The Clydesdale breed of horse is iconic. Americans have adopted the gentle giants as cultural symbols of good old fashioned grit, strength, hard work, and of course, beer. Anheuser-Busch, the owners and brewers of the Budweiser brand of beer, chose Clydesdale horses to be the company’s mascot and included them in clever marketing advertisements. Over the years the ads have propelled the breed to new heights and they have since become internationally recognized and beloved by generations.
These days the Budweiser Clydesdales are bred to an exact standard at the Warm Springs Ranch near Boonville, Missouri. Visitors to the ranch can tour the grounds and facilities, and even get up close and personal with some of the 70 horses that call it home. To qualify as a Budweiser Clydesdale, a horse must have a snowy white face and four white legs. Their bodies should be bay colored, which is a rich reddish-brown tinged type of coat, with a darker mane and tail.
Over the years, hundreds of Clydesdale mares have given birth to baby foals with the help of their proud caretakers and birthing coaches. The young colts and fillies can be seen running wild among older horses in the pastures and fields on the ranch. Many of them are very friendly and one of them even kissed a cameraman in the video in a warm display of open affection. It’s easy to see how and why the horses have endured and become iconic. The young horses at the farm have it good and are absolutely adorable, energetic, and full of character and life.
Clydesdale horses were originally bred to be draught horses; ones who used to haul heavy carts and equipment such as plows. They needed to be exceptionally strong, resilient, and obedient in order to effectively help farmers get stuff done. Their lineage can be traced back to Scotland where the first mention of the name ‘Clydesdale’ was recorded. From there they were brought to the rest of the world where they were vital in efforts to build projects and became known as tough workhorses who provided sheer power, doing the bulk of moving things in the absence of widely available and mechanized machinery. Once gas powered technology came along demand for the horses fell and at one point in the 1970’s they were dying out. Then, in a 1986 Superbowl ad, Budweiser chose to feature the breed in a commercial and a tradition was born.
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