THE DRAFT HORSE IN AMERICA

Power For An Emerging Nation




THE ORIGIN OF THE DRAFT HORSE

The Ice Age Leads to the Heavy Type Horse

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.




DRAFT ANIMALS IN EARLY AMERICA

Oxen Provide Power for 18th Century American Farms

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.



America Becomes the World's Breadbasket

The Revolution of Agriculture Technology
The revolution in agricultural technology between 1820 and 1870, created a demand for a larger and stronger horse to power the new equipment. In 1862, Congress passed the Morril Land Grant Act which led to the establishment of state agricultural colleges. The first of the nation's veterinary colleges opened at Cornell University in 1868. As farmers became more educated, there was a corresponding improvement in the care, feeding and breeding of horses.

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.



Larger Farms Need Greater Horsepower

The Acreage One Family Could Cultivate Increased As Technology And Equipment Improved
The average American farm in 1790 was 100 acres. This figure more than doubled over the next 60 years. By 1910, 500 acre wheat farms were not uncommon. While oxen and light horses had been adequate for tilling the long-worked fields of Europe and the eastern United States, a stronger power source was needed to work the sticky, virgin soil of the American prairie. As a result, the first European Draft Horses were imported to America in the late 1830's. Farm labor became scarce due to westward migration and casualties from the Civil War. This created a greater demand for the new farm equipment and draft horses to power them. By 1900, there were over 27,000 purebred Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, and Suffolk Punches in the United States. Although the purebred draft stock was seldom used in the field, the infusion of their blood resulted in a increase of the average horse size to between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds by 1900.




THE HEAVY HORSE HELPS OPEN THE AMERICAN WEST

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.



Horsepower Was Essential For Remote Mining Camps

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.




The Draft Horse in Urban America
Draft Horse: Table of Contents
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