1930. The Great Depression. Money wasn’t flush anywhere. But savvy and successful businessman Conn Smythe had become the newly minted owner of the Toronto St. Patrick Hockey Club, or Toronto St. Pats. This hockey club was no slouch. It had won the Stanley Cup in 1922.

Champion of the Canadian Horse Retires at 87 years of age. Dantan “Dan” Wilson was born in Valleyfield, Quebec in 1936, and was introduced to the Canadian Horse at Rockburn Farm as a youngster. His father spoke highly of the intelligence of the breed, and his mother drove a Canadian Horse and buggy to her teaching job in Havlock through the 1930s and beyond.

He was just a little guy when he was born on May 27, 1961 at business tycoon E.P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario. In fact, when Taylor put the 14.2 hand unruly Thoroughbred colt in the yearling sale the following year, he didn’t even fetch the $25,000 reserve due to his small size. It was the best sales failure Taylor ever had, but at the time he had no idea what his colt, Northern Dancer, had in store for him.

It was a horse that gave me my first taste of stillness. His name was Ringo Star, and he was a beautiful, golden-coloured chestnut with a splash of white down his nose. He spent several years training for three-day evening with my daughter, Annika, but I didn't get to see them often because I was teaching in Bahrain for most of the time.