gaits, the charisma, the submission, and the energy required for upper level dressage is concerned? Thank you, Lawrence Scanlan, for giving us the strength and insight to see our daughter through some very tough times with our Canadian Horse. Though tricky, he's now a champion and so is my daughter. She can ride any horse in the world as a result of the hours spent and lessons learned on the back of her Canadian. Now fifteen, she's a phenomenal rider on an exceptionally talented horse, a breed not at all like the "usual suspects" we see at competitions, and we now understand and respect much better this breed with a heritage larger than life. Please, write us a sequel and let us know how Dali is today. Every one of these horses is a treasure, and, if you want to a book that will make you laugh out loud one chapter, and cry the next, add this to your library.

No more than 2 weeks after I had returned to the UK not only from Canada, but also from Kingston, ON - home town of Lawrence Scanlan and Dali, his Little Horse of Iron (and my birthplace, too) - my uncle in Toronto emailed to say a great new book had just been published about the Canadian Horse. Knowing that I had been researching and writing about this wonderful breed of equid for several years at arm's length from my home in the United Kingdom, my uncle kindly got me a copy of the book and airmailed it over. Shame you didn't know about this when you were in Kingston, he said. Ah, well! While in Canada that year I did finally get to ride several "Canadiens" but none so lively and tricky as this small bay Dali character who somehow manages to be as sharp as a razor and loveable all at the same time. Whether you're a horsey person or not you'll find Larry's story wonderfully funny, yet poignant - you share every frustration, every disappointment, every bruised buttock when the young reprobate drops his shoulder and bucks Larry off. At the same time if you don't already know the history of the Little Horse of Iron, you will learn it in a way that no mere history book could tell you. It's a great read and despite being non-fiction and of a different genre, in my view it's one of the most important horse-related books to come out since The Horse Whisperer.