Daycation

Champions In Our Backyard

By Rick Allen

A tour at Grandview Clydesdales is “the perfect day trip” and a great way to see these magnificent animals up close and personal.

It’s probably a pretty safe bet that for most of us, our experience with the majestic Clydesdale horses is from TV, probably commercials featuring the team pulling the Budweiser beer wagon. Or perhaps some have encountered them at an Anheuser-Busch theme park or on one of the team’s rare visits to Ocala in the past.

But that’s no longer the case. Grandview Clydesdales, a working Clydesdale farm east of Dunnellon dedicated to raising, training, and showing the majestic animals, now opens its gates to provide an up-close encounter with these magnificent horses. And it’s a great way to spend a few hours in the splendor that is horse country.

“It’s the perfect day trip,” says Karen Cobbs, who with her husband, Shannon, runs the farm. Though operating locally for nearly nine years, the Cobbs family began opening for public tours just in time to be closed again due to pandemic restrictions. But they recently re-launched the tours, both in the morning and evenings.

“This is for people to come enjoy these horses in their environment,” says Karen. “Having a true treasure in their backyard with multiple world- and national-champion Clydesdales here is unheard of. It’s something to be proud of that we can share with our community. Hopefully the community can embrace them and be proud of them as well.”

The two-hour tours offered at 10am on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday focus on the education and history of this breed of horse. Evening tours offered at 6pm the same days are less formal.

Clydesdales are an ancient and noble breed dating back hundreds of years in Scotland, where they were tireless workers, and descended from the war horses of armored knights throughout the Middle Ages.

"We’ve reliably documented someone in our family working with Clydes back to 1240,” Shannon says. “There’s never been a generation in our family that hasn’t had Clydesdales in their lives.”

Until about nine years ago, the operations were located in Indiana, on the same farm where Shannon grew up and developed his love for the breed. They still have the farm in Indiana, but here it’s just the five of them: Shannon and Karen and their sons Hessten, 21, Nash, 18, and Stone, 7.

“This is a true, working Clydesdale farm,” Shannon adds, “and family-run.”

Whether it's morning or evening, the tour starts at the Grandview gates just north of CR 484 not far from the Marion County Airport. Karen recently invited my wife, Susan, and me to join one of their holiday evening tours. Susan was especially excited, as Clydesdales are her favorite breed.

We’d visited the Budweiser team years ago in downtown Ocala, but this would go far beyond that brief encounter, essentially an all-access backstage pass into the care and breeding of these magnificent animals.

At five minutes before the tour starts, someone from the family comes to open the gates and lead a caravan of the guests to the parking area in front of their home. As an icebreaker, Shannon and Karen ask each guest to call out their name and where they’re from. The night we were there, there was an abundance of guests from Rhode Island.

“You know,” Shannon says, “Marion County is as big as Rhode Island.”

“Hey,” quips Karen, who hails from Manitoba in Central Canada. “I’ve got Clydesdales larger than Rhode Island.”

Everyone chuckles—well, except for maybe some of the Rhode Islanders! Then we’re ushered into a side room of what turns out to be the show barn. The walls are lined with plaques, ribbons, and certificates, testament to several lifetimes devoted to the development, advancement, and showing the breed.

“We’ve had 327 national champions, more than any farm in the United States,” Shannon says. “Every horse you’ll meet tonight is not only a past national champion, but is a current national champion.”

On the evening tours, it’s here where Shannon and Karen touch on the history and showing of Clydesdales. Tours under the lights are more for the romance and magic of the Clydes, while the mornings focus more on education and history, as well as some of the nitty-gritty of the farm.

“Clydesdales,” Shannon explains, “take a lot more work than any other breed.” While there may be some 40 horses on the ranch, the stars are the eight geldings in the show barn.

“He is big,” exclaims the diminutive Doris Whitehead, a fellow guest on the tour, as she enters the barn and walks under Gavin’s head poking out from his stall. At 19 “hands”—a horse measurement equal to four fingers or four inches—he towers over her. Nineteen hands is roughly six-foot-fourinches, and that’s at the “withers” or the base of the neck.

Prior to this tour, Doris says, she’d only seen Clydesdales on television and realized she didn’t truly appreciate their size. “They’re enormous horses,” she adds. Of course, amazing horses get equally amazing residences. The show barn is like a four-star hotel for the horses.

“For them to get into this barn, they know they’ve made it,” Shannon says. “They are the professional athletes of this farm.”

Consider this: They’re fed three meals a day that include a mound of hay and a custom blend of grains, their stalls are mosquito- and fly-free, and they receive regular massages and acupuncture. Moreover, it’s not unusual to have an equine chiropractor in twice a month!

“No,” Shannon says, “they have no desire to leave. And each one has their own personality, just like people and just like dogs. They’re wonderful to be around.”

Most of the horses in the barn are between six and 20 years old, with the youngest at three, and average 19 hands and 2,200 pounds. That’s literally a ton of horse. Each!

“Putting this group of horses together for competition is just like building a professional sports team,” Karen says. “These guys here are like the NBA or NFL players of our industry.” The tour then moves to a decorated outdoor pavilion. A mesmerizing “clop, clop, clop” announces that Gavin has been brought out to join us.

“That,” Shannon admits, “is one of the greatest sounds.”

It's here that he and Karen demonstrate the steps they go through to get each horse ready for competition. While Karen braids Gavin’s mane—a process called “rolling,” a traditional way to add the farm’s colors—Shannon dresses Gavin in his full harness. And when Gavin is fully “ready for primetime,” the Cobbs invite us up for holiday selfies with the horse.

Even within the time of a brief tour, it’s easy to see the Cobbs live intense lives. Every waking moment is dedicated to the animals in their care—and maybe some not-so-waking moments, too. “To let people into our lives to experience a working Clydesdale farm,” Karen says, “is very personal.” “I tell people we don’t have a yacht because we have show horses,” Shannon adds, laughing. “It’s a lifestyle. If you didn’t love it, you wouldn’t do it.”

David and Gail Schultz, also on the tour and residents of On Top of the World, nod knowingly. They ran a purebred Dorset sheep farm in their younger days. “Their lifestyle,” David admits, “we’re familiar with it.”

The tour moves to the gift shop for any final questions and where Karen plays some videos promoting their upcoming Grandview Invitational on the first weekend of February, a traditional all-class draft horse hitch show featuring Clydesdales, Belgians, and Percherons from around North America. This show will be held at the Florida Horse Park. And to take advantage of the beautiful new World Equestrian Center, on the following weekend, the Cobbs inaugurate Grandview World Nights, a swanky new competition of limited events taking place there. And with that, Karen slips away to meet with a few VIP guests, and we say goodbye.

Would we go back? Absolutely! “It was exciting to see the power and majesty of these animals up close,” Susan says. “They’re huge, but they’re also gentle. I’d love to go back in the daytime to see more of what it takes to care for them day-in and day-out.”

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Grandview Clydesdale Farm 10020 SW 125th Ct Rd Dunnellon www.grandviewclydesdales.tours (260) 388-4279 Tours, both day and night, are limited and advance reservations are required. Daytime and evening tours are $48 and are handicapped- and elderly-friendly.

The Grandview Invitational- February 4-6 The Florida Horse Park 11851 SW 16th Ave., Ocala www.grandviewinvitational.com Gates open at 8am and visitors can wander staging areas and watch pre-show preparations. Competitions start at noon. Tickets start at $15.

Grandview World Nights- February 11-12 World Equestrian Center 1750 NW 80th Ave., Ocala www.grandviewworldnights.com Events begin at 6pm both evenings. Tickets begin at $50.