An Alberta farmer has been bringing his Clydesdales to Calgary for over 40 years and he hasn't missed a Stampede in all that time.
Allan Gordeyko of Willow Way Farms, near Ohaton, Alberta, has become a Stampede mainstay. Ohaton is near Camrose.
Gordeyko has been showing his Clydesdales since the early 70's.
The Gordeyko family has developed their own high standards in Clydesdale breeding which includes importing about 35 horses from Scotland.
"Budweiser has been a pretty good customer of ours on the hitch geldings. Once we got pretty well established we brought a number of animals over from Scotland," said Gordeyko.
The hardy draft horses can pull more than a ton at a walking pace and were brought to North America in the mid 1800's by Canadians of Scottish Decent.
Budweiser started using the horses in 1933 to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition and used a Clydesdale hitch to carry the first case of beer from the St. Louis brewery.
Willow Way Farms gets calls from across North America from people who are interested in buying their horses.
One of Gordeyko's obligations at the Stampede is to interact with the public and answer questions about his horses.
He says he enjoys the people and is more than happy to do it.
The hefty horses consume as much as 20 to 25 quarts of feed, 50 to 60 pounds of hay, and 30 gallons of water each per day.
