The iconic Budweiser Clydesdales debuted on April 7, 1933 and have a big promotional part of Anheuser-Busch ever since. Most come from Grant’s Farm in St. Louis. Today there are six teams of Clydesdales. One is headquartered in St. Louis and the other five travel the country. On Saturday, one team — or “hitch” — visited the A-B brewery in Fairfield, which is the smallest of the twelve ABI breweries in the U.S.
Believe it or not, I’d never been to the Fairfield brewery (I have visited at least three others, however). But my six-year old daughter’s love of horses made this weekend the perfect time to finally correct that oversight. So I responded to the press release I got, and arranged to come a little early so I could still make the Brewing Network’s Winter Brews Festival in Berkeley the same day.
But back to the horses. Clydesdales are Scottish in origin. They’re large draft horses, often six-feet high (18 hands) at the shoulder, weighing as much as 2,000 or more pounds, and are thought to be at least 300 years old. After a quick tour of the facilities, Alice and I arrived in the parking lot just in time to watch the horses being taken off their tractor trailers and hitched up to the wagon.
Each hitch consists of ten Clydesdales that travel in three tractor trailers, along with the ceremonial beer wagon. Horse-drawn wagons were quite common for beer deliveries before the invention of the automobile, and continue to be used for ceremonial purposes throughout the world. The Radeberger brewery near Dresden, Germany still makes local beer deliveries on a horse-drawn wagon. It was a cool sight when I visited the brewery several years ago.
My daughter Alice, with her stuffed Clydesdale, in front of the Budweiser beer wagon.
The first two hitched to the wagon.
Eventually, eight Budweiser Clydesdales were hitched to the wagon. Then, for about an hour, they paraded around the parking lot to the delight of a few hundred people, who showed up even in the drizzling rain. And especially my daughter, who was thrilled to see the horses up close. You can see a short video of the parade’s start below.
Below is a slideshow of the Clydesdales’ visit. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Nice to see clydesdales fdoing what they were bred for, delivering beer, well sort of
Thanks, Jay. I have had the pleasure of seeing the guys a few times. They come regularly to the State Fair (Cali) and to see their multi-day setup in beyond impressive. I chatted with the guy charged with caring for the leather (cleaning, polishing, etc) – that guy’s job never ended. I can’t get over how much care they put into the horses – truly a great marketing / publicity campaign.
Saw them at Grant’s Farm many moons ago. A few of them ran by the fence we standing — and the ground actually shook.
BTW, the largest breed of horse is the Shire. There’s one in the UK by the name of Duke who’s pushing 3000 pounds.
Too bad I didn’t hear of these guys coming to the Bay Area. Would’ve checked them out for sure.
Oh, and Jay, your daughter’s cute as a button!
Jay,
Great horse pix! Saw 8-horse hitch races in Regina, Sask., many years ago. Whilst in London in 2002 visited Young’s Ram Brewery [since relocated, alas] & was stunned by the size of their Shire horses. The extensive beer drinking pix wiped me out just thinking about all those suds. Had to have a lie-down half-way through!