My 6,000 lb Retirement Gift
Some people may get a watch or ring when they retire. Others may get flowers or a nice bottle of wine.
Me? Well, I (happily) got something that certainly wasn’t going to fit in my pocket or atop my bookcase. Heck, it was barely going to fit in my barn.
What I was lucky enough to receive upon my retirement in 2010 was a Budweiser Clydesdale show wagon.
I was a pretty lucky guy. Certainly not your every day parting gift. But very little could have summed up my 25-yr career with AB Clydesdale Operations any better.
This particular wagon though, and it’s sentimental value to me, went well beyond my career at AB. It was once purchased and owned by my late father, Frederick G. Poole of Wawanesa, Manitoba, Canada.
Yep. He owned it for several years starting in the late 1960’s through the 1970’s, long before it came into the hands of Anheuser-Busch.
My father loved this wagon. He used it to show his hitch of ‘Fred Poole & Sons Belgians’ across western Canada and under the ‘Alberta Game Farm’ name from coast to coast.
And yes, as a young lad, it was quite a favorite of mine as well.
Aside from the post-1960’s history of the wagon I have come to know, the rest is kinda spotty. I know it is a 1900’s Studebaker freight wagon that was later converted to a draft horse show wagon. And to the best of my knowledge it was originally used to haul freight on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When my father purchased it, he did so from longtime Clydesdale breeder Charlie Halliday of Paisley, Ontario.
Once at AB, it got a complete overhaul/rebuild at Nauman Woodworks in Columbia, IL prior to it being sent to the Busch Gardens Tampa Hamlet for display.
Apart from that, not a ton is known. So if some of you draft horse enthusiasts/historians who happen to be reading this and know more, I’d love to hear from you.
It’s a true beauty. Today it’s kept in a climate-controlled environment, polished at least three times a week and kept in immaculate condition. I can feel the history in it whenever I see it. And I’m lucky enough to call it my own thanks to Anheuser-Busch - the greatest company I could have ever been involved with. Sure, a watch would have been nice. But a little piece of my history was so much better!
