THROW BACK THURSDAY My Buddy Manny Raber In 1986, on a whim, I went to auction school up in Mason City, Iowa. When I finished up the guy that owned the school asked me if I would be interested in going to work for him in his auction business. At that time I wasn’t ready to quit riding horses yet. I was just 36 years old. Back in 1990, I had a heck of a string of horses; there were 6 national champions in the group. I always had it in the back of my mind that I did not want to be one of those horse trainers that got to the point where they weren’t competitive anymore and hung on too long. They had to ride mediocre horses to just buy groceries. So, at the end of 1991, I sold all of my equipment and sent all of the horses to Stan Morey. In February of 1991, I accepted the job with the auction company. We sold our house and moved up to Iowa to learn the auction business from one of the best auctioneers in the country. It gave me the opportunity to sell 2 to 4 auctions a week and I got the experience to sit and sell 6 to 10 hours at a time. I loved it. While in Mason City, Iowa I bought a little 10 acre place that had a barn on it so I continued to work a couple of horses at a time. There was a business man up there that had Belgian show horses and, somehow, we got acquainted. He told me he had a hell of a 3 year old Belgian colt that he thought would make a good lead horse in his 6 horse hitch. He asked me if I thought I could put a nice mouth on this colt and asked if I would work him like a show horse. I told him I would try. I worked the colt for a few weeks and he asked if he could send his trainer over to watch what I was doing. The kid’s name was Manny Raber. The horse ended up as one of the man’s leaders and won many Championships. Manny would come over to watch and ask questions. We hit it off right from the start. Manny was raised Amish and was from Hazelton, Iowa. If you are familiar with the Amish, they have a practice called Rumspringa. The kids speak German to one another and don’t learn English until they go to school. Then they go to school through 8th grade and, after that, they can go on Rumspringa. It is a time that they can go out among the general population and make up their mind whether they want to join the Amish church or not. Many do and some don’t. If they never join the church they can come and go home with no restrictions. If they join and then leave they can never go home. They are shunned and are never to be able to come home or even sit at the same table with the Amish. Manny is one that just never joined and so he can go home to see his folks anytime. Manny had been around draft horses since he was a little kid working horses in the field. He had an uncle by the name of Alan Detweiler. Alan was one of the biggest dealers of hitch geldings in both the Percheron and Belgian breeds. Around 1992, Manny was working for the Belgian Horse guy in Iowa. His name is Chris Schwark. Manny started driving Schwark’s 6 horse Belgian hitch in the show ring. Manny was a natural. He has big, strong arms and, more important, strong hands. He drove this Belgian hitch for a show season and then was seen by a guy by the name of Bill Dean. Bill owned the largest draft horse auction in the world in Waverly, Iowa. People would come to this auction twice a year from around the globe where they would sell 700 to 800 head of draft horses every sale. Bill Dean hired Manny to come drive the Midwest Horse Sales 6 horse hitch of black Percheron horses. Again, Manny was a force to be reckoned with. A guy from Alberta Canada by the name of Jim Pool was in charge of the Clydesdale operations for Budweiser. At the time, Anheuser Busch was still owned by the Busch family and also owned all of the Sea Worlds. There were a total of 6 Clydesdale hitches (Merrimack, New Hampshire - St. Louis, Missouri - Romalands, California and then at the Sea Worlds in Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego. All of the hitches traveled except the San Diego and Orlando hitches. They travel with 3 tractor and semi rigs and 7 people on each hitch. Jim pool knew of Manny and hired him. Each hitch has a lead driver and an assistant driver. They hitch every day of the week except Thursdays. Each guy gets one day off per week. That’s why they travel with 7 people. In most cases, it takes years to be promoted to the lead driver. The St. Louis hitch, being the home and main hitch, had very few different lead drivers in its long history. Manny made it as lead driver on the St. Louis Hitch in just 1 year. Anheuser Busch was sold a couple of years ago and now they have just the 3 main traveling hitches. The original Budweiser Clydesdales were actually a 6 horse hitch purchased from Wilson Packing Company from Oklahoma City. August Busch, Jr. bought the hitch for his father in 1933 to celebrate the repeal of prohibition. They had a custom rail car made and took the horses to Washington D.C. where they went to the White House and delivered President Roosevelt a case of Budweiser beer. Today, the hitches stay on the road over 300 days a year. And, today, over 20 years later, Manny Raber has driven the Budweiser Clydesdales all over North America in every high profile outing. There is not another man in the world that can handle a set of 8 lines better than Manny. An Amish boy from Hazelton, Iowa, Manny has driven in the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade and thousands of miles and too many cities to remember. The next time you see the hitch from St. Louis, either in one of their great commercials or in person, you will see Manny up on the box seat of the wagon with 8 lines in his hands. After all these years Manny and I have kept in contact. In my last THROW BACK THURSDAY I had a message sent from Manny saying, “Good stuff Bill! I still use training tips and tools learned from you to this day, 20+ years later!” Just a little known fact, since Budweiser’s St. Louis brewery is a union business, all of the crew with the Clydesdales has to belong to the Brotherhood of Teamsters. The President of the Teamsters is Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Where did you think the truck drivers were before trucks? You got it, the Teamsters. Also, the St.Louis hitch being the home and first hitch. Their horses are the biggest of the 3 hitches. Leaders are over 18 hands. The wheel horses over 19 hands. In over 50 years of breeding Clydesdales. They have never bred a complete 8 horse hitch. They are always on the lookout for replacements. I want to congratulate Manny on his recent marriage and the birth of his first daughter. Enjoy the pictures of Manny. THIS BUD’S FOR YOU
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:47:40 +0000
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