Henry "Buck" Buckardt was born October 24, 1904, and died December 25, 1996. He was born in DeKalb County, Illinois. Buckardt received his PhD in Agronomy at the University of Illinois. He married his wife, Mary, in 1937. In 1938, Dr. Buckardt took a government job in Washington, DC, to work in soil conservation. By 1947, Buckardt was employed by the U.S. Civil Service Commission in Korea. In 1950, he worked for Civil Service at the Pentagon. By January of 1956, Henry Buckardt became the Agricultural Attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Korea. In August of 1958, he and his family moved to Monte Vedeo, Uruguay, where he lived for 12 years and worked for the U.S. Embassy, again as an attaché. Throughout this time, Mary "Bucky" Buckardt worked for the American Cancer Society.

The American Work Horse Museum was conceived while the Buckardts were living in Uruguay, but, according to a 1971 letter by Buckardt, was incorporated on February 3, 1971. The museum grounds are on property purchased in Paeonian Springs, Leesburg, Virginia. Subsequently, artifacts and papers were donated to the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences during the tenure of Dean Swiger (1993-2003). The American Work Horse Museum was moved and re-opened at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Virginia, on September 26, 1998.