What were draft horses used for?

Answer 1

"Draft" or 'draught' means, simply, to draw. the word is derived from the Old English, 'draeht' which means, 'draw'.

Originally, the word simply referred to the act of pulling - or drawing/dragging something. Later, it came to refer to the horses - large, solid-bodied, well-muscled, and bred for heavy work.

[Note: the term draft/draught beer stems from the animals used to pull the large kegs of beer to distinguish between that 'kegged' beer as opposed to beer which was bottled and corked. The bottling process was far from precise in the early days of brewing and the beer produces and bottled was prone to leaking corks and stale flavor. Thus, people preferred "Draft beer" over bottled because the quality tended to be better.]