Budweiser clydesdales accident at San Antonio rodeo
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North Idaho Wolfman
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That was SCARY watching a 1,700-2,200 lb. horse run over another one and knock it to the ground.
I have zero experience with horses in the last 30 years, but that first left hand horse was acting weird from the beginning of the video, almost like he was pushing the horse to his right. Am I imaging things? Anyone with experience care to share what they think happened?
Balsy move by the handler though - they are huge horses and he threw himself in the middle of them!
Budweiser is in serious trouble at the moment with these horses and the tail docking according to PETA. (Don’t care for the group personally.). I am thinking that too much bad press at the same time means we may see significantly less of these fine animals. Shame if it happens.
Balsy move by the handler though - they are huge horses and he threw himself in the middle of them!
Budweiser is in serious trouble at the moment with these horses and the tail docking according to PETA. (Don’t care for the group personally.). I am thinking that too much bad press at the same time means we may see significantly less of these fine animals. Shame if it happens.
No matter how well trained, animals have a mind of their own. I do home none were hurt. I don't know horses but in the dog world that looked like the one on the right (as viewed) was trying to establish dominance.
Some group is sure to make a spectacle of that.
Some group is sure to make a spectacle of that.
GreensvilleJay
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Farmer friend says right front horse is the 'lead', others follow him... probably a British 'thing' .
Don't agree with 'docking'. There's a reason horses have tails ! Wonder if PETA goes after all the dog owners who do 'docking' ?
Don't agree with 'docking'. There's a reason horses have tails ! Wonder if PETA goes after all the dog owners who do 'docking' ?
That’s pretty scary, those bad boys are huge! We had them at our warehouse once. They live very well, while they were at our place they stabled them where we parked our delivery trucks. I pulled in one day and one was looking right at me, his head was level with my tractor window. Their trailers are environmentally controlled and have rubber floors. They weren’t allowed to walk on the concrete floors, either plywood or carpet. One of the owners sisters lost a very large ruby ring to one, thought it was a treat. They actually warned her that their treats were red and they might mistake it for one and they did. Pretty sure they had someone digging through the poop to try and recover it but had no luck.
hopefully non of them were injured in this incident. Oh and the crew that works with them is top notch, at least the one we met was.This was before InBev while the Busch’s still had ownership of AB, hopefully InBev didn’t cut their budget too much.
hopefully non of them were injured in this incident. Oh and the crew that works with them is top notch, at least the one we met was.This was before InBev while the Busch’s still had ownership of AB, hopefully InBev didn’t cut their budget too much.
Seems like they all had their tails but they were braided with ribbon, but I could be mistaken. I thought docking was a demonstration method where the horses would “dock” for unloading the cargo. I could be completely wrong here as well, just a guess.
Bmyers
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I have had the pleasure of touring the facilities/stables that they keep the horses at. Our company does work for AB and they had a luncheon for safety professionals and behind the scenes tour of the brewery and all their facilities. I was able to talk with some of the handlers and those horses are treated like kings. AB spends a fortune on taking care of them. The horses have a better health care plan than most people.
Here is another brief video showing some of the details that goes into place for them to show the horses.
Here is another brief video showing some of the details that goes into place for them to show the horses.
Biker1mike
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When my daughter was just a lil tyke we saw the team up close. As a typical kid she saw a handler and asked straight out, "excuse me mister but why to you 'bob' their pretty tails". He got down on a knee in front of the small crowd and explained that they 'shorten' their tales for safety. It keeps their tails from getting stuck in the reins/harness and causing pain to the horses and making it hard to steer the team.
He may have been telling a tale but we all believed him. Kid was in her glory that an important adult treated her so nicely. They are one hell of an operation !
He may have been telling a tale but we all believed him. Kid was in her glory that an important adult treated her so nicely. They are one hell of an operation !
GreensvilleJay
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hm, itty bitty picture..I thought 'docking' was a fancy name when they chopped off the tails( common on some dog breeds )
If you want to know details of how teams work, think, respond, etc. go to YouTube, type in San Antonio clydesdale accident. That will take you to the posting the observer made that I copied. But.... read the comments below the picture there. There are folks there who know the business and analyze what they did improperly.
From a couple years ago, they were at the county fair when we were back up there visiting.
Kids were more interested in the pup though
Kids were more interested in the pup though
I've owned draft horses in the past, I had Belgians, people really don't understand how powerful these draft horses are, mine was about 2600 pounds and was considered on the smaller size. I was very impressed on how well these people controlled the situation, with such powerful animals in a group like that, things could have gone South in a hurry.
North Idaho Wolfman
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I was born and raised on a horse / cattle ranch and worked with quite a few draught horses, used to ride them for fun, really hard to ride, legs and hips don't want to spread that wide! But boy oh by are they powerful!
I had two favorite horses Red a Belgian, and Pride a thoroughbred.
Pride was an excellent cattle horse, normally you use a quarter horse (they are shorter and stockier), Pride's advantage was he was fast, he could get in front of a heard and turn them.
Rode hundreds of miles of fences and fields on him, remember a few nasty snow storm where I had no idea where camp or home was and I'd just throw the reins over his neck and let him do the driving!
To all that are confused about, the docking.
There is two different meanings going on here:
Yes they were going to do a doing a docking procedure with the Team.
Exceptionally hard with an eight horse hitch.
#1:
The horses work together with the teamster, backing and maneuvering the hitch Wagon to the foot of the loading dock.
One of the hardest things to do with any horse is to get them to back up, it's just not a natural movement for them.
#2:
Surgically removing their tails (at a very young age).
This is done so that they don't get their tails caught in the rigging and harness.
While it is viewed by some as cruel, it's done to keep them from getting hurt doing their job.
