The young mare from the CD cover with a mouthful of summer beach grass and a cool sea breeze riffling her mane. The original Gem was a chestnut mare who, in the early 1900s, was the cherished buggy horse of a country doctor, Dr. Harold Killam, Joyce Barkhouse’s father. Gem was not from Sable Island, but the trust and fondness she inspired was a special memory for Joyce—reflected in Pit Pony written some 80 years later.