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You can stream Pit Pony (1997) on Apple TV+ with a subscription.

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Canada, 1901. Willie MacLean is a 10-year-old boy with a love for horses and liking to school to cape the difficult times his family has. Willie's stern, but benevolent father is a coal miner in a local mine along with his older brother John. But when Willie's 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 lonely (aka: the pit) and unfriendly in which he forms a bond with a pit pony horse in order to make it though each day.

While most period dramas focus on grand sweeping histories, this quiet portrait centers on the intimate bond between a young boy and his horse amidst the soot of a Nova Scotia coal town. It finds profound beauty in the small, fragile moments of resilience that sustain a family facing sudden tragedy.