EN Today: The magic behind the Budweiser horses

Just like any celebrity, the Budweiser Clydesdales have acting coaches, too. Kate Samuels investigates their training regimen.

From Kate:

Like many of you, I have enjoyed the Budweiser Super Bowl ads for a long time, and in fact the only reason I would watch the Super Bowl when I was little was because I was hoping for their newest ad to change my world. I love their holiday ads, their unique sense of humor, and most of all, the horses are fabulous.

What may seem obvious now (but somehow I didn’t realize) is that those Clydesdale are IMPECCABLY trained. Much of this training is done by Robin Wiltshire of Turtle Ranch. The Budweiser horses’ acting coach/trainer is an Australian who originally came to Wyoming to ride on the rodeo circuit. Wiltshire is acclaimed in the industry for his ability to train animals quickly and get remarkable performances out of them.

Since coming to Wyoming in 1983 from his home in Australia, Wiltshire been asked to train all manner of animals to do the oddest things. His career started when he came to America for a few seasons on the Pro Rodeo Cowboy circuit riding saddle broncs and bulldogging. Although he’s comfortable on either side of the camera, his ability with training kept coming in handy. At the rodeo he became an in-house source of half-time entertainment. Pretty soon Robin was tearing around the arena, driving four head of horses with a wagon in flames careening behind them. The crowd loved it. Next thing you know, he’s got a longhorn steer jumping through a ring of fire, or six black horses abreast, rearing in unison.

For now, I leave you with this video that is a collection of moments during training and shooting Budweiser commercials over the past 15 years. Very cool.