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The Gypsy Vanner horse embodies the mystery surrounding Romany gypsies,
who over centuries became known for their horse sense, music, fortune
telling and nomadic lifestyles.
10 Years in America
By
Georgia Brown and Summer Best.
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The
English gypsy's dream is to create a perfect Gypsy Vanner horse.
Such an animal is extremely stable in temperament and unlikely
to be skittish. The body is powerful, compact, and can easily
pull the distinctive bow-top caravans unique to gypsy lifestyles.
The Gypsy Vanner, developed from selectively crossing the Friesian,
Clydesdale, Shire and Dales Pony, traces back to the original
cold-blooded horse, equus caballus, the heavy prehistoric horse
line of Northern Europe. Their history is interwoven with European
gypsy traditions.
Pulling cross country carriages as easily as they pull caravans,
Vanners are distinguished by their flashy feathers and flowing
manes and tails. A look inside those large dark eyes and you
sense their gentle disposition and special affinity to children.
It's one of the reasons they are sometimes called "magic
horses."
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We're
Comin' to America
This fall, the first Gypsy Vanners, imported to the United
Sates in 1996, celebrate 10 years on American soil at the
new 40-acre Gypsy Gold Farm near Ocala, Florida. Here, they
enjoy occasional caravan work, but more and more, the Gypsy
Vanner is becoming famous for its versatility, beauty and
personality.
Their athletic abilities shine, too, with many "Vanners"
proving suitable for competitive dressage, eventing and jumping.
Those who ride Gypsy Vanners say it feels like "sitting
on a pillow." Short -backed with powerful hindquarters,
they pack the power of their larger draft ancestors.
Many Americans met Gypsy Vanners for the first time at Equitana
in 1998 where they were a sensation in the show ring. By 2001,
one of the first imports, The Gypsy King, was introduced as
a Breyer Horse. |
Photo by Mark Barrett |
Man
with a Mission
The Gypsy Vanners' history in the US began in 1996 when Ocala's
Dennis Thompson and his late wife, Cindy, imported the first
Gypsy Vanners, Bat and Dolly. In 1994, while on a business trip
visiting Shire breeders, Dennis and Cindy came across their
first Gypsy Vanner. Returning from a Shire farm, the couple
drove around a bend in the road and saw a field with a single
horse in it.
Dennis, astonished by the image of the unique animal, turned
to Cindy.
"Did you SEE that black and white horse?" he asked.
After a pause of a few seconds the couple made an immediate
U-turn.
It was a chance turn in the road. A moment of decision that
would change their careers, their personal lives. It was a moment
in time that just felt right.
"This
horse picked his head up and trotted straight to us," Dennis
said. "With mane and feathers flying, there was magic in
the air. We were basically in love with him, and we wanted to
learn more."
At
a farmhouse nearby, Dennis and Cindy, two enthusiastic Americans
bubbling with curiosity, asked about the stallion. What was
he? Was he for sale? Who owns him? Are there more? A local farmer
explained that the horse belonged to a gypsy.
"He has a band of mares that look just like this stallion
that he keeps hidden," the farmer said.
Hidden? Dennis and Cindy, on a new mission, couldn't wait to
learn more.
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Meeting
the Gypsies
The Thompsons found it hard to believe there was an ongoing
breeding program with this unusual horse, so they asked to meet
the owner. The meeting was granted, and within a short time,
he invited the couple to his camp. Having never been to a gypsy
camp, Dennis and Cindy were in for a new adventure.
"Before we left, he took about six steps toward his vehicle
turned and said to us, 'Don't worry, it's respectable.'"
When Dennis and Cindy entered the chain link fenced compound
of the gypsy with the special horse, their eyes were opened
to a new world. They spent the day with the gypsy as the man
expounded on his stallion's qualities. The couple studied all
the gypsy's mares and foals.
At day's end, the sage gypsy agreed to sell the stallion, but
not for another year, due to his focused breeding program. He
invited them to attend the gypsy horse fair at Appleby, but
said they wouldn't find any horse better
than his stallion there.
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Photo by Summer Best |
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The Fair
In June at the Appleby Fair in Westmoreland, Cumbria, Dennis
and Cindy studied hundreds of horses. Since the fair's inception
in 1685, when King James II granted a market charter for a
"fair or market for the purchase and sale of all manners
of goods, cattle, horses, mares and geldings," the gypsy
nation has gathered to buy and sell horses.
The fairgrounds are located in the sweeping horseshoe bend
of the Eden River, in view of the square Normandy keep of
Appleby Castle. At this annual event, Gypsies meet up with
old friends, conduct business and race horses. All this is
accompanied by pop and folk gypsy music played on Flamenco
guitars, violins, harmonicas and tambourines.
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Study,
Understand, Import
For the next two years, the Thompson's mission was twofold:
to understand the origins of this hidden breed and to identify
the breeders.
Dennis and Cindy traveled to the United Kingdom extensively.
They learned the Gypsy Vanners had been selectively bred by
gypsies throughout the UK for 50 years. Gypsies have produced
a variety of colored horses for generations by randomly pasture
breeding herds of mares and selling the offspring as "trade
horses." More recently, about 20-percent of their horses
were selectively bred. It was these horses - with the distinctive
look of the Gypsy Vanner - that they wanted to buy.
In 1996, Dennis and Cindy imported their first two Gypsy Vanners.
For four more years, they studied horses in England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland, purchasing two additional stallions and
14 mares to establish their breeding program. That program would
be the centerpiece of the breed in North America.
