Friday, September 25, 2009

Budweiser Clydesdales

The St. Louis hitch of the Budweiser Clydesdales is in Jay and Randolph Counties in Indiana this week, honoring Jay Miller, who has been an Anheuser-Busch distributor for over 60 years.
There are eight of these awesome horses to a hitch. They are brought in in their own tractor-trailers, four horses per truck. A third truck carries the beer wagon and the tack.
They got the horses into the hitch while sitting in front of the old train station.
One horse prepared at a time. These animals are amazingly patient while waiting for the others to be added into the hitch.
Their tack is awesome!
This is one of the harnesses. Notice the eagle at the top.
This particular horse was seen doing this the entire time. Constantly tipping his head to the left, hanging his tongue out. I thought this kind of looked like he was telling his buddy a secret! LOL
Their feet are HUGE. They have a special rubber "shock absorber" between the shoe and hoof, to help prevent problems from walking on asphalt so often.

All the tails were trimmed with the red and white bows.
The gentleman in the blue shirt is Jay Miller. He got to take the ride on the hitch. It was all they could do to get him up on the wagon, then back down. They had to use a ladder, as he was not able to climb the built in steps on the wagon.
The Dalmatian's name is Bud. He is very patient too!

While the hitch was in motion, you could hear the Budweiser theme song being played in the wagon.



These pictures are done this way, because my lighting was very bad, and I couldn't light them properly, so I just played with the shadows on Photoshop to get this effect. It was overcast most of the day, and terribly humid.

There are two of these buckets hanging from the underside of the wagon. They were originally for watering the horses, but one of the handlers told me that they are just "all purpose" buckets now.
Bud got tired after they had been at a standstill for a while. He decided it was a good time to take a nap.

Very elaborate work on the tails and manes. All the manes were braided with red and white ribbon then the red and white rose buds tied in.

Okay, I know I said I was only going to start posting one picture a day, but you know me! At least it wasn't another month and a half between postings this time!
Still job hunting. It is so depressing and aggravating not being able to find work. My divorce was final on September 14. Chuck showed up last Thursday to get the last of his things. He still wants to stay friends. I don't have a problem with that. I think he kind of has some regrets, although, he wouldn't admit to it.
It's raining here, again. Most of this week it has rained, but luckily, the rain held off Wednesday when we went to see the Clydesdales. They will be in Portland, Indiana Saturday and Sunday.
Gonna go for now. Everybody have a great weekend.
Love Ya
Lisa

9 comments:

Susie said...

Those horses are magnificent. They get treated better than lots of people.

Loved seeing the pics Lisa. Take care.

Lydia said...

I love those Budweiser Clydesdales so much! They are usually in the Grand Floral Parade in Portland, Oregon so I've seen them quite a few times. Only once did I go to the staging area after the parade to get up close to them the way you did here. Your photos are astounding and perfect, Lisa. I think the Bud company would be interested in them...really.

Enjoying your music. Glad you are keeping up your spirits during a tough time. Glad, too, that you and Chuck will remain friends because there are so many horror stories of hatred when couples split. Good for you.

Patty said...

What great photos. Those horses are fantastic.

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

I've said this before and i'll say it again: you have an exellent eye for a photo - i love that you notice all these small details and make them important.

Keep up the good work - and consider selling limited edition prints of the best ones

Middle Ditch said...

Wow, amazing horses and what a good eye you have for those beautiful pics.

Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto) said...

Very nice Lisa, I like the enhancement on those photos, nice detail shots too, yeah I know I created a monster LOL but u are doing great.

Thank you for taking me along, I enjoyed the day immensely, it made a nice change from my normal old routine.

Hang in there, all good things come to those who wait, sometimes we just have to wait longer than others ((((Hugs)))

Lori

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Lisa: What a cool post, they came to Kent when we were on vacation.

GMG said...

Hi Lisa, here I am after another absence, much longer than I wished; but it seems yours has been much more extensive than mine... ;)
Wonderful post! And the Photoshopo experiences are amazing!!

Blogtrotter is still travelling in Turkey, waiting for you there... Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

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