‘That’s not supposed to happen’: Tense moments as Budweiser Clydesdale falls at San Antonio rodeo

The Budweiser Clydesdales put on a performance this past weekend, but it wasn’t the one planned at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

The stately team of eight horses became tangled after marching onto the rodeo arena Saturday, with one of the Clydesdales being forced to the ground. The front horses turned right toward the arena fencing, doubling back towards the wagon, then turned right again into the rest of the hitched horses.

As a result one of the horses – each weighs 1,800-2,300 pounds – became tangled in the middle and went down onto the ground.

The crowd could be heard to gasp in a YouTube video, which has racked up more than 3.4 million views since being posted Feb. 18.

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“Here comes the crew, here comes the team to get them untangled,” the announcer can be heard to say on the video. “Anytime you are in the rodeo business, the livestock business, when you are working with animals you never know what can happen.  … Everybody think positive.”

‘They should be praised’

During the next eight minutes or so, a crew unhitched the horses surrounding the downed horse, which was being calmed and soothed by other crew members. About nine minutes after the incident occurred, the downed horse arose to cheers from the rodeo crowd and was led out of the arena ahead of the wagon and other horses.

Carrie Olguin, a San Antonio area resident who posted the video, said she was at the rodeo capturing video and taking pictures of the horses for her YouTube channel devoted to model horse hobbyists.

As the horses turned right into the rest of the team, “you can hear me say, “Oh, that is not supposed to happen. I was so entranced by the events below that I did not utter another word. Neither did my husband, sitting beside me,” Olguin said. “I was stunned because this is such a rare event. The team did a masterful job managing the situation. They should be praised for their actions.”

None of the Clydesdales were injured

None of the horses were injured, Anheuser-Busch said in a statement to USA TODAY. “At this past weekend’s appearance at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, one of our horses fell. The horse has been carefully examined by our equine veterinarians and is doing fine. We have resumed our schedule as planned.”

There are three touring hitches of Clydesdales that travel across the U.S. making hundreds of appearances annually. Four new foals were born recently at the horses’ breeding and training facility at Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, Missouri, about 150 miles west of St. Louis.

The Clydesdales were first introduced in April 1933 in a parade in St. Louis to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. The horses have also been the focus of lots of classic commercials including the football-playing Clydesdales in 2003, and a horse and trainer reunited in 2013.