THIS BUDS FOR YOU!!!

Our neighbor invited us to his sister's ranch this past Saturday to meet the famous Budweiser Clydesdales! They were staying at her ranch for the week since they were taking part in Gilbert Days (the town parade, fest and rodeo). We also went to see them early Sunday morning to watch them do their daily workout and to see how they prepare for their appearance at the rodeo later in the day. It was pretty cool! They are soooo beautiful and HUGE! All of the other "regular" horses at the ranch seemed soooo small. We learned a lot about them....there are six different groups of Clydesdales that travel the US. The group we saw are the ones that appear in all the TV commercials....plus we got to meet the Budweiser Dalmatian "Brady", who is also in the commercials. Can you believe that they wear harnesses/saddles during their shows that cost $90,000 EACH? And Brady travels with his own driver in a stretch-type van that they call his limo. Seeing them "behind the scenes" at the rodeo was interesting....we got to see all the hard work that goes into keeping them groomed for the show....and then the show itself was awesome. They dance around doing their little sidesteps and all of them are ALWAYS in sync and they all constantly look directly towards the crowd. It definitely was a very cool experience and a weekend enjoyed by all of us! On a side note....does this surprise you?....my neighbor tells Rory to bring along a cooler of beer to the ranch on Saturday night so what does he do?....he fills the cooler with HEINEKEN! He said he was just going to use the excuse that he thought Budweiser owned Heineken....what a dork!