Plot summary

In Pit Pony, Barkhouse describes life in a coal-mining town

Mining town

A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry for the extraction or smeltering of ore.-United States:...

 in turn-of-the-century Cape Breton

Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....

, but also deals with importance of education itself. It is the story of Willie and Gem. Willie is an eleven-year-old boy forced by family circumstances to work as a trapper

Hurrying

A hurrier, also sometimes called a coal drawer or coal thruster, was a child or woman employed by a collier to transport the coal that they had mined. Women would normally get the children to help them because of the difficulty of carrying the coal...

 in a Cape Breton coal mine

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

, and Gem is a Sable Island mare

Sable Island Pony

The Sable Island Pony, also known as the Sable Island Horse, is a type of feral horse found on Sable Island, an island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The first horses were brought to the island for pasture in the late eighteenth century, and additional horses were later transported to...

 working as a "pit pony". As they work together, a strong bond develops between boy and horse.

The book describes the grim realities of life for a young miner

Miner

A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....

 - cold, exhaustion, fear - discomforts and dangers that also affected the horses. When Willie and Gem are trapped in the mine during a "bump

Coal mine bump

A coal mine bump is a term used to describe a seismic jolt occurring within a mine. The term refers to the explosive collapse of a wall or one or more support pillars, sometimes called a rock burst...

" - with falling rock and timber, and choking dust - Willie must choose between escaping with Gem or saving the life of another young miner. Willie's choice to save the young miner's life over Gem's life sets Willie free - free to leave the mines and to pursue his education. As it turns out however, Gem had been pregnant, and her foal is saved.

Awards

Pit Pony was named as notable by the Canadian Library Association

Canadian Library Association

The Canadian Library Association is a national, predominantly English-language association which represents 57,000 library workers across the country. It also speaks for the interests of the 21 million Canadians who are members of libraries...

; received the first Ann Connor Brimer Award in 1991 for "outstanding contribution to children's literature in Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia – and Newfoundland and Labrador...

"; and was the unanimous choice of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 librarians to be produced as a Talking Book for the CNIB, for national and international distribution.

The first Ann Connor Brimer Award was given to Pit Pony in 1991 "for outstanding contribution to Children's Literature in Atlantic Canada".

Movie and television series

Pit Pony was made into a CBC-TV

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 movie by Cochran Entertainment (1997), won three Gemini Award

Gemini Award

The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...

s, and became a 44-episode TV series

Pit Pony (TV series)

Pit Pony is a 1999 CBC television series which tells the story of small-town life in Glace Bay, on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1904. The plot line revolves around the lives of the families of the men and boys who work in the coal mines....

.