Pit Pony (1997)

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Canada, 1901. Willie MacLean is a 10-year-old boy whose liking for school and love for horses help him cope with his family's difficult times. His stern but benevolent father is a coal miner in a local mine along with his older brother John. But when his father is injured and John is killed in an accident at the mine, Willie is forced to step into his brother's shoes to support his older sister Nelle and two younger sisters until their father recovers. Willie soon finds work at the mine pit lonely and unfriendly until he forms a bond with a pit pony to make it through each day.