Thoroughbreds Used To Pull Horse Drawn Farm Equipment
In "Thunderhead" (1943), by Mary O'Hara, Thoroughbred stock on the Goose Bar Ranch has to be sold in auction in order to save the ranch. One of the best horses, bred to be a polo pony, is sold to a farmer who declares the horse will pull a plow the rest of his days. This is delivered like a death sentence in the book. However, the Thoroughbred in 1943 probably had a good time being active and useful pulling horse drawn farm equipment.
The Degeneration of The Modern Thoroughbred
When we think of horse drawn farm equipment today, such as plows, manure spreaders or wagons, we tend to think they were built to be drawn by huge draft horses. Draft horses certainly have a vital role to play on a modern small farm, but originally in America, owning a draft horse was a tremendous luxury. Draft horses need a tremendous amount of food.
When you look at early photographs of horses pulling horse drawn farm equipment on usual American farms, the equipment is made and being pulled by a light weight horse of about 1000 pounds. The American Thoroughbred of the late 1700's was a smaller, more muscular animal than the delicate prancing creatures of today.
The Thoroughbred traces back to only three founding stallions, although 90% of living Thoroughbreds trace to only one of those stallions, the Darley Arabian (1700 - 1730). No new blood has been allowed to be introduced since the English closed the Stud book of foundation animals in the 1700's. Through horse breeding practices centered on producing the world's fastest equine, the breed itself has suffered.
Many horses in the Civil War were from Thoroughbred horse farms, and often they were seen to be pulling horse drawn farm equipment designed to be pulled by Thoroughbreds. It was much easier to buy horse drawn farm equipment and harnesses for Thoroughbreds or Thoroughbred-type horses than it was for draft horses.
Even a look at the Thoroughbreds racehorses of the 1800's and early 1900's - whether they were in front of horse drawn farming equipment or not - reveals the deep change that has come to the breed in just the last fifty years. Thoroughbreds in the 1940's still were heavily muscled and often could race twice a week (although they did not travel all around the country to differing tracks).
The super horse of World War I, Man o' War, looks like a draft horse in comparison to the modern Thoroughbred racehorse. Even as a two year old, Man o' War was chunky, muscled all over with jowls on his neck. His owner, August Belmont, originally bought him to be a hunter and not a racehorse. A racing Thoroughbred would shatter if asked to pull horse drawn farm equipment. They don't have the strength to do it.
