Meet Woody, the new Clydesdale donated to Sea Pines stables. ‘He has big shoes to fill’
Woody the Clydesdale has a whole new life at Hilton Head Island’s Lawton Stables, and that includes something he didn’t have a lot of experience with before: Treats.
The 4-year-old horse had been raised as a driving horse to pull a carriage and had some show horse training, said the stables’ general manager, Haley Zimmerman.
He was purchased by and donated to the stables earlier this month by the owners of Woody’s Sunglass Shop at Shelter Cove Towne Centre.
One of the shop’s owners, Anne Pierce, was at Lawton Stables when Woody arrived, ready to meet him with a carrot in hand.
“He did not know anything about carrots or apples,” Pierce said. “His owner said to me, ‘He’s never seen a carrot.’ ”
It didn’t take long for the gentle giant — Woody is estimated to be about 6 feet tall and weigh about 1,900 pounds — to figure out carrots. Apples have taken a little extra work.
Harley’s legacy
Hilton Head residents and visitors alike mourned in March when Harley, the stable’s resident 17-year-old Clydesdale, died after gastrointestinal issues commonly referred to as colic.
Harley was a descendant of Budweiser’s famous Clydesdale team, but he never marched or traveled with the group. He came to the island in March 2009 to pull a carriage through the Sea Pines Forest Preserve and marched in the Hilton Head Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade just once.
After discovering Harley had arthritis, his caretakers moved him to a more ceremonial role, but one no less important: Official greeter. After his death, generations of families shared fond memories of seeing Harley at the stables as he accepted strokes and treats from children and handed out nuzzles with his wet nose to anyone who came close to the fence.
When Palmetto Breeze added a third trolley to its network in May and asked the public what it should be called, an overwhelming majority chose Harley as its name.
Now, it’s Woody’s turn to step into the spotlight left empty after Harley’s passing.
“For now, he will be taking on the role that Harley played as greeter,” Zimmerman said, “... taking pictures with people and eating carrots and getting loved on.”
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She explained that Harley took years to grow into being the special horse he was; it won’t happen overnight for Woody, either.
“He has big shoes to fill,” Zimmerman said.
Because Woody is young and has no physical limitations, Zimmerman said guides may ride him on the trails or see how he does pulling a carriage, just to keep him engaged and active. That’s well in the future, though, she explained.
For now, visitors can see him most days in the pasture getting used to his new home at the stables in Sea Pines.
“He’s doing great. He’s settled in quite well,” Zimmerman said. “He’s enjoying all the attention, for sure.”
Woody’s namesake
Anne Pierce, her husband David, and her sister Dee Lamprecht, all of Bluffton, together own Woody’s Sunglass Shop. They purchased the business in early 2019 from the former owner, Woody Ladig.
After Ladig passed away in December, the trio wanted to honor his memory.
Pierce said the outpouring of love after Harley’s death and the naming of the trolley had stayed on her mind, so she approached the stables with the idea to donate a Clydesdale in Ladig’s name.
“It was a way to give back to the community but also to do something in memory of Woody,” Pierce said.
Her idea at first caught Zimmerman off guard.
“Anne just called out of the blue,” the stable manager said. “She genuinely wanted to do this for the community. She wasn’t thinking about herself at all.”
Pierce worked with Mary Mead of Lexington, Kentucky, who has experience buying and selling Clydesdales, and Woody’s former owner Rudy Helmuth of Ocala, Florida, to find a horse that would be a good fit for Lawton Stables.
Said Pierce: “I think he’ll give people a lot of joy.”
This story was originally published July 11, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
