Clydesdale Tour

Our son's family from Chicagoland came to visit this weekend and we did tourist stuff.  Among the places the wanted to visit was Grant's Farm.  The farm is home of a wildlife park and a training site for the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales.  Visitors to the park get close up views of the wildlife and also get a chance to see some of the Clydesdales close up.  You also get to see some trained animal acts and partake of the Anheuser-Busch adult beverages all for the price of a parking fee.  There are some premium activities.  Our guests want to do the behind the scenes Clydesdale tour.  We got to walk through the paddocks and see a number of horses.  Our guide was one of the horse trainers and she did an excellent job of explaining how the horses are managed.  The buildings are immaculate and the horses are well cared for.  Our guide did an excellent job discussing training techniques and explaining animal welfare.

I do take issue with the quality of the pastures.  It is an aesthetic issue, but excellent pasture could also  contribute to nutrition of the horses and reduce feed costs.  The photo below shows that the dominant species are goose grass and knotweed.  I am not sure why one of the top horse owners in the world gives so little care to the pastures.  Yes they are mostly green, but they do not contribute much to the horse diet except to give them something to chew on.  Better species and some rotational grazing systems would look so much better at least to the trained eye.  It would also be really cool if they used some warm season grasses in the wildlife park to simulate a more natural looking environment for the grazing species. It looks to be like living in the fanciest mansion you can think  of, but with bare unfinished wood floors.  Very comfortable to be sure, but there is something missing.

Knotweed Pasture

Superbowl 2013 Horses