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HORSES WITH JOBS Ghosts of the Coal Mines PIT By Margaret Evans PONIES AND HORSES A Welsh miner and pit pony. WALES BLAENAFON, MUSEUM, COAL NATIONAL PIT BIG COURTESY PHOTO 58 Canada’s Equine Guide 2017 CANADA’S HORSE INDUSTRY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS he human race has long had a love affair with coal. Coal is a fossil Ghosts Coal Mines T fuel that started forming in the Carboniferous Period 359 million to 299 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era. Stone and Bronze Age flint axes have been found embedded in coal, evidence that people were using it for fuel long before the Roman invasion. In the 13th century, coal seams were found along shorelines of northern England, and settlers dug them up then followed them inland under cliffs or hills, the earliest beginnings of drift mining. But with the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, coal mining exploded, providing fuel for steam engines, transportation, and home heating. Miners often took two packs of lunch or ‘snap,’ In the early years, men, women and children worked the mines until one for the pony and one for himself. laws were enacted to protect females. As productivity improved and underground haulage needs increased, horses and ponies filled the need. “The first records of ponies being and the earliest coal mines in the late worked in mines was in the north of 1700s were on Cape Breton Island England around 1750,” says Wendy and at Pictou in Nova Scotia. On Priest, Horse Keeper Supervisor at The Vancouver Island, coal was National Coal Mining Museum for systematically mined from the mid- England. “Horses were used on a large 1800s onward. After the arrival of the scale after the 1842 Mines Act that railroad toward the end of the 1800s, abolished the underground employ- coal was mined in the interior of ment of boys under 10 and all females. British Columbia, Alberta and “People who visit the Museum are Saskatchewan. Coal is not found in under the impression that Shetland either Ontario or Quebec, the areas ponies were mainly used as pit destined to become Canada’s ponies. In fact, all sizes were used, industrial heartland. from Shetlands to Shires. In different A paper titled Coal Mining in parts of the country, the width of coal Canada: A Historical and Robbie was the last horse working in the mines in Wales. He retired in 1999 from Pant-y-Gaseg Mine which, in translation, seams varied considerably. Thick coal Comparative Overview written by PHOTO COURTESY BIG PIT NATIONAL COAL MUSEUM, BLAENAFON, WALES BLAENAFON, MUSEUM, COAL NATIONAL PIT BIG COURTESY PHOTO means ‘Horse’s Hollow.’ seams meant high [ceiling] Delphin Muise of Carleton roadways. Large ponies and horses University and Robert McIntosh of could be found working in these the National Archives of Canada in mines. Small ponies such as Welsh 1996, describes how horses were ponies and Shetlands [in England] introduced for coal haulage in Nova worked in small seams with low tops. Scotia when increased productivity Many scraped their heads as they overtook existing haulage systems. worked as the roadways were so low. “A first step in removing this Welsh mines commonly used larger bottleneck was the introduction of Welsh cobs, around 15 hands.” animals to haul coal underground. In ex-miner Ceri Thompson’s Horses had been used underground book Harnessed: Colliery Horses in to pull tubs laden with coal in British Wales, he documents the wide- collieries since the late 18th century. spread use of small Shire horses in The GMA [General Mining the main roadways in the mines. Association], priding itself on Animals larger than ponies were adopting the most advanced mining used because the drams held up to a practices, introduced horse haulage ton and a half of material compared underground shortly after its arrival to the smaller half-ton tubs in most in Nova Scotia.” English coalfields. At first, they pulled skips, sled-like Horses and ponies were integral vehicles pulled over wooden roads workers in coal mines, not only in made of logs. Gradually the skip was England and Wales, but in Canada replaced with a wooden coal tub and the United States. bolted to an iron frame and fitted Nova Scotia was the dominant with a wheeled undercarriage that Taller horses would become injured by scraping their heads or backs on the low-ceilinged roadways. PHOTO COURTESY BIG PIT NATIONAL COAL MUSEUM, BLAENAFON, WALES BLAENAFON, MUSEUM, COAL NATIONAL PIT BIG COURTESY PHOTO area of the coal industry in Canada, ran on rails. By 1871, several miles of CONNECT TO THE HORSE INDUSTRY www.HORSEJournals.com 59 underground railway were in place on the An 1879 illustration of the east coast of Canada. descent of a horse down Underground haulage improvements a mine