Public can get peek at Clydesdales in training

By Rhema Zlaten
For the Reporter-Herald (Loveland, CO)


With shaggy white socks and the biggest hooves in town, the Budweiser Clydesdales are a sight to behold.

On the first Saturday of each month, Anheuser-Busch horse handlers and trainers Lloyd Ferguson of Windsor and Cory Robinson of Fort Collins open up their barn doors for a little bit of show and tell.



Jackson the Clydesdale hams it up for the camera as trainer/manager Lloyd Ferguson talks to tour guide Britt Hagaman of Fort Collins.

On Feb. 5, 3-year-old Clydesdale Jackson posed for photos for a long line of families. Weighing in at nearly 2,000 pounds, he will continue to grow over the next couple of years.

Robinson feeds Jackson 40-50 pounds of grass hay each day, as well as six quarts of grain twice a day and 5 to 6 gallons of water.

“He’s not dieting, either,” Ferguson said.

The stables at the Fort Collins Anheuser-Busch brewery are busy year-round training new horses to run with one of several nationwide teams.

Ferguson spent nearly 30 years on the road with these teams, attending many events such as the Rose Bowl and NASCAR races. Now he trains new horses to face a wide variety of situations, stimuli and noise.

In order to be an Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale, each horse must be a gelding male at least 4 years old. According to company specifications, he must stand at least 18 hands tall, or 6 feet, and weigh between 1,800 and 2,000 pounds.

He must have bay coloring with four white stocking feet, a white stripe on the face and a black mane and tail.

Young Clydesdale horses begin training with a basic harness in a quiet ring. Then they are exposed to loud noises such as passing trains and busy roads. Next, Ferguson and Robinson pair up new horses with seasoned ones until they are ready to pull the famous Anheuser-Busch wagons with full harnesses and a team of eight draft horses.

This process can take from six months to one year to complete.

“After they have been on a team for a year traveling, they will take any noise,” Ferguson said.

“The horses travel 300 days out of the year. They are required to be good-natured. Each team carries 10 horses per team, so all horses get a day off.”

Robinson is in charge of shoeing the horses with gigantic metal shoes measuring more than 20 inches and weighing 5 pounds each. Because hooves are similar to human toenails, the shoeing process is similar to getting a pedicure.

“Each horse is reshod every six weeks,” he said.

The Clydesdales have been an Anheuser-Busch tradition since the company’s early days.

According to the company’s records, the horses were formally introduced to August A. Busch Sr. by his son, August A. Busch Jr., to celebrate the end of Prohibition in April 1933.