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Norman the one-eyed racehorse inspired people & children’s books

Norman the one-eyed racehorse, who inspired people and children's books, was euthanized Friday after breaking a leg.

A one-eyed horse from Ottawa, who inspired several children’s books, is being remembered this week as a gentle giant that leaves behind a legacy of strength and perseverance.

Norman the one-eyed horse, who died Friday, was once known as Alydeed’s Leader, bred to race like his ancestors.

The brown beauty came from Canadian racing royalty: his grandfather, Northern Dancer, is considered to be one of the most successful sires of the 20th century, having won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. His father, Alydeed, won the Canadian Queen’s Plate in 1992.

In his professional career, which took him from Calgary to Fort Erie, Ont., Norman won two races and placed either second or third in 15.

“He wasn’t very fast but he was a very big racehorse,” his owner Heather Young tells Yahoo Canada News. “He was just this massive animal with the biggest heart and chose to be gentle even though he’d been through a lot.”

Young first met her beloved companion in 2010. She was visiting the Heaven Can Wait Equine Horse Rescue in Cameron, Ont, where Norman’s previous owner had taken him, after retiring from racing. She was attending a barbeque on the property and hadn’t expected to leave that day with a new addition. The way that Young remembers it, the connection was immediate.

“I went out to look at the horses in the field,” she says. “Out of all of them, he popped his head up where he was feeding and started walking towards me and didn’t stop until he reached my forehead. It was just love. He chose me.”

Young had little experience riding horses, aside from at summer camps, though she says she always had an affinity to the animal.

“When I was not very happy in my marriage, I started to look for a hobby that would bring me happiness,” she says. “I started riding English about two months before I got Norman.”

A year after Young adopted Norman, who was 17.3 hands high, or 1.7 metres, the massive stallion had to get his right eye removed because of an abscess.

The first six months after his surgery, Norman wouldn’t let Young ride him so she hired a horse behavioural expert. Over time, she learned a new way to approach her horse and eventually ride him again.

His new reality as a one-eyed horse was a learning curve, with many bumps and bruises. But eventually he adjusted to his new way of being, and went on to learn how to be a jumping horse.

His remarkable story inspired Young to write several children’s books, which she
self-published. “Norman” and “Norman and the Bully,” which Young says have sold about 7,000 copies, focus on empowering children with disabilities.

The books would take Norman to events like Toronto Horse Day, where children would flock to him.

“He was just in his glory near the kids,” Young says.

Norman was popular on social media, even claiming actress Bo Derek as a follower on his Twitter account. Messages on Norman’s Facebook page has been filled with condolences from across the world.

“Norman was inspiration for me when my gelding lost the sight in his one eye due to am injury. When the vet discussed putting him down because he was now one side blind I figured Norman was living a good life and so could our gelding,” one person wrote.

“Because of Norman the one-eyed Horse I was not afraid to adopt my girl Umizoomi my one eyed girl from the race track. I hope to have a journey as loving and caring as yours was!” another wrote.

Young was working on the third book before Norman’s passing, but has decided to shift the focus to make it an adult book about their special bond.

Young, who works for the Canadian Mint, was in Toronto for the Pan Am Games when she got a call on Friday from the stable where she kept Norman. He’d tried to kick away a fly in his stall and shattered his right femur “like a windshield.” She was told Norman stayed true to his fighting spirit, resisting staff as they tried to put him down. Young flew back to Ottawa to say her final goodbye.

“His personality was his biggest thing,” she says. “Everyone who met him fell in love with him. He was so smart and sweet and not an evil bone in his body.”