Valued for their towering stature, strength, and endurance, the draft horse played an essential role in the building of Canada. They were the main source of power on early farms, able to do the heavy work that has since fallen to their mechanical replacement, the tractor. Although far less common now, these heavy horses have re-emerged on the world stage thanks to the efforts of a few devoted breeders.

Historian Grant MacEwan celebrates the contributions of the magnificent Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, Suffolks, and locally bred Canadiens as well as the dedicated people who made them famous. He brings to life the history of these gentle giants from their arrival in Canada as work horses to their current popularity in national and international showrings.

Filled with archival and modern photographs, this is a beautiful tribute to a noble and hard-working animal.

Grant MacEwan was a farmer, Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dean of Agriculture at the University of Manitoba, the 28th Mayor of Calgary and both a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. The neighbourhoods of MacEwan in Calgary and Edmonton are named for him, as is the Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton and the MacEwan Student Centre at the University of Calgary. The majority of his books, of which there are many, were written after his retirement from politics and were intended to share Canadian history with Canadians. On May 6, 2000, MacEwan was honoured with the Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award for lifetime literary achievements by the Writers Guild of Alberta, which had previously only been awarded to W.O. Mitchell. He died a month later in Calgary, at the ripe old age of 97, and was given a state funeral, the first one in Alberta since 1963.

Grant MacEwan's profile page