DANTE -- They have been icons for more than 70 years, appearing in numerous television commercials, various other advertising promotions and at events across the nation.
Monday, 10 of the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales spent a quiet evening out of the spotlight, in a barn near Dante.
The horses and their five handlers arrived at the ranch of LaVern and Alice Koupal Monday evening as part of their trip from St. Louis to the Black Hills Stock Show, which began Tuesday in Rapid City.
The horses had a crowd waiting for them when they arrived, said Alice Koupal, but the animals' temperament remained mellow, even as children and dogs mingled nearby.
"They really didn't (react)," Koupal said. "They just let you pet them. They're very gentle."
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Koupal said more than 75 people flocked to the ranch to get a look at the team.
It's not easy for the horses to qualify to pull the famous Budweiser beer wagon. To be an Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale, a horse must be a gelding -- neutered -- male, must be at least 4 years old and at least six feet tall. The horses must weigh between 1,800 and 2,000 pounds, be bay in color, have four white stocking feet, a black mane and tail and a blaze of white on the face.
The Clydesdale teams became a staple of Anheuser-Busch marketing after August Busch Jr. introduced the first team to his father, August Busch Sr., on April 7, 1933. That was 15 days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to allow production of some alcoholic beverages.
To celebrate, the first Clydesdale team hauled the first case of post-Prohibition beer down Pestalozzi Street in St. Louis.
Koupal said horses from the team once stayed at Stockman's Livestock Market in Yankton years earlier, but the facility wasn't able to accommodate the horses this trip. Staff from the Yankton facility then called the Koupals, who agreed to let the animals stay in their barn, a building that was ordered from a Sears and Roebuck catalog in the 1930s and constructed by the Works Progress Administration.
The handlers were pleased with the location, partly because it offered the horses well water instead of chlorinated water.
After spending the night, the horses -- ranging in age from 5 to 14 -- were loaded into three semi-trucks.
Koupal said the group may return to the ranch on their way back to St. Louis.
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"They were so hospitable," Koupal said of the group. "I might see them again."
