20060716 Budweiser Clydesdales in will be in Westminster Monday

The Budweiser Clydesdales in will be in Westminster Monday, July 17

July 16, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

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If you have ever had the interest in seeing the gentle giants of the horse family, the Budweiser Clydesdales, Westminster is the place to be on Monday July 17^th, 2006 during the lunch hour.

The Clydesdales visit to Westminster is sponsored by Wantz Distributors, Inc. of Hagerstown, Maryland, the local Budweiser distributor.

According to Westminster’s administrator of economic development Stan Ruchlewicz, the Clydesdales will be visiting Westminster on their way from Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in Pittsburgh to the NASCAR race festivities in Long Pond, PA.

Mr. Ruchlewicz advises that: “Beginning about 12:30 p.m., the magnificent Clydesdales will travel down Longwell Avenue from the Westminster Skate Park to Willis Street where they will travel Willis Street to Court Street. After making a left onto Court Street, they will make a right onto Greenwood Ave. following it to Manchester Road.

“They will make a right onto Manchester Road crossing Main Street onto Washington Road. At Green Street, they will make a right and stop at Maggie’s for a photograph. They will continue down Green Street to Center Street where they will make a right and stop for a photograph at Maria’s and the Westminster Inn. They will then make a left on Main Street.

“They will then travel down Main Street to John Street also stopping at Johansson’s Dining House and Rafael’s for photographs before heading to City Hall for pictures and then returning to the Skate Park.”

For a cute video (Budweiser commercial) featuring a baby Clydesdale, click here.

There are six “hitches” - eight-horse teams of Clydesdales - which pull a red, white and gold 1903 Studebaker-built beer wagon. Five of the hitches are traveling hitches. The hitch that will be visiting Westminster is the St. Louis team. The other hitches are based in Menifee, California; San Diego, California; Merrimack, New Hampshire and San Antonio, Texas

The tradition of the Clydesdales began as a celebration of the repeal of Prohibition on April 7, 1933, when August A. Busch Jr. had the team of horses ceremonially deliver the first case of post-Prohibition beer from the St. Louis brewery to his father.

Published reports reflect: “Realizing the advertising and promotional potential of a horse-drawn beer wagon, Mr. Busch had the team sent by rail to New York City, where it picked up two cases of Budweiser beer at New Jersey's Newark Airport. The beer was later presented to Al Smith, former governor of New York and an instrumental force in the repeal of Prohibition.

From there, the Clydesdales continued on a tour of New England and the Middle Atlantic States. The hitch even delivered a case of beer to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the White House.”

Over 70 years later, the tradition continues as the “Clydesdale hitches travel some 100,000 miles a year…”

The especially large breed of horses traces its beginnings in the early 1800s in Lanarkshire, Scotland, along the River Clyde.

Today, Clydesdales have evolved to a horse that is six foot tall (18 hands) at the shoulder and weigh approximately one ton each – between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds.

To qualify to be a Budweiser Clydesdale, they must be “geldings, bay in color, have four white stockings and a blaze of white on the face, as well as a black mane and tail. A gentle temperament also is important, as hitch horses meet millions of people each year,” according to promotional accounts.

And oh, a Clydesdale’s horseshoe measures more than 20 inches from end to end and weighs about five pounds.

They eat two meals a day, which includes 20 to 25 quarts of feed, 50 to 60 pounds of hay and up to 30 gallons of water.

When they arrive in Westminster Monday morning, they will arrive in “three 50-foot tractor trailers, custom-built for the horses with rubber flooring, air suspension and vent fans…”

The Clydesdales will probably be accompanied by one or more Dalmatians, which have traveled with the horses since the 1950s.

In the early days, the Dalmatians “were bred and trained to protect the horses and guard the wagon when the driver went inside to make deliveries. The black-and-white spotted dogs were swift enough to keep up with the wagons, and their light-colored bodies and markings made them easier to see during the twilight hours.”

I’ll see ya in Westminster Monday during the lunch hour. Should be plenty of good pictures available.

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Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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