Anheuser-Busch unveils new breeding farm for Clydesdales

BOONVILLE, Mo. -- A Cooper County farm will now provide the majority of Anheuser-Busch's signature Clydesdales.

The 350-acre breeding farm 15 miles west of Columbia is already home to almost 100 horses and will eventually hold about 150 Clydesdales. It will largely replace a facility in Menifee, Calif., which had been home to most of the world's largest private herd of purebred Clydesdales.

The company this week provided reporters a tour of the facility, which was purchased in 2006 and is expected to produce 50 newborn foals a year.

The horses will stay at the farm until they are 2 years old, when the horses with the correct height, weight, color and temperament will be shipped to breweries in St. Louis, Fort Collins, Colo., and Merrimack, N.H., to begin work pulling one of Budweiser's famous red hitches.

Budweiser, which was recently sold to Belgian brewer InBev, maintains five traveling eight-horse hitches that appear at sporting events, parades and in television ads.

Those approved for the hitch jobs are treated very well, said handler Jim Breeggemann.

"The hitch horses here are the most pampered," Breeggemann said, pointing to a Clydesdale with red and white ribbons braided into its mane. "He's got a blanket on him all the time" in colder weather.

The red steel barn at the farm comes with state-of-the-art veterinary equipment, including a sonogram machine so vets can check the progress of pregnant horses. Some of the stalls have video links to alert handlers when mares are about to give birth. There also are plans for labs to check the quality of stallion semen.

The floors of some stalls are cushioned rubber and pine shavings while the "natural breeding" room has a floor of sand and recycled rubber that is said to feel more comfortable to the horses.

The animals are also given ample access to mineral blocks and salt licks and can eat up to 20 quarts of whole grains, 60 pounds of hay and 30 gallons of water a day.

"This is impressive," said Cooper County Commissioner Bill Embry, who breeds Belgian quarter horses. "My barns aren't nearly this nice."

The barn also has electronically controlled louvers in the roof to deal with manure odor.

"This is a first-class commercial-grade building with just a barn look," said Mike Hemme, vice president of Coil Construction, which coordinated the project.

The handlers said the horses are worth the extra attention given that the Clydesdales, whose ancestors were plowing fields in 19th-century Scotland, are one of the top-five most recognizable corporate symbols in the world.

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Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com