BURBANK, Calif. — It’s the clip clop of a comeback.
After skipping the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years, this year the Budweiser Clydesdales are back off the sidelines and spending the week in Burbank at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, located appropriately enough, at the tail end of Main Street.
It’s here that these gentle giants are pampered by a team of handlers, including Lane Soendker.
“Everyone says they’re basically rock stars and we’re the groupies,” he said. “Anything they need, we do it.”
That means shaving and trimming the beautiful beasts from head to toe, with special attention paid to the fluffy white hair on their legs.
“Feathers, as we call them,” Soendker said, explaining how they use a purple shampoo to keep them perfectly white. “You gotta look very pristine to go see the public, you know?”
White legs are just one of five must-have qualifications for being a Budweiser Clydesdale. All the horses must be geldings.
“That’s a neutered male,” Soendker explained.
They must be brown with a black mane and tail and a white blaze on their nose. They also need to be towering figures, standing at least 18 hands high, which is 6 feet to the top of their shoulder.
This team that’s in town for the big game consists of 10 horses. And Soendker is on a first name basis with all of them.
“This is Diesel,” he said, approaching one of the majestic animals in his stall. “He’s one of our lead horses.”
Soendker doesn’t talk to them so much, he explained. He just gives them a lot of love.
“His lips are quivering now,” he pointed out, scratching the horse’s outstretched neck. “He loves it.”
His job isn’t just to groom the animals, but to tend to their wardrobe as well, like the 10 pound leather, brass and patent leather bridle. Handlers spend hours every week cleaning all the rigging, which weighs about 135 pounds.
“Which to a 2,000 pound animal is nothing for them,” Soendker said. “It’s like putting on your backpack to go to school.”
Speaking of school, here’s a history lesson. To celebrate the end of Prohibition, Budweiser sent a team of 6 Clydesdales to parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and deliver a case of beer to FDR. That was 1933.
They made their first Super Bowl commercial appearance decades later, in 1975.
Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao directed this year’s ad, called “A Clydesdale’s Journey.” It’s a sweeping, cinematic tale of an injured horse getting back on his feet, a symbol of resilience and a metaphor for what we’ve all been through these past two years.
But commercials are just one part of a Budweiser Clydesdale’s gig. These guys are on the road visiting wholesalers and doing public appearances 300 days a year. On Friday, they will pay a visit to Inglewood City Hall, where the public will be able to see them from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Among the team getting them ready for that appearance is Morghan Sonderer. She grew up with horses and can spend up to six hours a day making sure the Clydesdales look sharp.
“Every day and every week,” she said as she ran electric clippers along a massive cheek, giving one horse a fresh shave.
She loves seeing people light up when they see the iconic Clydesdales in person.
“These horses bring joy,” she said. “I love that it brings that to people. They bring memories. It doesn’t matter the age.”
Soendker agrees.
“Little kids looking up to them or adults still having to look up to them. The smile on their face makes it all worth it, you know?”
His job is physically demanding, keeps him on the road a lot and often means rising with the roosters, but when it comes to the needs of the horses, you’ll never hear him say nay.
