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Budweiser Clydesdales put on show for Shell Factory, SWFL sites

A young girl waves at the horses. The world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales put on a show Wednesday afternoon at the Shell Factory and Nature Park in North Fort Myers. The streets were lined with hundreds of people ready to watch the horses show off.
Andrea Melendez
/
WGCU
A young girl waves at the horses. The world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales put on a show Wednesday afternoon, February 22, 2023, at the Shell Factory and Nature Park in North Fort Myers. The streets were lined with hundreds of people ready to watch the horses show off.

The world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales are clip-clopping their way through Southwest Florida this week starting at the Shell Factory and Nature Park in North Fort Myers.

World-famous Budweiser Clydesdales put on a show at Shell Factory in North Fort Myers

The horses are playful, grand and enjoy putting on a show for the large crowd.

“The Community loves this event”, said Pamela Cronin, owner of The Shell Factory & Nature Park. “This was my husband’s dream, every year they come back it means so much to us.” Tom Cronin, died Feb. 16, 2018, a week before his 79th birthday and a few days before the Clydesdales were set to make their appearance again after 10 years.

This is the Shell Factory’s fifth year in a row hosting the horses.

Each Clydesdale hitch are made up of eight horses, a beer wagon and a Dalmatian dog sitting next to the drivers or atop the wagon and a "friend" of the horses. Back in the day the “coach dogs” were trained to guard the horses and wagons while out for beer deliveries. Budweiser has carried on that tradition since 1950.

You can still see the majestic team this week at the Bell Towers at 5 p.m., Thursday and on Saturday at the Swamp Cabbage Festival Parade in LaBelle starting at 10 a.m.

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