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Millboro woman travels with Clydesdales
BY GINA HAMILTON •CONTRIBUTING WRITER
 | | Amy Trout of Millboro poses with one of the famous horses. Trout trained as a young girl with Sarah Davis at Vineyard Farms and now travels all over the country with the Clydesdales as a handler. She's close to her Millboro home this week at temporary stables set up in Staunton. (Photo courtesy Karla Bower). |
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MILLBORO - It's obvious Amy Trout loves her job as a handler for a team of the Budweiser Clydesdale horses for Anheuser-Busch, which travels the East Coast for shows, parades and fairs. She also loves her home here in Millboro, but she's on the road most of the time. With a head start loving horses from Bath County's own Sarah Davis in horse-training classes, Trout has followed her passion into a cross-country adventure with the Clydesdales.
Enthusiasm is unmistakable in her voice as she explains the brewing company has the largest independent herd in the world - about 250 horses. "We have six hitches (eight horses each). Of the six, five travel. The only one stationary is at Orlando, Fla."
Her group is based in Merrimack, N.H., and travels from Canada to Mississippi. Other traveling hitches are based in St. Louis, Missouri, San Antonio, Texas, and at two sites in California.
 | | The Budweiser Clydesdales enjoy a run in fields as part of their daily exercise routine when they're on tour. (Photo courtesy Anheuser-Busch) |
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"My group travels about 320 days a year; we are on the road almost constantly," Trout said. "The only time you really get to go home is on vacation, or if you're just lucky enough to do a show near enough."
For Trout, 29, that's happening this week.
The John D. Eiland Co. in Verona, a Budweiser distributorship in the region that includes Bath and Highland counties, is sponsoring a visit of the Budweiser Clydesdales that began Tuesday at Shenandoah Harley-Davidson in Staunton. A downtown Staunton parade is being held to- night (July 19) from 6-8:30 p.m., then the team and its entourage move to the Lexington Horse Center on Saturday to participate in the Rockbridge County Fair from 4-7 p.m. On Sunday, another viewing opportunity will again be at Shenandoah Harley-Davidson in Staunton, where festivities will include contests for the Miss Shenandoah Harley- Davidson and the annual Last Band Standing. A motorcycle signed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be given away by the John D. Eiland Co.
For Trout, her focus is on the magnificent big horses often called the "gentle giants." A local wholesaler who requests a Clydesdale visit has to make arrangements to accommodate the traveling show, she said. "We travel with three semis. We have to have parking, water and electricity. Plus John D. Eiland had to arrange shows for us. We're basically a marketing tool for the local Budweiser distributor. There's no cost for us to come, unless it's (to pay) for security for the horses at night. Anheuser-Busch supports 95 percent of the cost, not the local Budweiser people. There's never a fee to see the horses."
In Staunton, the horses are being stabled in portable stalls under a tent on the motorcycle dealership property.
Trout's work day usually begins at 7 a.m. as the group of seven handlers feed the horses - three 5-pound bags of grain and hay - the stalls are re-bedded, and the horses go out for an hour's exercise or run in a pasture. "We may ride or walk them for an hour. Then we start a grooming regimen and they get a full body bath once a week," she said. "Then we go into the harness trailer and start polishing the harness for the day's first show," which usually begins in mid-afternoon. The horses are shown two to three hours in an afternoon, after which there's more grooming and cleanup work. "We usually average 60 to 65 hours a week; that's with one day off," Trout said.
Young horse woman
Trout's love of horses started early. She was born in Fredericksburg, but said, "My parents decided they would rather raise their children in the country than the city. They bought a small farm on Mill Creek Road (in Millboro). We raised sheep, dairy goats, draft horses, and a slew of other critters. My love for the gentle giants started at an early age of 5." Trout added, "I used to take riding lessons from Sarah Davis on her farm. So from the age of 5 or 6, I was really into the horses."
Years later, the family moved to Augusta County and she and her brother graduated from Buffalo Gap High School. Trout continued her education at North Dakota State University, graduating in 2000 with a B.S. degree in animal science and a minor in zoology.
"My first job was teaching agriculture at Rockbridge County High School," Trout recalled. She taught for two years, taught adult night courses for Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, and also coached girls' basketball. "My love for animals is what led me to Anheuser-Busch," she said. "I remember getting a call saying that I had an interview in St. Louis to be a handler for the Budweiser Clydesdales, and I thought: 'Eureka!' Now I've been with Anheuser-Busch for five years and love it."
She started with a hitch in San Antonio at Sea World Park. "I transferred to Merrimack over a year ago. I prefer to travel the East Coast, and this is the first time I've brought the horses this close to my home area," she said.
Trout bought a home in Millboro four years ago about two miles from where her parents' farm used to be. Her father, Jim Trout, is retired from the Staunton Fire Depart- ment. Her mother, Susan McGee, owns Benchmark Realty in Verona.
The Clydesdales
"The horses are big; they average 18 hands high (about 6 feet) and 2,000 pounds," Trout said. "We had benches made to get up there if we have to ride them." She said the horses have to be docile and have a good personality. Anheuser-Busch has its own breeding and training facility at Grant's Farm in St. Louis, where up to 15 foals are born each year. According to Trout, the horses go through stages to see if they'll make the cut to show horse with the right size, look and temperament. "We can't use a horse that can't travel well and can't perform well for us," she said. "So horses that don't make the cut may end up in Busch Gardens (in Tampa, Fla.) or Sea World, where they don't have to travel or perform."
According to company history, it was in 1933 that August A. Busch Jr. gave a hitch of Clydesdales to his father in celebration of the resumption of brewing in St. Louis following the repeal of Prohibition. The powerful breed of draft horse originated in the Clyde valley of Scotland. The horses are known for their distinctive, feathery hair on their fetlocks - the lower part of their legs above and behind the hooves.
The Anheuser-Busch corporate icons will celebrate their 75th anniversary next year. "That's a milestone for any company," she said. "And that company has maintained everything the same - the horses look the same, they're wearing the same kind of harness, and most of the wagons are the original Studebaker wagons, which would have been used to deliver beer. We are keeping that tradition alive."
A traveling life
Trout said she really likes the traveling aspect of the job, going to different places and meeting all kinds of people. "It's almost like traveling with rock stars," she said. Some of the famous she's met include Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tim McGraw and Wayne Gretzky.
"And we see some pretty country," she said. The only downside to the job is being away from family and missing holidays. "But I'm not married, so I can survive that," Trout said. "But when you travel as much as I do, you appreciate coming home. There's nothing better than to see the sign for Millboro."
She said during the one day she has off a week, she has access to a rental car to go where she wants, noting "Anheuser-Busch is really a good company to work for; they treat us well."
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