The Clydesdales Ohakune pipe work done are coming!

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 423, 11 February 1992, Page 5

The Clydesdales Ohakune pipe work done

are coming!

The Clydesdales and breweries have been strorigly connected since the early years of ale houses in Britain where daily, they would transport the barrels to the old English pubs. World famous Clydesdale teams honour the early tradition with the best known in America, the Anheuser-Busch team, a well -known national institution in that country. DB's Clydesdales were established in 1985 from mainly South Island stock and since that time they have covered the length and breadth of New Zealand, generating nostalgia among older people and enthusiasm from youngsters seeing the horses for the first time. They come under the control of Nick van der Sande, team manager and trainer, who has been with the DB Clydesdales since they were formed in 1985. The DB Clydesdales

are quartered on a 20acre Paterangi farm in the Waikato near Hamilton. The farm is specially equipped to house the team who are used in the daily chores around the property from harrowing, ploughing, regrassing, and seeding to rolling. The more experienced horses also help with the breaking in and training of the new horses. Each horse in average work will consume eight to nine kgs per day in two feeds. Additional grass and hay is fed depending on grass and weather conditions. If the workload is heavy, then the horses are stepped up to three feeds per day - consuming 12 kgs at each Feed. The DB Clydesdales are the most travelled horses in the country covering more than 20,000 km a year appearing at shows and parades They have featured at

major exhibitions and supported charity activities in a round of appearances that are booked three years in advance. The stars of two television and cinema commercials, the DB Clydesdales have taken part in mainland marches through the South Island, trekking into the McKenzie Country and through snow on the lower foothills of the Southem Alps. They make 50 appearances a year including A & P Shows, street parades, centennial celebrations and race meetings. The team symbolises the culture and tradition of Dominion Breweries, reflecting honesty, dignity and strength inherent in the spirit of the Clydesdale. Performances require at least four days of preparation with four staff cleaning and polishing gear and on the day of the show, shampooing each of the horses, whitening feathers and faces and plaiting manes. Once the team is on location, there is another two hours of preparation in harnessing each horse and hitching them to the wagon. Dominion Breweries presents the Clydesdales in the traditional manner with bells, breastplates, ribbons and plumes. The team pull an authentic, four tonne, 80-year-old wagon.