REGINA – Six Saskatchewan-reared horses will haul a major float in New York’s Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Day parade.
Manhattan’s Macy’s department store hosts the biggest parade in the United States and the longest float ever to participate, at 25 metres, is being hauled by an eight-horse hitch of black Clydesdales. Six of those were animals raised and trained on the Bill Aulie farm at Rouleau, Sask. Aulie raises the horses for Express Personnel Clydesdales and operates the Canadian side of that company’s horse enterprise.
Josh Minshull is the general manager of the business and travels with the horses from the Express Ranches location in Yukon, Oklahoma, to more than 50 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
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“Clydesdales are a growing sector of the horse industry and more and more farmers are turning them from a hobby into a business,” he said while attending Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, which runs Nov. 21-26.
“Businesses are using the horses to promote their services,” he said.
Promotion is why Bob Funk developed the horses after attending Agribition in 1996.
Funk built a business empire based on providing temporary employment placements, Express Personnel. He created what is now a 4,000 head, purebred Angus and Limousin cattle ranch at his home in Oklahoma and wanted the horses to promote his brand name.
Funk turned to Aulie to acquire and train rare, black Clydesdales.
Aulie said Funk applied the same rules to his horses as he does to operate his other holdings.
” ‘Find the best, do the best, be the best,’ he said and that is what we are doing,” said Aulie.
So well has the motto served Aulie and Minshull that in 2001, Express Clydesdales won that breed’s world championship for six- and eight-horse teams. That was a first for the black horses and for any group to win both hitch categories.
Minshull said the horse business doesn’t cover all of its own costs directly, but as a promotional tool for Express Personnel it is successful and relatively low cost.
“Express had a NASCAR team, but that was a lot more money and they decided horses were still a better public relations tool for them,” he said.
The horses are getting better at paying their own way, though.
Only 25 percent of the horses that Aulie acquires find their way into competition. The others are trained and sold as geldings, often in six-horse hitches to producers wanting to enter the business. A single horse of this calibre brings $7,000 to $18,000.
Aulie said the horses are a lot like young hockey players entering their careers.
“Some are great in junior (hockey) but when they get to the big leagues, they don’t pan out. Some have all the right stuff but the bright lights and attention leave them star-struck. Some make it, some don’t,” he said.
Temperament of the horses must match the task.
Minshull needs horses that can handle being in the middle of a ticker-tape parade or can stand in a department store being petted by passers-by for three hours at a time.
“But that means we are always buying and always selling and that makes it a good business for everybody.”
Aulie said despite the shortage of blacks, breeders often approach Express first when it comes to selling their best colts.
“We allow the horses to keep their original farm names and we promote the original breeder’s names. It means we get their first consideration when it comes time to sell,” said Aulie.
Minshull said 85 percent of the 150 horses in the Express stables are Canadian.
“It can be difficult to get American producers to sell because of the rarity of the breed. Canadians are more businesslike about it,” he said.
Minshull said Agribition remains a heritage show for the Express teams.
“It all started here. I wish I could stay longer, but I’m flying to New York to prepare for the parade,” he said.
