MANSFIELD — Justin Berry spent two years requesting a visit from the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
His persistence paid off Wednesday evening at The Brickyard in downtown Mansfield.
Hundreds of community members formed a single line which stretched from nearly the back end of The Phoenix Brewing Company to the rear balcony of The Clubhouse — waiting for their chance to meet a single Budweiser Clydesdale.
“It’s been 10 years since they’ve (Clydesdales) been to this area,” said Berry, the general manager of Mansfield Distributing.
Event attendees had the opportunity to greet and snap a photo with the celebrity horse from 5 to 7 p.m. A variety of Budweiser swag items were also passed out at various times to those waiting in line.
“These guys (Clydesdales) travel all over the country. It’s pretty cool (to have them in Mansfield),” Berry said.
The full eight-horse hitch will be harnessed to the iconic turn-of-the-century beer wagon during an appearance Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Bellville Street Fair.
Photo opportunities will be available.
Life as a Clydesdale handler
The Clydesdales’ trips to Mansfield and Bellville are just two of hundreds made annually by three teams of traveling hitches based out of operational headquarters at the St. Louis Brewery in Missouri.
These horses have been the mascot of Anheuser-Busch since 1933. Nearly nine decades later, the celebrity horses are staples of fairs, festivals and sporting events across the United States.
Brady Janssen has been a Clydesdale handler for the past eight years. He began in 2016 as an intern, he said.
“I went back to school for a year to finish college. I graduated on a Saturday and they called me on Monday and it’s been my life ever since,” Janssen said.
Spending weeks and months on the road is all worth it to Janssen, who said it’s rewarding to see the joy and excitement from folks while they’re interacting with the horses.
“Being responsible for the care of the horses is always a challenge, but a welcome challenge to make sure we’re always doing the best for them and making sure they live up to the standard of life we’d want to give any animal,” he said.
“It’s awesome. It’s definitely one of the more glamorous horse jobs in my opinion, just to be able to travel and see so many things.”
Below are more photos from Wednesday’s Budweiser Clydesdale appearence at The Brickyard in downtown Mansfield.
Mansfield Distributing services five counties
Mansfield Distributing is a wholesaler of Anheuser-Busch, Yuengling, Corona and Copa Wine products, along with a wide variety of local craft and regional breweries.
Berry said the company distributes and sells to about 600 accounts across five counties: Ashland, Crawford, Holmes, Richland and Wayne.
“We’re a relatively small distributor still, but we’re family-owned and family-ran. The parent company is called Maple City Ice and we’ve been around for about 110 years,” he said.
ORIGINS OF A CLYDESDALE TRADITION
In April 1933, August A. Busch, Jr. and Adolphus Busch III surprised their father, August A. Busch, Sr., with the gift of a six-horse Clydesdale hitch to commemorate the repeal of Prohibition of beer.
Realizing the marketing potential of a horse-drawn beer wagon, the company also arranged to have a second six-horse Clydesdale hitch sent to New York to mark the event. The Clydesdales drew a crowd of thousands on their way to the Empire State Building. After a small ceremony, a case of Budweiser was presented to former Governor Alfred E. Smith in appreciation of his years of service in the fight against Prohibition.
This hitch continued on a tour of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, thrilling thousands, before stopping in Washington, D.C., in April 1933 to reenact the delivery of one of the first cases of Budweiser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Shortly after the hitch was first introduced, the six-horse Clydesdale team increased to eight. On March 30, 1950, in commemoration of the opening of the Anheuser-Busch Newark Brewery, a Dalmatian was introduced as the Budweiser Clydesdales’ mascot. Now, a Dalmatian travels with each of the Clydesdale hitches.
