Nova Scotia Strong Harness Racing Pacer

Race Day!
Truro
6:30pm
Get into it!

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Nova Scotia Strong is back in action at Truro Raceway this Friday night in Post 7 Race 7 with Crowe Stables!
You can call him AL and he LOVES squeaky dog toys!
Nova Scotia Strong Harness Racing Pacer

The Story of AL aka Nova Scotia Beach continues!
He's back in Nova Scotia for the summer!

Why this standardbred harness racing pacer is named Nova Scotia Strong aka “Al”

Just like people, every horse has a story. The ones that resonate most are tales of overcoming great adversity and moving through pain and hardship. 2020 is a year that will live on in infamy for all Nova Scotians. It’s also the year Alyssa Hanover gave us a He’s Watching c**t. This is his story.

In the spring of 2020, we were waiting for our beautiful Standardbred Alyssa Hanover to have her baby. This was the 3rd attempt at breeding her and the first two had ended in great tragedy.

March 2020 when Covid hit the whole world shifted. Then along came the worst mass shooting in Canada here in Nova Scotia. It was something that changed us all forever and we will always remember those days. There were several other “disasters” which until then would have seemed more devastating but now seemed to be trivialized by what was happening all over the world. But we still had hope that Alyssa who was bred late to He’s Watching would give us a bouncing baby and everyone would be healthy.

May 25 we heard from friends in Ontario that Alyssa had her baby, but all was not well. She had to be taken to surgery to repair a tear in her intestinal wall. She made it through the surgery and we waited to hear more news. Although she fought an amazing battle while nursing her new babe she succumbed to her injuries a few days later.

Alyssa Hanover with Al (see photo)
Now the baby they called “Al” after his mother Alyssa was in the battle of his life as the amazing caregivers searched and found a nurse mare who had recently lost her own foal. This connection failed and the mare rejected Al. So, the search was on again. Incredibly (and sadly) there was yet another mare available and they brought her to meet Al. Again, it failed. The mare’s milk dried up and she rejected him.

Al with surrogate #1 (see photo)
We were feeling pretty defeated looking on from afar in Nova Scotia but the team in Ontario did not give up and incredibly they found another nurse mare who lost her own babe. This 19-year-old black Clydesdale mare was completely blind, and she and Al created a wonderful bond. They spent the summer in the pasture together with Al wearing a little bell around his neck so she would recognize him by sound. They were such a wonderful sight to behold. We didn’t take long to come up with a registered name for him with the slogan “Nova Scotia Strong” being seen everywhere. Nothing could suit him better.

Sweet Black Clyde mama (See Photo)
As he grew and things continued to improve with Covid getting under control we wondered if we would get racing again and where would we put Al to train. The decision was an easy one. Bring him home to Nova Scotia and put him in Darren Crowe’s barn in Truro. There, Darren had his work cut out as Al continued to grow very fast which meant his joints were slow to develop. The decision was made not to race him as a 2-year-old which meant missing out on all the big stakes races. But it was the best decision for the horse.

After starting with Darren Crowe he qualified in Truro a couple times then in his first race he broke. As he got stronger and had a few good races (winning his first 2 lifetime starts and a couple more) we heard there was a special event at Truro we entered him in. He was always a little slow off the gate but seemed to have lots of steam at the end, so turns out he’s a Mile and a Quarter horse! It was a fun race to watch as he was about 20+ lengths behind and came on like a freight train to win by 10 lengths and set a new Canadian Record for Mile and Quarter. When he was still having some issues with slow growing joints, we got him checked over again and decided he still needed more time and maybe a bigger track to run on. But who could we get to take him in Ontario in the busy season?

Tyler Moore stepped up. He was just starting in the training business in Ontario, and we were willing to take a chance with him if he would take a chance on Al. With Al being his first ever training horse this relationship turned out to be the best one we’ve known in the business. Tyler is a real class act and treated Al like he was his very own. He didn’t mind that we were constantly asking questions and seemed to enjoy learning together as a group. (At least that’s how he made us feel which was everything!) With texts and phone calls flying constantly and him getting used to all of Al’s “special” characteristics the two shared a bond that started seeing them be a barn and track favorite on the Ontario tracks. He didn’t win a whole lot, but he was always in the mix and that was good enough. Things are looking up!

October 2024 Panic! Terror! Tyler got a call from the barn early one morning in October last year that Al was not himself. When Tyler saw him, he immediately called the vet and took him into emergency. The local vet said get him to Guelph Emergency and they called ahead. When they arrived, they held little hope of saving him. They opened him up anyway and say his gut was twisted 720 degrees. Poor Al. The next few days were touch and go but on the third day he came around and they sent him home. (It’s extremely rare that a horse would survive this extremely painful and almost always fatal condition.)

Panic! Terror! Again! Only home a day and still stitched up and bandaged Al had a bad reaction to medication and went into severe seizures. When he finally came out of it he was pretty banged up and very sore. More vet checks and lots of swear words and prayers were said. Only time would tell if he would come out of it good enough to live let alone race again. We started thinking about where we might retire him.

Team Tyler Moore would not give up on this guy though…and they fought for him. Hand walking every day, meds, special diet, more walks. Then paddock time…and he started to come around. Tyler said I think I’m going to start jogging him. We searched and found a chiropractor/osteopath to work with him once a week. They started seeing greater gains. He wasn’t ready to give up yet. It also might have had something to do with the black licorice addiction and all the lovin’ he was getting.

October 9, 2024 was his last race in 2024. Tyler got him back in shape and ready for his big comeback.

Feb 28, 2025 he qualified great and everyone was feeling proud.
March 13, 2025 halfway through his first race back he quit, and we found out his heart went into Afib. Back to the vet. After 10 hours of treatment, they found his rhythm again.
Since qualifying again in April in Ontario he’s been on a steady road to better than ever!

It takes a lot of special people working closely together to make this happen with open and honest real time communication. Tyler Moore Stable has been instrumental in saving this guy while at the same time turning him into the kind of horse that will have a nice life after racing. It completely amazes me how much these Standardbred horses want to work and want to please you and how very smart they are. (When you see Tyler Moore ask him about some of the funny tricks Al would pull in the barn – like closing his outside window when it would start to rain). We still can’t believe his spirit and his eagerness to run and win but we are all prepared for the day he decides not to and I’m sure he will let us know.

Since Tyler became the proud part owner of this never say die horse, we decided to let him come to the little red island for some salt air and down-home racing.

Summer 2025 was a fun year on the Red Island of PEI with the McGuigan Stable. He won a few nice races and then we sent him to Truro and Darren Crowe where he won a couple more including Truro’s final Preferred Race of the year before heading back to Tyler in Ontario.

Winter 2025-2026 Tyler and Al were pounding the icy pavement taking him from track to track and they were in the money more than not. We may have been more nervous about Tyler being on the road some nights than we were for his races. As some people know, Tyler is busy now with a stable full of high potential horses along with working with his Dad.

We’ve been missing AL since the fall so back again to Truro and Darren Crowe where he landed last Friday still full of it after many hours on the trailer.

HE’S BACK!! Spring 2026 you can watch him race starting Friday Evening May 22 in the Preferred race at Truro Raceway! He’s still on a diet of occasional black liquorice, carrots and tons of hay and feed and eats like he just discovered food. Hope you can make it to the track or catch his race (7th race Post 7) on YouTube at Truroraceway about 8:30pm. Come find him in the barn and see what the back half of the track looks like. Just don’t get run over by the horses! ;)