YORKTON - When you grew up in a two-channel television world part of the tradition of the family’s gathering on New Year’s Day was the Rose Bowl.
The parade was something everyone gathered to watch – the ladies to the kitchen to cook, and the children off to play board games – too often Monopoly but that is a sad story for some other day – the adult males staying to watch the actual game – napping for a quarter or two a common option for many of them.
Here in Yorkton the Rose Bowl parade holds some special significance. The Yorkton Regional High School Marching 100 represented Canada 26 years ago at the 1998 Tournament of Roses in Pasadena California on New Years Day with 217 members involved. It remains a rather historic moment locally.
And while the parade is not exactly sport — but for something different it works here this week as it is adjacent in this case thanks to the fabled Rose Bowl game. This year unfortunately the game was an uncompetitive affair for fans but that is college football.
But back to the parade. For a farm boy like myself, the Budweiser wagon pulled by eight Clydesdales has always caught my eye, and this year in particular as I learned the right lead horse (from the driver’s perspective), was born and grew up at Clydesdale Creek at Stockholm, Sask.
Delvin and Louise Szumutku have owned and operated Clydesdale Creek for over 35 years, and Delvin has been involved with raising Clydesdales for more than seven decades.
Clydesdale Creek has competed at four World shows in Canada and the USA, and have bushels of awards, but there is something special about having raised a lead horse on the famed Budweiser wagon.
To start with a horse has to meet certain criteria to be in a Budweiser hitch, such as standing at least 18 hands high (6 feet tall); be a gelding and at least four years old; have a bay coat, four white stockings, a blaze of white on the face, a black mane and a black tail; and, weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds
Delvin Szumutku explained ‘Diesel’ “has been in the hitch for about four years.” Adding he was purchased “as a coming three-year-old,” and then had to grow into a spot on the hitch.
“It was a year before he actually made it into a hitch.”
And it was not initially in a lead role.
“You don’t just put a horse in at lead, they must develop the attributes to be a lead horse,” said Szumutku.
To grow into a lead horse – especially to be right lead – Szumutku said you want a horse with lots of power, but that needs to be matched with a certain mindset.
When on a Budweiser wagon there are always huge crowds and lots of things which can be a distraction, but Diesel just does his job, offered Szumutku.
“Nothing seems to bother him,” he said. “He’s a very confident kind of horse.”
Diesel is a ‘showy’ horse too, and that matters.
“They have to look the part . . . He’s very photogenic,” said Szumutku.
It’s another feather in the cap for Szumutku who has twice been awarded the Saskatchewan Clyde person of the year, and Louise awarded that same honour once. He is one of the founding members of the Canadian Clydesdale Hall of Fame and is serving his third year as chairperson of that same organization.
