Ruth Soller » Blog

We visited the Budweiser Clydesdales at the Fort Collins Anheuser-Busch Brewery and were charmed by their majestic beauty. The Clydesdale draft horse breed are huge but usually gentle. Clydesdales were used in the medieval days by knights in shining armor, because of their strength to carry a muscular man plus over a hundred pounds of armor. Clydesdales were bred in Scotland for farming and were brought to America by Scottish Canadians. Because the 2000 pound Clydesdale could pull twice his weight at five miles per hour for a full day, they were ideal for pulling heavy delivery carts for milk or beer merchants.

The Budweiser Clydesdales are a group of Clydesdale horses used for promotions and commercials by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. To be selected as a Budweiser Clydesdale, a horse must be at least three years old, be gelded, stand about 6-feet at the shoulder, be reddish-brown in color, have white stockings on all four legs, a blaze of white on the face and a black mane and tail. About 25 to 30 foals are born at the company's breeding farms each year, but not all make it onto a beer wagon team.

Budweiser Clydesdales have been wearing red and white braided manes adorned with flowers since the first hitch appeared shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Legend has it that August A. Busch Jr. wanted to present a hitch of the mighty horses to his father to commemorate the first bottle of post-Prohibition beer brewed in St. Louis. Busch invited his surprised father to step outside to see his new "vehicle," and there was the Clydesdale hitch pulling a red, white and gold beer wagon.