Colliery horses and pit ponies once powered the coal mining industry. This book reveals the suffering and injuries, but also tells us how miners bravely - sometimes fatally - attempted rescues from underground disasters. It shows how the horses lived, worked - and died.

Colliery horses and pit ponies once powered the coal mining industry. Yet feelings were strong about their use: animal lovers called their use 'inhumane' while the mine owners claimed they were 'pampered pets'. In this book original, historic photographs and miners themselves reveal in their own words what the horses' lives were really like. The book reveals the suffering and injuries, but also tells us how miners bravely - sometimes fatally - attempted rescues from underground disasters. We learn how the horses lived, worked - and died. Above all, we learn of the close working bond that existed between the miners and these fascinating animals.

IntroductionColliery horses or pit ponies?Getting them undergroundLife in the collieryWorkCruelty in secret places?Danger, injuries and deathPit horses and politicsHigh days and holidaysHorses at Big PitThe end of the roadGlossaryFurther reading