Over millions of years, the early horse migrated across the Bering land bridge from North America into what is now Siberia. From there, they spread across Asia into Europe and south to the Middle East and Northern Africa. With the coming of the Pleistocene, (the last ice age), many of the horses were isolated for long periods of time by massive glaciers. These groups eventually developed distinct characteristics in order to survive their particular environments. One type was a large heavy horse which developed in North Central Europe. Their domain was the moors and heaths of the Northern Tundra where they had an abundant, although poor quality food source. After the glaciers receded, the heavy horse spread throughout Europe. By the early Medieval period (500 to 1,000 A.D.), a particular type of heavy horse known as the "Black Horse of Flanders" had settled in the European low country, in what is presently Belgium and Northern France. This would be the father of all modern draft horses.
Throughout the 18th andearly 19th centuries, horses in America were used
primarily for riding and pulling light vehicles. Although two draft type
horses, the Conestoga Horse and the Vermont Drafter,
were developed in the new nation, both were absorbed into the general horse
population by 1800. Oxen were the preferred draft animal on most American
Farms. They cost half as much as horses, required half the feed
and could be eaten when they died or were no longer useful. Oxen,
however, worked only half as fast as horses, their hooves left
them virtually useless on frozen winter fields and roads, and
physiologically they were unsuitable for pulling the new farm
equipment developed in the 19th century. The revolution in agricultural
technology, westward expansion, and the growth of American cities
during the nineteenth century, led to the emergence of the draft
horse as America's principal work animal.
The new and improved farm equipment greatly increased the productivity of the American farmer. With the McCormick reaper, which both cut and tied grains into stocks, one man could do the work of thirty. New steel plows, double-width harrows and seed drills, mowers, binders, combines and thresher's decreased the need for manpower, but increased the demand for horsepower. Toward the end of the century, the typical Midwestern wheat farm had ten horses, which each worked an average of 600 hours per year. During harvest, it was not unusual to see giant combines pulled by teams of over forty draft horses.
With the use of new equipment and fertilizers, wheat yields increased seven times between 1850 and 1900. Better rail and steamship transportation opened new markets in America's growing cities and in Europe. America was coming of age as a world agricultural power.
Millions of Americans moved westward during the 19th century lured first by the promise of inexpensive or free land, and later by gold, silver and mineral strikes. By 1830 there were 4,500,000 people living west of the Allegheny mountains and the National Road stretched from Baltimore to Vandalia, Illinois.
The offspring of the heavy horse imported for the farms of the Midwest soon found additional uses as the nation moved toward the pacific. The railroads employed thousands of draft crosses, working side by side with mules and oxen, to carry ties, rails and supplies to the rail heads, and to haul dirt and rock from the excavation of mountain tunnels. Many of the western stagecoach lines used up to six draft crosses to haul mail and passengers over dangerous, rough roads. By century's end, large grain farms, comparable to those in the Midwest, had been established on the western prairies. These farms, like their predecessors, relied on draft horses to power their plows, threshers and combines.
After the discovery at Sutter's Mill, California in 1849, gold
fever swept through the eastern United States. As other valuable
minerals were found throughout the West, mining was established
as a major new industry. Surface or placer deposits of gold were
seldom located on navigable streams, and rich lodes of silver
ore were usually found on steep ridges where they had been uncovered by erosion.
As a result, horses were needed to carry supplies to the camps
and haul the ore to the railheads. At first, the many mining camps
relied on local Indian ponies. In time, these were often replaced
by larger and stronger draft crosses.
As ore was extracted from the "hard rock" mines, smelters were needed to separate the rich minerals from the impurities. The vast quantities of charcoal required for the smelting process were procured from local forests. This required strong horses to haul logs from the forest to where they were processed into the needed fuel. Before a mine was played out, the mountains would be stripped bare of trees for miles in all directions.