Straight from the Library: Straight Chatting from the Library: Julia Merritt

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Heavy Horses

We all know about the Budweiser Clydesdales, arguably the most famous draft horses in the present day. Imagine these giants living in your own backyard! Much of the action in horse/man takes place with or because of the role of draft horses in Canadian agriculture. Prior to the invention of the steam and internal combustion engines, horse and human labour was the key to agriculture in Europe and North America.

A word on oxen/cattle as draft animals: horses were twice as expensive as oxen to buy, and they ate more – but they were twice as fast, more agile, and, at least in Canada, horses perform better in the winter because cattle won’t paw under the snow for more grass. They also were less prestigious than horses, which were associated with higher social class and economic success. Thus, horses became the preferred draft animal the Western world. In 1921, around the time horse/man begins, the equine population in Canada was 3.6 million animals, with the majority of them draft, or “heavy” horses. This was enough for five horses on each farm, and there were one million horses in Saskatchewan alone. For comparison, the Canadian human population in 1921 was 8.78 million people, which means there was nearly one horse for every two people.

Agricultural fairs became very popular after 1850, with heavy horse competitions one of the central events. There were events to determine which team could pull the heaviest load, which was the most mannerly and attractive in pulling a cart, and which animals were the most well-conformed and best for breeding. In support, the Department of Agriculture paid for prize money and subsidized the stud fees for approved stallions.

The culture was very much a self-reliant one, with each farmer needing to become an expert horseman. Training, feeding, health care and equipment was all essential knowledge and developed over decades and generations of practice. Even “turning out” a team for a special occasion was an art form. Having a stylish, flashy team with harnesses covered in fancy brass and ivory was a source of pride and prestige – and having a team that won the competitions was even better.

Each of the different breeds of horses had their own devotees, with prejudices for and against them creating enough division to make people sit on opposite sides of sports bleachers and church pews. The most objective of judges were never seen to be fair and this eventually led to each breed having their own separate classes in the competitions.

The Clydesdale (originally from Scotland) was the most popular draft horse in Canada at first, although their numbers were later surpassed by the Percheron (from France) and Belgian. Clydesdales remained popular in Eastern Canada, while Percherons were preferred in Western Canada. The Belgians were an instant success in Quebec, and made inroads in other provinces as they proved their ability in the field. Le Cheval Canadien, or the Canadian Horse, was primarily used in Quebec.

Importing and selling horses to the USA became big business. One Belgian stallion, Farceur, was bought in 1917 for $47,500, the highest price ever paid for a draft animal on the continent. Although that might seem late in the game to be paying that much, draft horses weren’t fully replaced by tractors until the 1940s. In 1918, the Canadian Government started distributing the first Fordson tractors, which cost $795, roughly the price of four farm horses. Since many farms only needed two working horses at a time, and bred for their replacements, tractors were a big investment. And early tractors had their faults, often times not being able to navigate wet and hilly terrain, as well as being prone to mechanical failure. So horses remained popular, especially in more remote areas. In horse/man, this is the conflict that drives the arc of Adam’s life. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of these animals in creating the world we live in today. If you’re interested in reading more, two books I recommend are Grant McEwan’s Heavy Horses and Horse-Drawn Days: A Century of Farming with Horses by Jerry Apps.

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What happens when your entire identity revolves around a way of life that is becoming obsolete?

In the 1920s, as Canada progresses through the Industrial Revolution, horses are still the rural engines of survival. As a child Adam lives this reality on his family's farm in the Ottawa Valley, planning to take over one day and have a family of his own. When his parents die during the Great Depression, nineteen-year-old Adam is disinherited in favour of his brother and is forced to move to the city to find work. Without a formal education his choices are few, yet he finds a place to use his horsemanship skills in the dwindling forces of the Canadian cavalry based near Montreal. There he finds pride in being a mounted soldier, and friendship with his fellow dragoons. But the cavalry units are mechanized by the beginning of World War Two, and when Adam is sent to Europe, he must abandon his equine partners for trucks and tanks. In the catastrophic experience of war, he will lose everything once again.

Broken in body and spirit, he returns to Canada where he must confront the question of survival in a world that doesn't seem to have a place for an injured soldier. Full of poetic reflections on what it means to work with horses, horse/man is a powerful story about a man searching for dignity and connection in the face of a rapidly shifting world.

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“You know,” Tom carried on, “you may want to start considering one for yourself.”

“Mmm,” said Ciaran, wary.

Tom shook his head. “They’re the way of the future, I’m telling you. Gonna save you farmers reams of work.”

Ciaran’s face went blank. “We’ll see,” was all he said. He looked at the floor for a moment, then to the back of the shop where Tom’s assistant was gathering the order. Tom uncrossed his arms, shifting to pull his pencil from behind his ear and move it over the ledger.

On the way home, Adam sat in the wagon’s front seat and rolled the image of the car in his mind, trying to remember the details. He’d seen cars advertised in catalogues, one of those fantastical advancements that people in the Ottawa Valley weren’t wealthy enough to afford. The idea of climbing into a car was far removed from hitching a horse to a wagon. Who owned it? Why did that person need it? Adam thought maybe his father might know, but Ciaran’s silence was always forbidding, and he wasn’t brave enough to break it. He recalled the car’s colour as so deeply black it was unnatural compared to even the blackest of horses, whose coats were sunburnt in the summer and covered with dust in the winter. And when it had passed, the engine sound had drowned out all others.

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