It’s not every day a horse breeder sees one of their horses on the most popular Super Bowl commercial of the year, but for David and Susan James, owners of Rosedale Farm, the day of the big game was a touchdown and a big win for one of their prized Clydesdale geldings known as Alex.
“I was so excited, I felt like Brad Pitt’s mom,” said Susan James, laughing. “It was all very exciting.”
It was also totally unexpected. And like most great Sports stories, there is a good back-story.
The Budweiser “Puppy Love” commercial, produced by creative agency Anomaly, focuses on the connections animals share with one another at the Warm Springs Ranch, the breeding stable for the Budweiser Clydesdales.
The commercial depicts the bond between a 10-week-old Labrador retriever puppy and the Clydesdales. Through tenacity and several attempts, the puppy ultimately earns a spot on the Budweiser Clydesdale team.
One of the horses featured in that team is Alex.
“We sold two of our geldings, Alex and Andrew, to Anheuser-Busch a year ago last September,” Susan said, noting the horses were three years old when they left Rosedale Farm for the Budweiser Clydesdale training centre in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
For a small breeder, that was a big honour in itself and it came via an equine breeding contact in Embro, Ontario, a third generation Clydesdale horseman and well known figure in the breed’s industry.
Knowing the quality of their horses, he put the people at Budweiser’s Clydesdale breeding ranch in touch with the James’. “We felt very honoured, not only because they went to Budweiser, but because they were chosen,” Susan said, noting their two horses would join the esteemed stables of 250 Clydesdales that are selected to represent the Budweiser tradition of hitch horses.
“We know they couldn’t be in a better place. It’s the best place in the world for a Clydesdale to be.”
To qualify for a Budweiser travelling hitch team, a Clydesdale gelding must be four years old, stand 72 inches at the shoulder when fully mature, weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds, have a bay coat, four white legs, a white blaze and a black mane and tail.
Green Leaf Royal Flush, a Clydesdale from a farm in Cannington, sired both Alex and Andrew to mares at Rosedale Farm, and the young geldings shared similar confirmation, physical features and personality traits ideally characteristic of the draft horse breed.
“Alex is a dark bay who stands 18 hands high, with a nice long neck. He has the four white legs with feathered feet and a brown left knee, while Andrew had a brown right knee,” Susan explained. “Alex is perky and he loves to drive.”
Through regular contact with the trainers at Budweiser, Susan stays up to date with the success of her former horses.
She learned Andrew had the good fortune to be transported to the prestigious Grant Farm, the main stable of the Budweiser Clydesdales and ancestral home of the Busch family, located on 281 acres outside St. Louis, Missouri.
But Alex stayed in New Hampshire.
“A few weeks ago, my contact told me that Alex had just returned from California, after filming the Super Bowl commercial,” Susan said. “I don’t know why they chose him, when they have 250 to choose from, but it was very exciting.”
When commercials were released on the Internet a week before the Super Bowl game, Susan and David were among the 37 million viewers who watched “Puppy Love,” making it the most popular commercial of the 2014 Super Bowl line-up.
“A million of those views were mine alone,” Susan joked.
The Budweiser website quotes company vice president, Brian Perkins as stating, “The Budweiser Clydesdales are an icon of the brand and have become an icon of the Super Bowl as well. These majestic horses represent the values of the brand and universal values of trust, quality and nobility that appeal to audiences of all ages.”
As proud as they are, Susan and David are leery of being in the spotlight, but hope the attention on their gelding’s success will help promote the future of the breed.
“We are rather insular people, but hopefully the exposure of the Clydesdale will help the breed in this very depressed equine environment,” Susan said.
“There are so many people who have Clydesdales and there is so little reward for all their hard work. I hope this story is just really heartwarming for the breed.”
The pair plans to take part in the World Clydesdale Show 2015, to be held in London, Ontario from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. The show will celebrate the breed and the people who work to continue it’s tradition as a gentle giant.
It’s not easy to do, at a time when all facets of the equine industry are in peril, Susan notes.
“The industry, because of the economy (since 2008), and the McGuinty government, who just didn’t give the horse industry a period of time before it cut it off at the knees basically, have destroyed the trainers, the vets, blacksmiths, feed companies … because of the destruction of the horse industry.“
She adds, “If horses are all people have known, their lives have been destroyed.”
Susan hopes the Budweiser commercial and its local link will bring happiness to her fellow equine community.
“I hope there is joy someone can take from seeing a local horse do good,” she said. “Any bright light in the horse world is a good story to share with horse people, for them to enjoy. Everybody loves a feel-good story.”
Susan and David plan to continue working with their Clydesdales, including driving a team.
“We have bred and shown in the past,” Susan said, noting the retired couple is happy with the status quo of the farm. “We just find that it’s a lot of work. Now the horses are here because we love them.”
It’s not your typical retirement plan, but neither Susan nor David would trade a thing.
“We just enjoy the horses, although it’s a seven-day-a-week job,” said Susan.
“It provides exercise and it’s good for your heart to look into those big brown eyes and know they trust you to take care of them.”
