In 1885 people who were interested in saving the breed took the initiative to open a herd book to register the most typical horses. They also managed to get a law passed by the Quebec Government banning any further export of the Canadian Horse.
By 1912, the Federal Government became interested in the Canadian Horse breed and started gathering suitable horses for a stable at Cap Rouge Farm in Quebec. At this point there were many different strains of the Canadian Horse and considerable variations in size. The breed needed typing.
By 1919 the Cap Rouge Farms became too small for the horse operation and a new breeding centre was set-up twenty-five miles east of Quebec City at St. Joachim. This new operation lasted for twenty-one years. The thirty-eight strains of Canadian horses that they initially started with, were culled down to eight, which supplied a uniformity of size, confirmation, and vitality.
The breeding program at St. Joachim ended in 1940 with the advent of World War II. The St. Joachim herd was dispersed. The Dominion Department of Agriculture obtained a handful of these horses and established a small breeding farm at St. Anne de la Pocatiere experimental farm.
The Quebec Department of Agriculture also bought fifteen of these horses and brought them to its farm at Deschambaults. The Quebec Government continued to breed Canadians until 1981 when the program was closed. The breed numbering about four hundred was listed as an endangered breed. However, private breeders rallied to pull it back from the brink of extinction and today there are about four thousand Canadian Horses scattered throughout Canada. |