shaft. were also made in British Columbia where, in 1856, underground passageways were enlarged to allow the use of horses and mules to haul coal along the levels to the pit-bottom. “Driving a horse through the intricate tunnels underground required both finesse and strength,” wrote Muise and McIntosh in their report. “It was often the second job adolescent boys had underground, considered a learning experience that exposed young miners-to-be to the different environments of the mine. Perched between the horse and the tub or tubs being pulled, often with ‘his foot against the horse’s rump to hold back the tub[s],’ a driver led the horse along dark underground travelling roads, collecting tubs loaded with freshly cut coal and transporting them to a point where they could be hoisted to the surface. He then had to return the empty tubs to the working places. The driver’s role was critical to efficient mining. Since a miner’s earnings depended on his productivity, the efficient movement of coal to the surface for processing was essential; empty boxes had to be ready when he was ready to load the coal, and coal had to be delivered to the pit- bottom with a minimum delay and loss.” In Cape Breton, many ponies were actually small horses from Sable Island shipped to the mainland. They spent their lives underground and it was not until the early 1960s when the last of the Cape Breton pit ponies retired. In 1982, Ronald Caplan’s Cape Breton’s Magazine published an article Horses in the Coal Mines that featured interviews with PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA/PUBLIC DOMAIN WIKIPEDIA/PUBLIC PHOTO: miners who recalled the working conditions Your One Stop Shop For Trailer & Vehicle Purchase, Lease or Rental TITAN AVALANCHE II SUNDOWNER SANTA FE Transcanada Highway (770 Highland Ave.) • Brandon, MB PHONE: 204-729-8989 • TOLL FREE: 1-888-571-8899 www.aats.ca • Financing and Leasing Available. Call for Quotes. 60 Canada’s Equine Guide 2017 CANADA’S HORSE INDUSTRY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS for the horses and the dire circumstances they sometimes faced. Miners spoke of horses scraping the tops of I’m not coming out until you get me a their heads on the ceiling so that flesh would be hanging and bone exposed. In really low tunnels they would get jammed by their withers. Injuries often got infected in the dirty air and required veterinary treatment, or more drastic treatments such as the use of syringed kerosene oil, which seemed to absorb pus and discharge. Occasionally a horse would pick up a bacterial infection leading to tetanus. Horses used in the mines were either cured of an illness or injury, or euthanized in the event of a catastrophic injury like a broken leg. Any horses that were unwanted or unsuitable would be offered to local residents, who were always a willing market. It was exhausting, filthy work. Several dozen horses were used in a mine and the underground roads had to be kept clear of pit water which, in Cape Breton’s submarine mines, was acidic and salty. Standing water not only interfered with the movement of coal tubs but aggravated cuts on the horses’ fetlocks, causing inflammation and infection. While treatment of the ponies varied from what are you waiting for! mine to mine, they were adequately cared for since operators understood that their working efficiency was directly related to their animals’ health. There was further incentive given the cost and time involved in purchasing and training a replacement for an injured or sick pony. Many miners lamented that management was more concerned with the ponies’ care and safety than with the men since “you could replace a man anytime them days.” Some mines had underground stables where the horses and ponies were housed for most of the year. They were brought to the surface and turned out to pasture when work slowed down. A stableman was in charge of the underground stalls and it was his responsibility to make sure there was a good supply of feed and water for the animals. Other mines would transport the ponies up and down in shifts much like the miners themselves. The Horses in the Coal Mines article reports that, in the early years, many horses in Nova Scotia mines went underground and stayed there year in and year out. But that changed in the 1940s when miners started getting vaca- tions and horses were brought up for their own vacation and turned out in a large field. Understandably, they loved it and would gal- lop around the field kicking and bucking. Their eyesight needed to adjust to the bright- ness of daylight, and puddles they’d normally step through would be jumped as obstacles. In Pennsylvania, some of the oldest mines used oxen, then mules, to pull the coal cars in and out of the mines.

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