Budweiser Clydesdales make their way down 2nd Street in Belmont Shore

The Budweiser Clydesdale named Lester weighs in at 1,900 pounds. That’s heavier than the combined weight of the six largest players on the L.A. Rams starting defense.

So, when Lester and his seven teammates clopped their way along Belmont Shore streets Saturday, the horses drew “oohs” and “aahs.”

Refrains of, “They’re so big!” were followed by, “They’re so beautiful!” all along their route.

The Budweiser Clydesdales make their way down Second Street in Belmont Shore on Saturday, March 30, 2019. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

The team made a half dozen stops along its 3-mile journey, and the drivers passed out free cases of beer to taverns along the route.

The horses hitched up in a beachside parking lot near Claremont Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. They headed down Ocean, went up Grenada Avenue and made their first stop at Panama Joe’s. They continued along Second Street and made an elegant U-turn at Claremont Avenue before heading back to the parking lot.

The Budweiser Clydesdale team received cheers as it headed down Second Street. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

The Budweiser Clydesdales date back to April 7, 1933. Adolphus and August Busch Jr. gave their dad horses to celebrate the end of prohibition on that date.

When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the 21st Amendment he famously remarked, “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”

Always the showman and promoter, August Sr. hitched up his team of Clydesdales, took a trip down Pennsylvania Avenue and delivered a case of beer to Roosevelt.

Budweiser Clydesdale driver Doug Bousselot hands a case of beer to a bar owner during the trip down Second Street. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

Here are some fun facts about horses and beer:

Budweiser has three different hitches (or teams). They also have a horse farm to breed the Clydesdales. Saturday’s driver, Doug Bousselot guesses that Anheuser-Bush owns more than 150 horses.
A Dalmation mascot didn’t start riding the coaches until 1950, so there have not yet been 101 Dalmations.
Saturday’s Dalmatian was named April in honor of April 7, which is now celebrated as National Beer Day.

The current Dalmatian for the Clydesdale’s western team is named April, in honor of the month in which prohibition ended. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

The other seven horses on Saturday were named: Red, Max, Archie, Nomo, Payday, Eric and Prince. There has been a Clydesdale named Clyde, but there has not yet been one named Dale.
The tallest Budweiser horse on Saturday was Red, who measures 9-foot-6 from ear to pavement. (Yes, we know that horse height is measured in “hands” from hoof to “whither” with a variance factor related to fetlock ginglymus, which adds deviance to the metacarpophalangeal joint and flexion pastern. Or something like that.)

The Budweiser Clydesdale team hitched up in a parking lot at Ocean Boulevard and Claremont Avenue. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

The world-record tallest Clydesdale ever was named Poe. He was 10-feet tall, the same height as a basketball rim. (It is unlikely that even LeBron could dunk on him.)
It is unknown as to whether Roosevelt drank one of the Buds that was presented to him. President Obama would have certainly imbibed. He’s a big beer guy. He even had his own homebrew when he was in office: White House Honey Ale.
President James Buchanan would probably not have quaffed a Budweiser. He was a whiskey drinker. Buchanan purchased 10 gallons of whiskey a week. (Really.)
The circumference of a Clydesdale hoof is about the size of dinner plate.

A Budweiser Clydesdale transport truck is reflected in the eye of Nomo after the team’s trip down Second Street. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

How do the folks on the Budweiser team determine who has to shovel up the Clydesdale road apples? Rock, paper, scissors.
The patron saint of beer is St. Arnold of Soissons. During a time of cholera, the peasants had no clean water to drink so Arnold converted his monastery to a brewery. The brewing process purified plague-infested water. Thousands were saved.
Adolphus Busch began brewing a beer called Budweiser in 1876. His was not the first beer with that name, however. When the city of České Budějovice was founded in the present-day Czech Republic in 1245, King Ottokar of Bohemia gave his enthusiastic endorsement to a beer called Budweiser. The Czech beer became known as “The Beer of Kings.” Busch gave his beer the sobriquet “The King of Beers”.

A bar owner hoists his case of beer that was given to him by the Budweiser Clydesdale driver Doug Bousselot during the horse trip down Second Street. Photo by Bill Alkofer.

So, what prompted a visit to Long Beach by the world’s most famous horses?

It seems that there has been somewhat of a contract dispute between Anheuser-Busch and the parent company of Panama Joe’s. The Panama Joe’s tavern is not currently serving Anheuser-Bush products.

Negotiations continue and as a show of good faith, the head honcho of Panama Joe’s parent company and the muckity-mucks at Anheuser-Busch organized the visit.

When the Clydesdales made their first stop outside of Panama Joe’s, the wagon driver offered a case of beer to the manager on duty.

He graciously accepted.

After all: “You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”