Same reason you poll (cut off) the horns on cattle to keep them from hurting themselves and others.
I will say watching the video, I think I know why the lead team did what it did.
It wasn't a dominance thing, it wasn't any horse error, it was the drivers error.
As they stopped the driver took up the reins (steering and speed control for the city folk among us), the front wheel team ( third from the front) was spread wide, they moved in and he took up more, then one moved out and thus the right rein was too tight, the lead team (front) started to steer right, both the driver and the shotgun rider looked to the rear, and when he did that he pulled the right rein and with the front team turning into a fence, turned fast and hard which pulled the rein even tighter which put them into an uncontrolled turn.
Horses are trained to do what the reins and driver tell them to do.
Its excellent that this turned out as well as it did for all, as a tangled up team can panic and all heck breaks loose!
P.S. Horses don't typically lay down, they sleep standing up! The bigger the horse the less libel they are to lay down. So when they fall down, or in this case get knocked down, they have a real hard time getting up!
I had two favorite horses Red a Belgian, and Pride a thoroughbred.
Pride was an excellent cattle horse, normally you use a quarter horse (they are shorter and stockier), Pride's advantage was he was fast, he could get in front of a heard and turn them.
Rode hundreds of miles of fences and fields on him, remember a few nasty snow storm where I had no idea where camp or home was and I'd just throw the reins over his neck and let him do the driving!
To all that are confused about, the docking.
There is two different meanings going on here:
Yes they were going to do a doing a docking procedure with the Team.
Exceptionally hard with an eight horse hitch.
#1:
The horses work together with the teamster, backing and maneuvering the hitch Wagon to the foot of the loading dock.
One of the hardest things to do with any horse is to get them to back up, it's just not a natural movement for them.
#2:
Surgically removing their tails (at a very young age).
This is done so that they don't get their tails caught in the rigging and harness.
While it is viewed by some as cruel, it's done to keep them from getting hurt doing their job.
Same reason you poll (cut off) the horns on cattle to keep them from hurting themselves and others.
I will say watching the video, I think I know why the lead team did what it did.
It wasn't a dominance thing, it wasn't any horse error, it was the drivers error.
As they stopped the driver took up the reins (steering and speed control for the city folk among us), the front wheel team ( third from the front) was spread wide, they moved in and he took up more, then one moved out and thus the right rein was too tight, the lead team (front) started to steer right, both the driver and the shotgun rider looked to the rear, and when he did that he pulled the right rein and with the front team turning into a fence, turned fast and hard which pulled the rein even tighter which put them into an uncontrolled turn.
Horses are trained to do what the reins and driver tell them to do.
Its excellent that this turned out as well as it did for all, as a tangled up team can panic and all heck breaks loose!
P.S. Horses don't typically lay down, they sleep standing up! The bigger the horse the less libel they are to lay down. So when they fall down, or in this case get knocked down, they have a real hard time getting up!
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Wow.....made me tear up. 
Along with some saddle horses, I was around 4 Belgians and 2 Percherons a lot in my young days. Were boarded in our barn after the cows were sold, and I took care of them.
While young, the Belgians and Percherons were so easy, trustworthy, and gentle....
Had to pay more attention to the 400 pound Shetland Pony "Sparky" would bite you HARD if you looked away.... little f'r....
Like Ford's picture, those critters are BIG.....some will go well over 2,000 pounds when fully grown in good condition, depending on breed.
Someone asked about geldings or not.....I assume none are stallions. There could be both mares and geldings in the hitch, but I'm guessing.
Along with some saddle horses, I was around 4 Belgians and 2 Percherons a lot in my young days. Were boarded in our barn after the cows were sold, and I took care of them.
While young, the Belgians and Percherons were so easy, trustworthy, and gentle....
Had to pay more attention to the 400 pound Shetland Pony "Sparky" would bite you HARD if you looked away.... little f'r....
Like Ford's picture, those critters are BIG.....some will go well over 2,000 pounds when fully grown in good condition, depending on breed.
Someone asked about geldings or not.....I assume none are stallions. There could be both mares and geldings in the hitch, but I'm guessing.
North Idaho Wolfman
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To qualify for one of the hitches, a Budweiser Clydesdale must be a gelding with an even temperament and strong, draft horse appearance, be at least four years old, stand at least 18 hands (72 inches, 183 cm) at the withers when fully mature, and weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds (820 and 1,040 kg).
And yes Shetland's are the devils spawn!
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RCW
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Yeah, so many parents got them for their kids…”Dad, can I have a pony ?!?!”
He wasn’t ours; I took care of him in our barn.
Sparky was a very smart boy. Maybe 8 years old, so still kind of young.
Could drive and ride kids both English and western. Sweetheart when he wanted to be.
But, like any Shetland, he worked if/when he wanted to. If he didn’t want to pull his cart that day, he was a real challenge.
Can’t count how many times he bit me. Great in the right mood, otherwise not so much. Still remember him fondly.
Lady I help across town has a whole bunch of shets
they are exactly like that. Sometimes they are fine others I want to put a bullet in em
they will bite and while not pleasant, it mostly just pisses me off.
I had an app mare for about a year, I lived in town and the city wasn't having it, gave her to a lady friend who inherited a bunch of property and kept her for a good while til she died. About like a 1200 lb dog. Real gentle in comparison to those shetlands.
they are exactly like that. Sometimes they are fine others I want to put a bullet in em
they will bite and while not pleasant, it mostly just pisses me off.
I had an app mare for about a year, I lived in town and the city wasn't having it, gave her to a lady friend who inherited a bunch of property and kept her for a good while til she died. About like a 1200 lb dog. Real gentle in comparison to those shetlands.