Visiting Warm Springs Ranch at Boonville, Missouri

Warm Springs Ranch is the breeding facility for the Budweiser Clydesdales.  If you are going across Missouri on I-70, I would recommend that you make plans to visit it.  However, you have to schedule your visit ahead of time, because tickets are sold out well in advance.  

Our tour was to begin at 10 A.M., so we arrived before 9:30, just as they were opening the gates.  The lady opening the gates (we later learned her name was Kim) told us to follow the cars ahead of us and stop near the big "W".  

While we were waiting to be motioned on to the breeding barn, many of us (mostly older) folks took advantage of the photo-ops.  Who can resist having her picture taken with a life-sized statue of a Clydesdale?

Pictures were also taken from our spot near the "W" of the barn where our tour would start.

Beautiful, is it not?  

I wanted a picture of Cliff going into the breeding room, which was the starting point of the tour.  Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him to close his mouth.  

This little lady, Natalie, was a great tour guide!  She spoke clearly into the mic so that even Cliff had no problem hearing her.  She also had a great sense of humor and kept us chuckling.  

When she first took us out to introduce us to a couple of the stallions, this guy was far out in the background.  But as she kept speaking, he migrated over next to her.  

This is our other tour guide, Kim.  She was every bit as gregarious and funny as Natalie.    I forget the name of this horse, but he starred in a Budweiser commercial with a puppy... I think it was THIS ONE.  By the way, the area in which he is standing is where the horses are bathed.  Both the girls who guided us through the place were so knowledgeable, and handed out such a wealth of information, that I didn't retain a third of the facts they fed us.  They were able to answer ninety percent of the questions we asked them.  By the way, in this picture, Kim is holding a horseshoe that one of the Budweiser Clydesdales wear.  

  Then we went outside to learn about the trucks that take the horses all over the country.  They can't travel more than five hundred miles in a day, and they have to stop every two hours, I guess to let the horses take a break from having to balance themselves on the road.  The horses do NOT leave the truck on these rest stops.  

Then we got to see a foal that was born on September 11!  One of the highlights of the tour.

At the end of the tour, everybody had a chance to have someone take pictures of them with a Clydesdale (and Natalie, too.  Did I mention how much we liked our tour guides?)

I took a final shot of the barn, and we were on our way home, with one short stop for food.  I'll blog about that tomorrow.