Canadian Horse Breed Information
History and Development
According to Rare Breeds Canada there were fewer than 250 Canadian horses in Canada in 1990. The horse is currently
in an upsurge in popularity and is gaining in numbers. Today there are more than 2,000 in Canada with about 250 births
each year. However, it is classified as vulnerable.
This affectionate horse is light weight, medium sized, and a nifty horse to ride. With careful selection and mating
the result is as good as the earlier stock of the settlers.
Historically, the strong Canadian was ideally suited for pioneer life because of its ability to perform light
agricultural work and provide transportation. Adapting to the miserable road conditions of the times, the sure
footed horse easily travelled 60 miles a day on rough ground, deep ditches or mud holes, and through the deep snow drifts of
the notorious Canadian winter. It travelled in harness for carriage transportation or saddle as a roadster and as
a Sunday or festival racer. Though technically not a racing horse, the Canadian can be boldly quick and high
spirited.
With the reputation as a healthy, gentle, dependable steed, it took doctors on their rounds from morning 'til night,
going all day at a speed of about 12 miles an hour. It cleared and cultivated the land, harrowed the garden,
hauled timber or goods to market, and logs that built houses and wooden ships for hundreds of years. Some
of the best qualities of the Canadian are its strength, willingness to work, and its small food requirements,
able to thrive on anything or almost nothing, making it ideal for early farmers. At the same time it is long
lived and still useful at an advanced age. Some are known to have attained record ages. Mares are
extraordinarily fertile, having a longer breeding life than other breeds. A Canadian Mare can reproduce
regularly until the age 20 or more.
Usually no more than 15 hands high and weighing an average of 1100 lbs. Described as quiet,
easy to train and relaxed, they have wide foreheads, clear intelligent eyes and fine muzzle.
Characteristically, the horse displays a strong, well arched neck and a deep wide chest. They
are noticeably different from other horses mostly because of their size. With large eyes and
alert ears, the rugged little steeds have been called by various names such as the French,
Norman, Canadian, French Canadian and Canuck.
Ancestry of the canadian
The Ancestry of the Canadian is traced back to foundation stock brought to LaHave, Nova Scotia,
then known as Acadia, between 1632 and 1635. Although there had been earlier imports of horses
in 1612 and 1613 at Port Royal, these animals were carried off in a 1613 raid on Port Royal
by Capt. Samuel Argall from Virginia.
In the late 1600's, Louis XIV, King of France, sent five shipments of stallions and mares from
his royal stables to what today is known as Quebec. These horses of Turkish, Arabian and Spanish
decent were given as gifts to the nobility of the time to help soften the harshness of pioneer
life in Canada. Other shipments of horses followed mostly from Brittany and Normandy. There
was no intermixture of any blood to this group of horses. The Canadian breed evolved from them.
After 1670, the numbers of them in the new colony multiplied.
These remarkable Canadian horses endured the cold winters with hardly anything to eat, or on a
very meager diet, with little or no shelter and under generally crude conditions. Consequently,
they became smaller in size while at the same time developing a hardiness rarely found in other
horses. It is one of the few breeds that originated in Canada.
In 1774, observations of native horses in Nova Scotia were made by two travelling Yorkmen. They
commented, "The horses are small, chiefly of the French breed, about 14 1/2 high, plain made, but
good in nature ... few keep more than one or two for riding; they all naturally pace and will travel
a long way in a day"
Further....
Lord Dalhousie noted when he was travelling through the Gaspereaux Valley in 1818 that there were 70
horses and shays hitched at a church service. These were probably Canadians. In 1830, W. Moorsom
of the 52nd Regiment, wrote about the horse in his letters from Nove Scotia, saying "The horses are
strong and hardy ... The work usually required of them is long, continued exertion rather than a
momentary strain of energy. Few animals will be found superior." As he travelled the rough Nova
Scotia terrain, his preferred mount was the Canadian. No one failed to notice the dexterity and
hardiness of the breed.
In the 18th century in Nova Scotia, the Canadian horse was still fairly pure. However, by the 1820s,
the process of amalgamation with other breeds had begun. Over the years, shortsighted livestock
reformers introduced stallions of many differing breeds into the horse population. Their intention
to "improve" the horses almost destroyed the Canadian's unique identity. A trail of halfbreds
remained.
Horses from the British Ilses were imported by military officers and then by settlers. Crossbreeding
with canadian stock took place. This led to a general mongrelization of the entire population.
Shires, Percherons, and Clydesdales were crossed and recrossed with the Canadian. The animals thereby
produced showed an ever diminishing degree of the good Canadian horse qualities. As early as 1835, the
deterioration of the breed as a consequence of crossbreeding was being lamented. By 1845, it was very
difficult to find a Canadian horse of unquestionably pure breeding. The breed continued to steadily
degenerate. A large number of the Canadian horses had been sold cheaply in the United States, where
they served to improve certain strains of horses. The trade in stallions was so great that ultimately,
it undercut the entire breed. The Canadian was never bred to its purity in the U.S.
It has been said that by 1850, half of the estimated 150,000 horses in Canada carried some trace of the
blood of the Canadian but there were few of the pure breed left. In the United States in 1857, a young
Canadian horse could be bought for $100, a sum above the average price paid for horses in general.
A further blow to the breed was the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, which stimulated a
thriving demand for the small horses for hauling artillery. The Canadian was extensively used for calvary
purposes. Thousands died in the war. Within a few years, only a small number of pure blood Canadians
remained.
Then near the end of the 19th century the canadian was in danger of disappearing and its extinction seemed
inevitable. So in 1895 several admirers of the "little horse of steel" as it was fondly called, joined
together to form the Canadian Horse Breeders Association. Between 1895 and 1905, there were 1,801 horses
registered(628 males and 1,173 females).
In 1912, in the journals of the Nova Scotia Assembly, M. Cumming, Secretary of Agriculture, Wrote: "Someone
asked me not long ago, 'What horses do you use, Clydesdales? I replied, 'No, I had a good team of Clydesdales,
but they would tire in a hard day's work on the ploughed fields, and so I went back to the old breed."
To the end of 1940, the total number of purebred registrations for Canadian horses recorded amounted to only
144. In 1976, only 383 registered Canadians were on record. In 1981, a two-year old stallion sold at $7,200,
which would be somewhat high for the time.
Today the Canadian performs in all equestrian disciplines. In 1987, it won the North American Pairs Driving
Championships and in 1991, a stallion took Grand Champion at the Canadian Carriage Driving Classic. Under
saddle, a four-year old Canadian as Champion of the Ottawa Valley Hunter Schooling Shows in 1989 and Reserve
Champion in 1990. Energetic without being nervous, it is classified as a light draft.
The Canadian Horse Breeders Association is still going strong and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1995. It
serves as custodian of the breed standard and maintains the registry. Member organizations include the Upper
Canada District, lower St. Lawrence Breeders Syndicate, Rocky Mountain District, and the Atlantic District of
the Association
