Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013: Draft Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013

Saturday 20 July 2013

Draft Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013

Draft Horse Pictures Biography

Source(Google.com)

DRAFT HORSE

These are various breeds of large, strong work horses. Draft Horses are the world’s biggest

horses. They can be as tall as 19 hands (over six-feet-tall at the shoulders!) and weigh as much

as 2,500 pounds! Percherons, Belgians, Clydesdales, and Shires are the breeds that show at the

NAILE Draft Horse Show.

• Belgians have massive shoulders and quarters. They are often chestnut or roan in color.

• The Percheron is a French breed with a deep chest and compact body. The largest horse in

the world was a Percheron, at 21 hands high! They are often gray or black.

• The Clydesdale is a British breed that worked in the coalfields of Scotland in the 1700s.

Called the “gentle giant,” its colors are bay, brown, and black.

• The Shire is also a British breed. It dates back to Elizabethan times, more than 400 years

ago, when the strong Shires carried knights in armor. They are heavy and rather slow and

can pull up to 10,000 pounds! Colors include bay, brown, gray, and black.

Warren Raymond Kessler, known as Ray to all of his family and friends in the Draft

Horse world, was born on May 22, 1891 in Millville, Columbia Co., PA. to Benjamin R. and

Susan E. (Sones) Kessler.

Ray married Mary Catherine Wilson and together they raised 16 children.

Ray was a dairy farmer and logger and lived in Millville, Columbia Co., PA. his

entire lifetime. He acquired his keen eye and good sense of selection of good horseflesh… specifically for pulling, during his use of draft horses in farming and logging.

Ray had competed in several other pulls throughout northern Pennsylvania and

even into New York in the mid-1940’s, but it wasn’t until 1947, through the encouragement

and taunting of his sons, Ray decided to take a team that he was using at the time in

logging to the Farm Show to compete in the Horse Pulling Competition. Not being familiar

with the procedures of registration for events at the Farm Show, when he and his sons

arrived at the Farm Show, they were told that they were not allowed to enter the team in

the competition because Ray hadn’t pre-registered. This however did not deter Ray and

his sons, they decided to stay the week at the Farm Show and take in the activities.

In 1948, Ray was well prepared to make his first appearance in the Pennsylvania

Farm Show Horse Pulling Competitions, where he in fact won the Heavy Weight Division.

Two years later, at the 1950 Farm Show, Ray Kessler won both the Light Weight

and the Heavy Weight Horse Pulls. And by winning the Heavy Weight Division with a full

pull (measuring 27 ft. 6 in.) at the weight of 3,775 lbs. on the Dynamometer, he and his

team set the State Championship Record. But knowing his team could do even better, he

hooked them onto the 3,900 lbs. load. His team of Skip and Bill who themselves weighed

just under 4000 lbs., pulled the load 24 ft. 5 in. – just 3 feet shy of a full pull. This record

stood for 50 years until 2000, when it was broken, by a team entered by Howard, Buhler

and Slaybach with Bobby Howard on the lines.

Ray continued to compete in the Horse Pulling Competitions at the Farm Show up

until just a few years prior his death. When you read over the results from 1947 until 1960,

you will find the name Ray Kessler of Millville, Columbia County being the winner of the

Light Weight Division - nine times and as being the winner of the Heavy Weight Division –

three times.

Ray Kessler died on February 21, 1965, but the Kessler family is still represented

today at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Horse Pulling Competition where Ray’s son, Ira

Kessler is a formidable opponent in the Horse Pulling arena, having won the contest many

times. Ira’s son and Ray’s grandson, Jay Kessler has also been a regular competitor. In

fact, at the pulling contest in 2001, Ira won the Light Weights and tied the Light Weight

Division Record while his son, Jay took second place.

It is because Mr. Warren Raymond “Ray” Kessler had set a record that stood for

and was not broken for 50 years … and that his name can be found at the top of the

results in both the Light Weight and the Heavy Weight Horse Pulls at the Pennsylvania

State Farm Show for quite a number of years, that we would like to respectfully honor and

memorialize him at this time.