Driver Catherine Moran and her friend Tammy Pelonero competing in the Amateur Cart Class at the Olds Fair with Catherine’s beloved Clydesdale, Wild Rose Ruby Rose. “This was the first time both Ruby and I had been in a competitive cart class. We didn’t win, but I was very proud of her anyway,” Catherine says.
Equine enthusiasts are a charming lot; part of their charm lies in their commonality with the characteristics they describe in their preferred equine breed. The Clydesdale aficionados I spoke with to profile this draft breed were as down to earth and charismatic as the horses they described.
“You don’t have to convince anyone to love the Clydesdale,” says Catherine Moran, who shares time with two beloved Clydesdales — Ruby, a six-yearold mare and Taylor, a two-yearold gelding — at their home near Blackie, AB.
“You just have to meet a Clyde to fall in love with these amazing draft horses — you’ll never go to a light horse again,” Catherine enthuses. “They don’t call them gentle giants for nothing.”
Bruce Roy, who’s been an advocate for the draft horse for long enough to have served on the Calgary Stampede’s Heavy Horse Committee for over 50 years, agrees. “There’s a charisma about them I find very interesting.” he says. “I grew up west of Cayley (Alberta) in a day when there were a lot of older, very experienced, very knowledgeable horsemen around who had worked at the Bar U Ranch (National Historical Site of Canada) which up until the early 20s was the world’s largest Percheron breeder,” explains Bruce. “I used to sit and listen to the conversations among these men, when the draft horse breed you championed was as important as the political party you supported.”
The Clydesdale is native to the Clyde River Valley, in the Lanarkshire district of Scotland,
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