Tuesday, March 15, 2016

There's Draught Horses and then there's Draught Horses.

Today was pretty exciting for me, after 4 hours in the sun I was able to come home with some pretty cool shots from the parade today!


The Budweiser Clydesdales are in town for a parade this evening... I of course couldn't pass up the opportunity to go stalk their parade preparations ...could I?


Every part of the operation is smooth and everything is precisely organized... I really appreciate organization (as my friends probably know) so I really enjoyed watching this!


The eight horse hitch is made up of all geldings, each horse weighing approximately 2,000 lbs, and each horse measuring roughly 18hh. 



A harness and fittings for one horse is $100,000. That is NOT a typo. A single harness is roughly one hundred thousand dollars. The harnesses are manufactured by a master harness maker in Ohio and are adorned with brass Anheuser-Busc insignia.


Each harness is kept in its own locker in the air conditioned 18 wheeler trailer specifically designated for the wagon and tack. 



The geldings manes are festooned with the traditional red and white ribbons and roses.


The horses are lead out of the trailer in sets of two, corresponding to their positions in the hitch, and are clipped to a cross-tie hanging between the truck and trailer.


I was particularly taken by this beautiful dapple.


Everyone on the team clearly loved their job, it is a dream of mine to work on one of the hitch teams.


These horses were so full of charisma and were posing constantly.







I hope you enjoyed the post and the photos! (I sure had a fun time collecting them!)


-Becky

2 comments:

  1. They are so handsome! I really love these. Great job!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It was a pleasure to be able to watch them prep!

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