Canadian Horse Status

L is a purebred Canadian Horse.

Snow bath! 29 January.
The (American) Livestock Conservancy has (again) classified the Canadian Horse as Critically Endangered. I looked at the data. Maybe...oh, 7 years or so ago there were more than 6,000 Canadian Horses and the breed registry data showed encouraging breeding data, with over 400 horses born in both 2007 and 2008.

Economic downturn always hurts the horse industry. For many of us equestrian pursuits are luxurious discretionary pastimes. Canadian Horses have been endangered before and their numbers were on a healthy rebound the early half of the past 20 years. Seven and eight years ago one would expect to see over 400 Canadian Horses born each year.

I looked at the numbers and ...well, I guess I just haven't paid much attention lately. I was shocked to learn the population has dropped to less than 2000 animals and the last year or record, 2013, there were only 170 newly registered Canadian Horses. Such sad news. These are perfectly delightful animals.

L is everything a Canadian Horse should be. Her farrier says "those are what feet are supposed to be like". Her dentist says "those are what teeth are supposed to be like". I put a blanket on her once. It was below 0. She overheated. She's big. She's strong. She has a lot of presence. She's a Little Iron Horse type. Luxurious is a word that comes to mind.

Canadian Horses are highly prized for their temperaments. L is very smart. She's also very ...sensible. Everything about her is reassuring to a rider. Oh, it wasn't always that way. I'm the only rider she's every carried. I trained her (under the supervision of my trainer) and, oh, there were times my hands shook so bad I could barely buckle her bridle. Riding her was that scary. She didn't mean any harm...just a young horse. Mare. Doing young horse things. She'd puff up like a cat and throw a tantrum. When she stomped both of her front feet you knew to hang on.

After becoming more comfortable and starting some trail work outside of the ring I'd gone to mount up near the barn. I climb on board and, *just* as I swing my leg over her back, the heel of my right foot over the cantle, dead middle of her back, she *leaps* into a dead run. I'm hanging on for dear life. Yelling "HO! HO! HO!" while she ran the length of the barn. As fast as she could. While someone in the barn yelled back "Merry Christmas!". Very funny. Actually it was. She stopped, I hoisted my sorry butt into the saddle. And she never did that again. Young horse stuff.

Whatever issues we'd had, we always remained engaged. There was always "conversation". We had that going for us and *that* is 100% Canadian Horse!

If horses are your thing, get to know a Canadian Horse sometime.

War horses

She always looks better than I do!


She's almost camouflaged this time of year!

Canadian Horses are directly descended from the royal stable of Louis XIV. Intended as riding mounts for the nobility, military and clergy of New France, these animals were of the very highest quality from the finest horses of their day.

Louis XIV did not keep a royal stable of show horses. These were war horses. The "armored division" of the time, they were bred and trained for use in battle. Contrary to popular belief soldiers in earlier times did not ride fire breathing nutbags into battle. Strong, fit, smart, steady and sensible horses were highly prized battlefield partners.

Here is an excellent online article with a historical description of the Canadian Horse.

Their ancestry of battlefield mounts comes to mind as I've been reading Xenophon. Every horseman should read Xenophon's On Horsemanship. Poetic and practical, On Horsemanship is as relevant today as the day it was written. Roughly 2400 years ago.

To a large extent what Xenophon has to say is written for the soldier. Regarding posture and balance, for example. About how to sit and being supple and flexible. It's about making it harder for your adversary to knock you off your horse!

Things like "...the brilliant horse must be the agent of his own graceful motion ...", "Beauty of motion depends upon the mover initiating the motion willingly ..." and "...be of little annoyance to the horse as possible..." are philosophical things riders should think about. Often. I've always thought handling a horse was a lot like dancing when you get it right. I'm an awful dancer.

Of course I always finish a good ride with a beer. Good rides only. I can't remember the last time I had a bad ride. Although I have had plenty. It's a personal tradition. I'll explain that one of these days. I have a story for almost everything.

I'll confess I was a little disappointed with this.


It seemed the thing to have this time of year. I don't know what I was expecting, it wasn't bad by any means but it just ... didn't work for me. Of course I have 5 more to ponder so I might change my mind too.

Who picked whom? Part 2.

Did I mention what a dreary day it was? Here, a rest stop in New Hampshire on the way to Quebec. It was foggy, it was cold and it was either raining or misting all day.


But Vermont is always pretty and we packed Dorito's and vegetables and dip for the trip.

Go back and read part 1.

I wasn't there shopping. I was just hanging out. Normand Litjens has a beautiful Canadian Horse farm with lovely stock. Nice people too. We'd arrived around noon, a little earlier than expected. Normand had a bunch of yearlings and two year olds in his barn for my friend M to see. I don't know how many he'd brought in, but there were quite a few. Only two of them were chestnuts. My friend M and our trainer were looking at horses and I wandered around the barn a bit just looking at horse butts. I scanned the lines one way, then the other, and something made me stop.

Cue the singing angels.

I saw this one chestnut filly with her face in a pile of hay and all I can think of is the phrase "whoa, do you see what I see?". That was it. I didn't see a single other horse.

I asked Normand to bring this horse out for me to get a better look.

I had made a third lap around her before M and our trainer even noticed "something was going on". I was just being formal. I'd made my mind up. I found myself a horse. This filly looked over her shoulder at me with this "oh you think so huh?" look on her face and that was it.

I had Normand turn her loose in the yard and my trainer came over, looked at the horse, looked at me, looked at the horse, looked at me and kind of said "uh-oh" to herself. She was thinking there better be nothing wrong with this horse.

She looked her over and we turned her loose in one of the bigger pastures with one of her little herdmates.

Nope, nothing wrong with that horse.

Yes, I'll take that one thanks.

Early on it was clear. Rolling is one of her most favorite things.

We brought both of those fillies home. L, the chestnut and my friend M brought home her little black herdmate, M. M was a yearling.

It was gonna take a month or so to process the paperwork and bring them across the border. Much to everyone's surprise I had myself a horse. To this day we don't really if I picked the horse or the horse picked me. Everyone on the property was slack jawed when they saw we had this electric thing going on.

I really had no idea what was in store for me!

L has beautiful blood lines. Here's her sire Nava. He'd just take your breath away.


L comes from the LG Royal bloodline through Nava. While I don't know very much about it I think her dam has some really interesting bloodlines. Her dam's bloodlines include some Brio from which has come some beautiful beasts. L is definitely the "Little Iron Horse" type of Canadian Horse. Probably gets that as much from her dam as her sire.

And she's everything a Canadian Horse is supposed to be. I'm not always sure it started out that way. Oh, I suppose it did. She was pretty sensible 3 year old.

Edit 19 Dec 2010 to add: Let the Training Begin.

Meet my therapist

Here. A treat for your eyes!


I'll call her "L". This lovely beast was born in 2001. L is a 9 year old purebred Cheval Canadien. The names of all Chevaux Canadiens born in 2001 begin with the letter L. She's mostly known as Sweety but she can also be a real booger sometimes.

L is everything a Cheval Canadien is supposed to be. A "little iron horse" type, she's strong, she's smart, she's steady, she's bold, she's brave, and she's gentle as a lamb.

We haven't been without our "issues". She's a very dominant mare. It took some doing to win her over but she's pure solid gold and tons of fun.

I brought her home when she was 2 and a half. We're still not sure who picked whom. I have a problem with the whole "ownership" thing. I'm really her guardian. She's my horse, I'm her human, and I can hang out with her any time I want, which inspired the title for my blog. It really doesn't get much better than hanging out with L. She's my best friend in the whole world. And really, if that was your best friend wouldn't you be Living the Dream?