05/03/2025
Good Morning Vanner Lovers! Here is the next on our History of the Gypsy Vanner Horse:
Part One
Now in yesterday’s fun history post, we left the horses all over Ireland and England and Great Britain at large, in farmers’ fields, or roaming through hidden glens and muddy moors. So, how did they get out of there and over here? I bet if I had you all in a room and asked if you could answer that question most of your hands would go up. You have all heard one version or another. This morning, I want to take you back to 1993 and begin answering the question there.
This year is significant because a book was published that year and for the first time a horse person had taken a serious look at these broken coat, cob type horses the Gypsies were using and wondered where they came from. The author’s name was Edward Hart and after spending some time traveling around and visiting with some of the more prominent Gypsy men in England he was fascinated to discover, “even though they can tell you much about their horses, they have no studbook and no breed society.”
The Gypsies were not breeding to build a breed; they were doing what they had always done; breed what they had to what they could find. After the World Wars their focus had become more aimed at a broken coat in hopes to avoid the government taking their horses in any future conflicts. As government regulations had begun to force them to change their lifestyle from transient to more settled their need for heavy, working, pulling horses was greatly diminished. The cob type was more suitable for the lighter wagons and work carts they now preferred for their various jobs.
The other ingredient in the recipe to the coloured cob horse that began to demand attention in the 1980’s was the Gypsy culture’s innate desire to create, to have something no one else had. Their “personal preference” was added to the mix, and by the mid 1980’s while broken coat and cob type was clearly being selected by the bulk of the Gypsy breeders, the horses’ similarity ended with that. The variety was evident at all the horse fairs throughout the country. While the horses were all coloured cobs they came in every height, some thick, some thin, some short, some high stepping, some with extra hair, some with less hair, some with feather feet, some without.
Edward Hart had ventured to sit with these men at their campfires because a particular portion of these horses had begun to attract some of the British equestrian elite who began buying them and enjoying them as riding mounts. It was this horse that demanded his curiosity. It was this horse he was shocked to learn was not being properly tracked and better understood.
Next, we need to know what a “type breed” is and for that I will refer you to the work of Dr. Phillip Sponenberg and Dr. Donald Bixby. If you have been following my work for very long you know I found their book “Managing Breeds for a Secure Future” to be so helpful in better understanding this population of horses and ponies. In that work they have this to say about “type breeds”:
“Modern “Type” breeds such as Warmbloods and the Pinto, can be productive, but do not serve well as a genetic resource.” This will become important as this tale continues.
Now, I am going to take you back to that campfire with Mr. Hart and his new Gypsy friends. Clearly this horse he was so interested in better understanding could be viewed and recognized as a “type breed”. The horse was becoming valuable to some outside the Gypsy community, but prejudice and disdain for the Gypsy people and their way of life had been great barriers to any effort of preservation for the horse. It caused him to pause, he was both fascinated and troubled that “they have no studbook and no breed society.”
Then came 1994 and we will pick up there tomorrow. If you are enjoying this journey let me know in the responses below.
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