Onlookers puckered their lips and whistled to get the attention of 10 2-ton Clydesdales taken to downtown Little Rock by Anheuser-Busch on Tuesday.
The horses will be on display in the River Market District all week to celebrate a local distributor that won a companywide award, said John Fink, one of the seven handlers who traveled with the horses from their home in St. Louis.
The Clydesdales will not be partaking in the beer-drinking portion of the celebration, however.
"They're not 21," Fink said.
Each horse is groomed once a week, and it takes five hours to get each one ready to show, Fink said. They range in age from 5 to 12 years old and in weight from 1,700 to 2,200 pounds.
As for a crowd favorite, Julia Hanes, a 9-year-old from Bryant, preferred Sparky "because he's pretty," she said.
Margie McQueen, who is visiting Little Rock on a business trip, also said the horses were striking. Seeing them was like "a breath of fresh air," she said.
McQueen, who has lived in St. Louis and Kentucky, is used to watching racehorses, which are streamlined and sleek, she said. But Clydesdales are "huge, big, heavy, muscular things," she said. "They're built for service."
McQueen cooed at two horses named Roger and King and circled their pens, snapping pictures. She didn't plan on coming down to visit them, she said, but she loves seeing how well they're taken care of.
"It's a good feeling," McQueen said. "After everything else going on in the world, this is just something fun."
Budweiser employers primp and groom the Clydesdales as onlookers watch in the River Market in Little Rock pic.twitter.com/qJXUuxqMkR
— Emma Pettit (@EmmaJanePettit) September 20, 2016