In the 1800's and early 1900's, the blacksmith was very important to every day life on Prince Edward Island. Blacksmiths made goods out of metal using a forge. You had to be very talented with metals and iron if you were going to be a blacksmith; you had to know how to work the metal or iron properly to be a good blacksmith. There was usually a blacksmith shop close to everybody's home back then.

People didn't just use horses for transportation; they also used them to haul goods to the market, and carry things. Horses were also used for entertainment in the winter time. They would pull sleighs, so people could have sleigh rides. Horses also pulled carriages.

For hard and heavy work, farmers used their draft horses. Draft horses were big and very strong. The owners of the farm looked after their horses and treated them like family. They would give their horses nice names, and names that were similar to their own. The family horse was usually included in the family picture. When names were written on the back, people couldn't tell the horse's name apart from the other family members'.

Some types of transportation that people used on PEI in the late 1800's and early 1900's were horses and buggies, carriages, sleighs, trains, ice boats, horses, walking on foot, and bicycles. Some methods of transportation, like ice boats and sleighs, were only used in the winter. Others, like horses and buggies, bicycles and carriages, were only used in the summer. Still others were used in both winter and summer, such as trains and horses.

This is a man trotting with his horse before a race. He is also showing off his horse to others who are watching. Horse racing was often done on the weekends. Horse racing was also popular with the people around the community of the track.

In the late 1880's and early 1900's, a typical farm would be an average of 100 acres. Farms were very different because back then, farmers used horses for everything; now we use tractors for the farm work.