Lauren Lambeth travels all over Florida with the Budweiser Clydesdales. And everywhere she goes, people use the same word to describe the massive horses.
Majestic.
Lambeth certainly agrees. “They’re awe-inspiring to see,” she says.
They’re also huge, playful and able to wolf down an enormous amount of food (including 50-60 pounds of hay daily).
Lambeth should know: She works with the horses every single day.
The horse handler has spent four years traveling with the “Midwest team” for the famous Budweiser Clydesdales, the living symbols for beer makers Anheuser-Busch. The St. Louis-based team visits cities all over the Midwest United States and also Florida.
Lambeth grooms and feeds the animals, and does whatever else needs doing. She also helps answer people’s questions wherever the Clydesdales make appearances: How much do they weigh? What are their names? Why do they travel with a Dalmatian dog? Can you pet them?
You could ask her those questions yourself the next time the Clydesdales visit Florida. But if you can’t wait until then, no worries: Here’s everything you need to know about the iconic, beloved Budweiser Clydesdales.
Clydesdales are bigger than you probably think
“People don’t realize just how big they are,” Lambeth says. “You see them on TV, and you know they’re large. But when you actually get up next to them, they’re just massive.”
The horses in Lambeth’s hitch of eight horses (plus two alternates) stand 6-7 feet tall at the base of their neck. They weigh about 2,000 pounds — roughly the same as a small car.
Returning to the Super Bowl was a big deal
The Clydesdales skipped their usual Super Bowl commercial in 2021, but they returned in 2022.
That was a big deal for both Anheuser-Busch and fans of their iconic Clydesdales, Lambeth says.
“It was pretty exciting,” she says. “It’s always good to see the Clydesdales. When we don’t have them in the commercials, we really hear about it from the public quite a bit. It’s constantly like, ‘Where are the Clydesdales?’”
Lambeth’s horses haven’t appeared in a Super Bowl commercial in the four years she’s traveled with the Midwest team. Hitch horses don’t usually star in TV commercials, she says, unless the commercial needs a shot of all eight horses pulling a wagon.
“Once we’ve trained them for those commercial shots, they actually don’t want to pull the wagon anymore,” Lambeth says. “They only want to do what they’re trained for in the commercials.”
