Budweiser Clydesdale commercial "A Hero's Welcome" for the Big Game!!!

We at Purina Animal Nutrition are so proud to be working with the folks at Budweiser and supporting the nutrition efforts of these magnificent Clydesdales!

Clydesdales Check Up

A few weeks ago Mike Jerina and I traveled to Grant’s Farm to visit some of our favorite customers – the Budweiser Clydesdales.  It’s always great to play with these fabulous animals, as well as check on the new arrivals from Warm Springs Ranch (the Budweiser Clydesdale breeding farm in Boonville, Missouri) and say “good luck and see you later!” to the boys heading to Merrimack, NJ, to start training for their careers on one of the traveling hitches.

This last fall, several of my favorite boys headed to Merrimack, including Austin and Preston.  Hopefully, they will both do great in their training and I’ll get to see them pulling one of the wagons someday.  Altogether, seven horses headed east in the fall, and another four (at least) will be going in the spring. Lester Nisley (head trainer of the Clydesdales) will be very busy getting all of them ready!

Austin, when I first met him as a two year old.  Hope to see him on a hitch!

     

      Axel (far left) and Preston (second from right) are now at Merrimack in training.
Yes, I do kiss a lot of Clydesdales!  How can I help it?? J

As far as nutrition, we make sure that all the horses going into training are transitioned to performance diets prior to the trip to help reduce potential stress from the changing environment.  We also make sure that they are maintaining appropriate body weight and condition to prepare them for the trip to the East coast and the new work program they will be starting.  Once they arrive at Merrimack and get adjusted to their new digs, they will begin Lester’s training program.  It’s a very different lifestyle at the Merrimack facility compared to the leisure they all enjoyed at Grant’s Farm!

Several weanlings (now yearlings) arrived this fall from Warm Springs Ranch to spend the next few years growing and maturing at Grant’s Farm.  The babies are always fun to watch and interact with. They are just like all equine youngsters – playful, inquisitive, and energetic! 

Madonna is telling Blueberry to get out of her picture, and Kelly is just hoping for a carrot!

Our goal for the growing horses is to ensure that each individual’s diet is appropriate to maintain body condition as well as provide essential nutrients for optimal growth.  We want to give each youngster the best opportunity to become a member of the Budweiser Clydesdale team, whether on one of the traveling hitches, or as a broodmare back at Warm Springs Ranch.

If you get a chance to travel to St. Louis in the spring, summer or fall, be sure to visit Grant’s Farm for a tour and you can meet these lovely animals for yourself!

In the shadow of giants….

A few weeks ago, several of my co-workers and I had the opportunity to take part in a behind-the-scenes tour of Grant’s Farm, home of the up and coming and retired Budweiser Clydesdales.  Many thanks to Dr. Katie Young who organized the tour.  Dr. Young and Purina Animal Nutrition Center Equine Research Unit manager, Mike Jerina, are working closely with the managers of the Budweiser Clydesdales to optimize their nutritional programs and to learn more about how to best assess body weight and body condition in these incredible horses.  The supervisor of the Grant’s Farm facility, Amy Trout, and her assistant Michelle Speck, graciously spent over two hours with our group of Purina Animal Nutrition employees teaching us about the management of the Clydesdales, the Budweiser Clydesdale program of assessing and training the future hitch horses and many of the unique aspects of caring for and nurturing the Clydesdales young and old. 

Photo provided by:  Kent Lanter

Rudy is retired from the Budweiser Clydesdale hitch team and enjoying the “life of Riley” being pampered and adored by staff and visitors alike at Grant’s Farm.

Feed Fit for a King - Purina and the Budweiser Clydesdales

Ok, I admit it.  Even after a year of working with the Budweiser Clydesdales, I am still the worst stereotype of a horse-crazy tourist—taking pictures with my phone of the horses, the dogs, the wagons, me with the horses, and the dogs, and the horses again, etc.  Lucky for me, the folks who work with the Clydesdales are some of the nicest, most patient people I’ve met.  And the horses are absolutely magnificent!  How can you not be awestruck when you’re standing next to Big Jake, and can barely reach his withers standing on tiptoes?  And the yearlings are as big as my own full-grown horses! To top it off, the horses are really as great as I ever dreamed they would be—sweet, kind, and endlessly tolerant of their admirers. To me, spending time with the Budweiser Clydesdales is pretty much as good as it gets.

 

So what is Purina doing with the Clydesdales?  About a year ago, we started working with the horses at Grant’s Farm in St. Louis, and with the horses on the traveling teams. The folks in charge of the horses were looking for a consistent feed program, and while various Purina® feed products have been fed to the Clydes for quite a few years, this was the first time that the Purina equine technical and research teams put together an organized feeding program and started collecting data on the growing and mature horses.  Mike Jerina (manager of our Equine Research Unit), Tim Maxey from Straatmann Feed, Tod Wideman (Purina local sales specialist) and I have been meeting with Dave Hennen of Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale Operations and his team monthly for the past year to weigh, measure and determine body condition scores of the young Clydes at Grant’s Farm, and make sure that they are on the best feeding program to support growth.  I can’t speak for Mike and the others, but it has been a great learning experience for me!

One of the early issues that emerged from our monthly meetings is that even though the horses are so much larger and heavier than the light horse breeds, many of them are VERY easy keepers and require very little feed to maintain appropriate body weight and condition, especially since they are fed high quality hay and have free access to pasture during much of the year.  This was even true for some of the young growing horses, so we had to make adjustments to the original plan.  We started with Ultium® Growth Horse Formula for the youngsters, but switched to Enrich Plus™ ration balancing feed for several of the easiest keepers to keep them from gaining too much weight. Like all growing horses, it is extremely important to provide essential nutrients in correct balance with calories to support optimal growth.

The Clydesdales on the hitches are a mixed batch.  Since they are working horses, we are feeding a combination of Omolene® horse feed, some Amplify® High-Fat Supplement, and some Enrich Plus™ feed along with high quality grass hay.  A few of the hitch horses are again such easy keepers that Enrich Plus™ feed and hay is enough to maintain body weight and condition.  Of course, it is very important to everyone involved that the horses always look their best, are happy and healthy, and receive the highest quality nutrition possible.

An especially memorable experience took place on January 16 of this year, when Mike and I traveled to Warm Springs Ranch in Booneville, Mo., the Budweiser Clydesdales breeding farm.  We arrived about 5 hours after the birth of the first filly of the year, and enjoyed taking pictures and watching her figure out where to find breakfast (Mama’s elbow was not very rewarding for the little girl).  Little did we know that we were in the presence of a future TV star – the baby was Hope, the star of the Budweiser commercial for the Big Game!

One aspect of our relationship with the Budweiser Clydesdales that struck home with me is the similarities between our companies. Both brands share a history that is rooted in St. Louis, Missouri, and is based on a tradition of quality, integrity and innovation.  In talking and interacting with the people who work with the Clydesdales, it is very quickly apparent that they take great pride in their company and its heritage, and are dedicated to the care and welfare of their horses.  At Purina Animal Nutrition, we certainly share the passion for our animals, as well as the pride in our company and its history.  It seems like a perfect partnership for our two companies to work together, and I look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship with the fabulous, beautiful, enormous(!) Budweiser Clydesdales.