clydsdale horses

[hdwarner]

i think thats how you spell it
anyway came home from work today , and across the way at a wine and liquor store the budweiser team was there with the clydsdales and the carriage
my first thought was horse shoes {of course everything relates to metalworking somehow right}
i have no idea what i am talking about but i would venture to say those horse require a lot of steel and a lot of coal forging those shoes to fit.

those fine animals probally get the best of care , anyone know anything about this subject?

[keykeeper]

They were stabled at our local fairgrounds once a couple years ago. They were driving the team at a festival/parade in the next county over. I got to walk around and ask questions of the folks that handle them. I'm sure they have a staff farrier that travels with them. There were a total of 12 horses I think in the "hitch". The hitch is what they call the team, wagon, dalmation, etc. as a whole. They had three tractor trailers that move them around from place to place. That includes all the equipment that they bring. They also had a passenger van to shuttle staff around. My wife and I went out and watched them grooming and feeding them. What an operation. The staff stayed in a local hotel. They also contracted with local law enforcement folks to provide security at night to protect the horses when everyone else was away. I heard someone say that the three trailers and equipment were worth about $3 million.

One of the ladies working for the hitch told me there were 5 different hitches nationwide.

Google budweiser clydesdales, there is plenty of info on the horses at one of there corporation sites.

-aaron c.

[irnsrgn]

The highlight of my shoeing career was helping my dad put one of the shoes back on when I was a kid of about 10 or 11 or so, their farrier was sick or something. Talk about a big horse, this was back in the 1950's sometime as I recall. They brought it down in front of the blacksmith shop. Dad told me to check the foot left hind as I recall and remove the nails and clean the hoof up. The handler about had a fit. They had their own nails, biggest horseshoe nails I had seen at that time. Biggest Shoe too.

[chyancarrek]

KeyKeeper,

My experience with the Bud horses was similar - we were showing horses at the state fair and the hitch was there - I remember in the bright & early their handlers would bring them out one at a time - throw on a bridle and walk them around riding bareback - it must have been like sitting a fuel tanker.

The handlers were about my size (6' +) and they looked like little kids up on that huge ol' back!

Pretty darn impressive!

[nett]

The wagons are Studebakers. They participate in our town May Day parade (the oldest continuously run parade in the state of California) then parked down at the fairgrounds for the ensuing fair during the weekend. The horses are big and nice, you just don't need to get close to enjoy them.

The wagon, however, is another story. I climbed under it and inspected it throughly. Suspension, brake drums, wheels, woodwork beefed up with lots of iron. Well engineered, just like their Studebaker cars were many years later, or the wheelbarrows made by John Studebaker in the California goldrush days.

In 1853 in Hangtown a friend offered newcomer Johnnie Studebaker a job making wheelbarrows, which were in great demand. Studebaker’s first wheelbarrow was huge and cumbersome. The miners laughed at it. “I’m a wagon maker, not a wheelbarrow builder,“ he said, defending his awkward creation. But he went on making barrows. The second one was better and the third one was good. Finally, his wheelbarrows “stood up” and became famous. With waiting lists for his many orders, he became known as “Wheelbarrow John.” But by 1858 he had had enough of wheelbarrows. He wanted to make wagons, so he took his $8,000 in savings and returned to South Bend, Indiana, where he established a firm that built wagons for westward-bound pioneers and eventually became the Studebaker car company.

[hdwarner]

WOW thanks everyone
Hey NETT thanks for the info on studabaker for some reason my father is a big studabaker fan and he will get a kick out of the origins of the company he may have already known but i will tell him anyway

Again thanks everyone for sharing thier personal experiences with these magnificent animals , what a wealth

[irnsrgn]

Nett, your studebaker history is a bit off, he sewed the gold nuggets into his coat and went around the horn to go home, and bought out another of brother who wanted to farm, with the new influx of money, the business prospered.

I am proud to have found a Book put out by the Studebaker Company in the 30's for its stockholders. The first half is a history of the Studebaker Company and the last half is a financial statement of the company for its stockholders.

I cruise every antique mall and used and old book store that I can find for old Technical manuals and interesting old books. I have an extensive collection of the Audels Manuals, no where complete but those old books are very interesting to me. My last addition is the 8 volume Engineers and Mechanics Guide in almost new condition acquired for $20 for the set. And I am the proud owner of the third edition of the Machinists Handbook, not Machinerys Handbook. I did find a 2cnd edition in an antique mall in Waterloo, Ia, just down the street from the motel where the National Blacksmiths, Welders and Machinists Convention was being held. An older shopman friend saw it and as he was a good friend I eventually let him have it as my 3rd edition was in better shape. I gave $2.50 for it, and he handed me $40 and was so happy to get it, he was almost in tears.

I don't know how many of those Studebaker books were put out, But as they were a special edition for the stock holders, I feel very privelaged and lucky to have been able to obtain a copy.

Oh, by the way my old Military Winch Truck is a 1953 Studebaker, and I took a pile of pieces and restored this for a friend. His Grandfather bought a New Studebaker Farm Wagon and the dealer gave him a kids version for his children to play with.

We think its a Studebaker, but no way to really be sure. Work horses smashed it up when they got where they weren't supposed to be in the barn, left rear wheel all that was left was the hub. All new spokes in the rear wheels and a new one piece rim. one front rim needed replaced, and I used some of the rear spokes to replace some of the front ones.

[nett]

irnsrgn, I appreciate my history is off but it's the story us Californians like to tell, plus implying (implying is the operative word) the first Studebakers were wheelbarrows makes a great story even if it's not entirely true. I've always had my eyes open for any old wheelbarrows to try and identify one, but I suspect they are kinda like George Washington's axe; the head was replaced three times and the handle six, but it's still George Washington's axe. I believe only one documented wheelbarrow survives.

I love Studebakers, I own two myself, a '38 Commander and a '50 Land Cruiser.

I bought an old edition of Audels four volume carpenters and builders guide back in 1968 for a whopping four bucks. I have read them cover to cover many times, especially the How to Use the Steel Square section, and learn something new every time. I notice Audels are still in print today, but I enjoy my old copies with the genuine leatherette covers. I also have the four volume Masons and Builders guide with the red pebble leatherette covers and realized I haven't spent enough time reading them, there is a lot of material I glossed over because it didn't interest me at the moment. Hmm, maybe I can forge a masons hammer when I learn how to use one properly.

[John B]

Clydesdale shoes, big ones, an old farrier friend of mine used to shoe them and regularly forged the shoes using a piece of steel 24" long for each shoe, and that particular horse was only a "young 'un"

[habu68]

At Rock Ledge Historic site in Colorado Springs we have a Shire stud that was slightly taller, though not quite as massive as a Clydesdale. A true gentle giant. We had a set of shoes in the blacksmith shop including one that had the hoof trimming re-nailed to the shoe to show the kids how a shoe was nailed to a horses' "toe nail" . The shoe was a full 13" across the heel and a set of show shoes weights about 2 1/2 lbs each and are used to get the horse to walk with a high lifting gate. It was fun to pass it around and then have the boys to smell the Toe Jam.

I'm no farrier so my terms and discriptions may be some what off, It was still one impressive horse hitched to a 2 wheeled pleasure cart and the 65 year old lady owner driving him like he was a Shetland pony.