| Scientific
Classification History
and Distribution
Physical
Characteristics
Senses
Behavior
Diet and Eating Habitats
Birth and Care of Young
Longevity and
Causes of Death
The Anheuser-Busch
Clydesdale Teams
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- A. History.
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- Horses were first domesticated in the Ukraine approximately 6,000 years ago.
- The Clydesdale breed originated in the Clyde Valley, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
- The Clydesdale breed originated in the mid-eighteenth century, when the Sixth Duke of
Hamilton (1742 - 1758) imported a flemish stallion (male horse) from Flanders
(a region of Northern Europe currently encompassed by France, Belgium, and the
Netherlands). It’s from this stallion mating with a work horse mare that the
Clydesdale breed developed.
- Following contributions from Flemish and Frisian stallions, the definitive
characteristics of the breed were fixed at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
- This breed’s official debut under the name Clydesdale was at the 1826 Glasgow
Exhibition in Scotland.
- The Clydesdale was bred for hauling coal and doing farm work. In Scotland it eventually
replaced the Shire breed as a carriage horse.
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 - B. Distribution.
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- Clydesdales are bred in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Africa, New Zealand
and Australia.
- Clydesdales were introduced to the United States Prior to the Civil War.
- One of two breeding farms for the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales is Grant’s Farm, located in south St.
Louis, Missouri. Approximately 15 to 20 foals (a horse under six
months of age) are born there each year. Grant’s Farm is the former home of Ulysses
S. Grant, Civil War commander and the eighteenth president of the United States.
- The second breeding farm is located near Romoland, California, about 60 miles southeast
of Los Angeles. Approximately 15 to 20 foals are born there each
year.
- C. Population.
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- The estimated United States Clydesdale population is between
 2,500 and 3,000.
- Approximately 400 Clydesdales are registered in the United States each year.
- Anheuser-Busch currently maintains the largest Clydesdale herd in the world, between 225
and 250 horses.
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