In a specially designed barn with luxury stalls lit by chandeliers resides a group of 52 black and white Clydesdales.
Bob Funk, owner of Express Ranches in Oklahoma, one of the largest spreads in the United States, first spied the rare heavy horses at Canadian Western Agribition in 1998.
He had to have some, so he bought 10 geldings to develop a unique set of driving teams seen at the Rose Bowl Parade, Agribition, Calgary Stampede and prestige heavy horse shows across the continent.
Ranch employees return to Canada every year to buy more, said Doug Sauter, who works for one of the Express company divisions that include an employment company, sports teams and the ranch.
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Sauter, who was born in Fairlight, Sask., is head coach of the Central Hockey League’s Oklahoma City Blazers, but in the off season he promotes the horses and travels with them because he says his first love is agriculture.
The horses stand 17 to 18 hands and weigh more than 2,000 pounds. They have black bodies, white blazes and white stockings.
Black is a recessive gene, so breeders cannot predict the colour even if two blacks are mated. During the summer months the horses are kept indoors out of the searing sun because their coats tend to bleach. They are turned out on grass at night.
When they are on display some people mistake them for Shires or Percherons.
“Horse people know that they are Clydes,” Sauter said.
When a new crop of colts arrive at the ranch they are trained on the four, six or eight hitch in an outdoor arena, as well as a round pen designed for training.
This year 12 of the horses came to the Stampede and they will also be seen at Agribition.
“Agribition is their graduation,” said Sauter, who accompanied the teams to Calgary. The younger horses are shown in Regina and the older, more experienced teams move on to the larger shows and parades.
The Express Personnel Clydesdales were recently named the 2006 Eight-Horse Hitch Champions at the National Clydesdale Show at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee.
Express Ranches is the second largest seedstock operation in the United States with two registered herds of Black Angus and Limousin on 250,000 acres.
To date, annual sales of cattle, semen and embryos have topped $4.5 million.
The company also offers a scholarship program awarding more than $1.7 million to North American young people who use stock bred at Express Ranches and win at recognized shows.