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Photo by Mark Barrett |
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Creating a Breed Society
To organize the breed and promote its qualities, the Thompson's
founded the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society, (gypsyvannerhorse.org),
which registers horses bred by gypsies. Located in Wales,
it is committed to respecting the spoken words of those gypsies
who dedicate lifetimes to breeding the perfect caravan horse.
They also wanted to clarify the confusion about terms that
identify other colored draft horses: Gypsy Cob, Irish Cob
and Tinker Horse (tinker is an old-fashioned word for child).
The society's mission statement is "to bring honor, recognition
and a better understanding to one of the world's most colorful
and least understood societies and the horses they love so
dearly." The society maintains the records and collects
DNA samples of horses and their offspring to further protect
the bloodlines. It can also certify a horse using seven standards
of excellence.
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Breed
Characteristics
The breed is described as strong, intelligent, docile, athletic
and colorful with excellent endurance. Overall, it has the look
of a draft horse of small to average height.
#1 Colors include Piebald, black and white; Skewbald, any color
and white; tri color; solid; and Blagdon, a solid color with
white splashed up from underneath.
#2 There are three height classifications: Mini Vanner under
14 hands, Classic Vanner 14 to 15.2 hands and Grand Vanner 15.2
and over.
#3 Body: The back is short coupled, withers well rounded, chest
deep and broad with well-sprung ribs. A powerful neck, sloping
shoulder, heavy powerful hips, well muscled rounded croup and
a tail not set too low are required.
#4 Legs should be clean, medium to heavy bone, set on a large
round hoof. Hocks should be broad and clean with the modified
closer hock set of a pulling horse, but not as close as the
modern draft horse. Leg movements should be clean, strait and
true with a distinctive, energetic and effortless trot.
#5 The ideal hair is straight and silky with some wave. Abundant
feathering, beginning at the knees on the front legs and near
the hocks on the rear legs, should extend over the front of
the hooves. The mane, forelock and tail should be ample to profuse;
double manes are common, but not required.
#6 The head should be more refined than a typical Shire, set
on a strong neck in harmony with the horse's overall look. A
slightly Roman nose is acceptable is it goes with the overall
look, but a heavy Roman nose is not acceptable. The ears should
be in proportion to the head and not too large. The eyes can
be any color, wide set, bright, alert and kind.
#7 Nature: A Vanner should be alert and willing with traits
of intelligence, kindness and docility, a Golden Retriever With
Hooves®.
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The
Romany caravan or vardo developed about the middle of
the nineteenth century in England. Some Gypsies continued
to live in bender tents, but owning a vardo was a great
status symbol, and a couple often started their married
life by purchasing a wagon. The familiar bow-top roof,
brightly painted designs and carved wood details made
each wagon unique. The interior was often richly carpeted
with a small stove, chests for storing belongings and
racks to protect the gypsy woman's cooking utensils and
china. It's said that Gypsies bred the colorful Vanners
to complement the intricately carved designs on their
traveling homes.
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Tragedy & Change
In July 2002, Dennis Thompson was away on a business trip when
tragedy struck. Cindy, who was up late at night on foal watch,
suffered a tragic and fatal fall in the barn.
Seven days later, on the day Cindy was buried, the foal was
born. On his head, with little white hairs, was the number "7."
It's a horse Dennis will never sell.
Dennis admits suffering extreme depression, and not a day goes
by that he doesn't do something to preserve her memory. The
work they began with the Gypsy Vanner continues, and Cindy Thompson
is memorialized with the C.T. Pony Bear, a plush, stuffed pony
that, when sold, will benefit the Gypsy Gold Gelding Association,
a nonprofit program for supplying therapeutic riding programs
with gentle Gypsy Vanners. |
New Horizons
Last winter, Dennis was searching for an artist to work on a
marketing display when he met Lynn Wade, an artist well known
for her fine art paintings and sculptures of horses. The two
equestrian singles, both experts in their respective fields,
both enthusiastic and full of great dreams, soon fell in love.
They were married that spring, selling their respective farms
to move to the new farm in Ocala.
Lynn's enthusiasm for the Vanners is heartfelt. "We've
only begun to tap the things these horses can do," said
Lynn. "The ones I've ridden were very smooth. If I were
a little younger, I would start training one for eventing!"
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Photo
by Summer Best |
The Gypsy Vanner's magic quickly endears them to those that
know them. Lynn, who had a successful professional career with
horses before she began painting seriously, thought she would
scale back her horse work as she painted more and more. Not
so. She's up at dawn with her husband, cleaning stalls, planning,
working with the Gypsy Vanners.
Must be that Gypsy magic. |
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Golden
Nutrition |
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Gypsy Gold's nutrition program focuses on quality forage
and feed products.
"These horses are naturally cool and easy-going,
and we want to keep them that way," Dennis Thompson
says. "We like to keep them healthy and in good
condition."
Gypsy Gold Gypsy Vanner mares typically eat alfalfa,
supplemented by free-choice, Seminole Alfa-Balancer
block minerals. Stabled horses enjoy Seminole Perfect
10, a 10-percent fat, 10-percent protein textured feed,
with timothy/afalfa and coastal hay mixes.
"The low-protein, high-fat diet works great to
keep them in great shape, mentally and physically,"
Dennis said. With this complete diet, the farm has found
no need to give added supplements.
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Freelance
writer/photographer Summer Best is an avid equestrian
and owner of SunHorse Publishing & Promotions in
Ocala, Fl. |
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Georgia
Brown is a freelance writer that lives in Sarasota,
FL. |
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