There are famous horses. And then there are the Budweiser Clydesdales — the draft horses that became more recognizable than most Hollywood actors and are anticipated every Super Bowl with the same excitement as the year’s most awaited blockbusters. In more than ninety years of history, these animals transformed a nearly forgotten Scottish breed into a global symbol, and turned a beer brand into a cultural institution.
The story of the Budweiser Clydesdales is simultaneously the story of a marketing masterstroke, an unlikely human-animal bond, and a legacy that reaches far beyond any advertising campaign.
How It All Started: A Gift and the End of Prohibition
It began on April 7, 1933. That day, Prohibition — the American ban on alcohol that had run from 1920 to 1933 — came to an end. Breweries were legally operating again after more than a decade.
August Anheuser Busch Sr., founder of Anheuser-Busch, received that day an unexpected gift from his sons August Jr. and Adolphus: a team of six Clydesdale horses and a ceremonial wagon, to celebrate the return of legal beer production. The idea was that the Clydesdales would pull the first post-Prohibition Budweiser delivery through the streets of St. Louis.
The gesture was conceived as a family celebration. What no one predicted was that the image — the giants with flying manes pulling the red-and-gold Budweiser wagon — would capture the public imagination in a way no planned campaign could ever replicate.
The Growth of the Budweiser Clydesdale Program
The success of the 1933 debut was immediate. Within months, Anheuser-Busch expanded the concept: more hitches, more wagons, national tours. The Clydesdales became living brand ambassadors.
Today, the Budweiser Clydesdale program is one of the largest and most structured in the world. The company maintains:
- More than 250 Clydesdales across properties throughout the United States
- Three official traveling hitches that tour the country for events, fairs, and special appearances
- A main facility in Warm Springs, Missouri — the program’s central home, open to the public for tours
- Extremely rigorous selection criteria for every horse that joins the team
The Standards to Become a Budweiser Clydesdale
Not every Clydesdale makes the Budweiser team. The selection criteria are well-known and exacting:
Sex — geldings are preferred for the traveling hitches, for consistency of temperament.
Color — bay with white stockings, a white blaze on the face, and black mane and tail. The feathering must be white and abundant. This color combination was chosen for maximum visual contrast and photographic impact.
Height — minimum of 18 hands (72 inches at the withers). Horses shorter than this, regardless of their quality, don’t meet the hitch’s visual standard.
Weight — between 1,900 and 2,200 lbs (860–1,000 kg).
White star on the forehead — required.
Temperament — rigorously evaluated. Budweiser Clydesdales must tolerate crowds, intense noise, stadium lighting, and unpredictable situations without losing their composure. The training for that alone takes months.
Entry age — typically 3 to 5 years. Younger horses haven’t yet developed the physical and emotional maturity required; older horses need more extensive retraining.
The Super Bowl Commercials: An Advertising Legend
The connection between the Budweiser Clydesdales and the Super Bowl is a chapter unto itself in advertising history. Since 1986, Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercials featuring Clydesdales have become an event within the event — anticipated, debated, and awarded year after year.
Some of the most memorable moments:
1986 — the first Clydesdale appearance in a Super Bowl commercial establishes the template: a powerful hitch, rural Americana, emotion kept simple and genuine.
2002 — arguably the most moving commercial in Budweiser history. In tribute to the victims of September 11, the Clydesdales travel across a winter landscape and arrive at the New York skyline, where they bow in silent tribute. No words. No product shown. Just horses and a nation’s grief. It aired exactly once, during Super Bowl XXXVI, and has never been re-aired — making it a legend.
2013 — “Brotherhood,” in which a breeder watches a Clydesdale foal grow up and reunites with the horse years later during a city parade. The ad generated over 16 million online views in its first 24 hours, a record at the time.
2023 — the Clydesdales’ return to the Super Bowl after an absence was treated almost as news in itself. The commercial generated spontaneous media coverage before it even aired.
The Impact on the Clydesdale Breed
The Budweiser program had a side effect its creators almost certainly never anticipated: it saved the breed.
In the 1970s, the Clydesdale was at serious risk of extinction. Agricultural mechanization had eliminated the practical need that justified maintaining large, expensive-to-keep draft horses. Registered populations plummeted.
The Budweiser commercials, particularly from the 1980s onward, kept the Clydesdale visible to the general public during a period when almost no one had any direct contact with the breed. That visibility created demand — tourists visiting the Missouri facility, families wanting to see the horses at events, breeders finding motivated buyers inspired by admiration built through the campaigns.
It’s not an overstatement to say that the Budweiser Clydesdales served, for decades, as the primary marketing engine for the entire Clydesdale breed — something no breeder association could have funded independently.
Clydesdales Beyond Budweiser
The success of the Budweiser program inspired broader use of Clydesdales in popular culture and advertising. The breed appears in films, television series, commercials for other brands, and equestrian events worldwide with a frequency far greater than its actual population numbers would suggest.
In countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, where the breed has deeper historical roots, Clydesdales appear regularly at agricultural fairs, national parades, and cultural events as symbols of heritage and identity.
The legacy of the Budweiser Clydesdales is ultimately the legacy of a breed that nearly disappeared and was rediscovered — not because of practical necessity, but because of beauty, emotion, and the enduring power of a great story told well.
