Why Vanner?©
Gypsies in Ireland and England have for many, many years indiscriminately bred herds of “cob type” horses. Often these were piebald and skewbald with varying degrees of mane, tail, and feather. In the last half of the last century these horses were becoming popular with riding schools and novices due to their manageability. I encountered this personally while living and working in Germany.
My daughter enrolled in a German riding school where her instructor had begun to import and use these gypsy bred horses in his programs. However, he had a couple of horses he had purchased from gypsies that were truly extraordinary – simply breathtaking, with an elegant, bold, and powerful body build accentuated with a thick mane, tail, and feather that gave the horse a magical, flying look as it did what I came to refer to as its “signature trot”.
While her instructor called all the horses he bought from gypsies, Tinkers, the five he had kept for his personal use were of such a higher quality it caused me to question how they had come to be. As a teacher I am a natural observer and this extreme difference in the horses posed a problem that I wanted to understand. My search led me to a book by Edward Hart, “The Coloured Horses of Great Britain”. In his book Mr. Hart shares Britain’s love affair with coloured horses; not a breed, but any and all horses of colour. Many of the coloured horses were and are crossbred animals as it took a crossing of breeds in some cases to produce the color. He writes about horse shows specifically established for owners of coloured horses to show off and enjoy their horses. He shares that owners of horses with excess mane, tail and feather usually clip it off as it is the colour they are interested in not the cumbersome attributes of hair. Interestingly enough he makes the following statement, “Of all the coloured horses in Great Britain the ones closest to being a breed are those bred by the gypsies.”
In the early to mid 1990’s Dennis and Cindy Thompson, while on a business trip in Wales came across one of those extraordinary horses in a field. Their search to understand how he came to be uncovered a breeding program of approximately fifteen gypsy families. These families were breeding indiscriminating like all gypsies to produce herds of coloured cobs, some of which sold to riding schools, but most sadly ended up in the European meat market. However, these families in addition held back a private selective herd. Horses that possessed a set of desired traits, a look they prized. Those horses were not for sale; were sometimes hidden from the general public and from other gypsies. The prized stallions and mares were shared only among family. As a result in the foundation breed animals you find quite a bit of line breeding. Over a fifty to sixty year period those selectively bred herds were now successfully reproducing themselves; reproducing the traits, the look, time and time again. The horses from those selective, private herds had become a definitive breed, no longer just a happenstance type, no longer just a cob body with extra hair, but a horse breed possessing distinctive beauty, personality, and a promising performance potential.
On November 24, 1996, Dennis and Cindy Thompson established the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society. They painstakingly sought out and imported sixteen horses to become the foundation for the breed here in America. A standard was written with the help and guidance of Fred Walker, known to his fellow gypsies as King of the Coloured Horses.
Now in 2009, thirteen years later, the offspring of those original sixteen as well as other breed horses registered with the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society have proven the power of those selective genetics in not only reproducing the breed but maintaining and growing it here in the United States. While in England and Ireland the gypsy cob horse population has already shifted (more pony influence; smaller) over the last thirteen years, a few of the original breeders have continued with their private stock, but we are seeing even some of those herds changing.
Therefore, the horse that indeed had become a breed through the careful and selective breeding plans of only a few dedicated gypsy breeders in the later part of the last century has found its recognition as a definitive breed here in the United States. With that recognition it was named Gypsy Vanner Horse and is today proudly protected and promoted by the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society.
The horses of Belle Rose Farm are Gypsy VANNER Horses. We do not refer to our horses as “gypsy cobs” or “gypsy horses” as those terms we feel can encompass any and all horses bred by gypsies. The Vanner is the gypsy cob that became a breed through selective breeding. As Cindy Thompson used to say, “All Vanners can be cobs, but not all cobs can be Vanners.”
Our horses have the blood of original foundation sires: Our senior stallion is a grandson of the UK Roadsweeper who was a son of The Coal Horse (considered to be one of the original foundation sires of the breed in England), in addition we proudly stand a son of Cushti Bok, America’s first Gypsy Vanner stallion and a son of The Gypsy King, America’s second Gypsy Vanner stallion.
It is our goal at Belle Rose Farm to raise the quality Vanner Horse that would make Fred Walker, Tom Price, Robert Watson, and Dennis and Cindy Thompson want to “walk them in front of the boys”.
By Joyce M. Christian
Co-owner Belle Rose Farm
Gypsy Vanner Horses
Monroe, Louisiana
