Rare
Lipizzaner Comes To The Midlands Equine Fair
The
all-indoor Midlands Equine Fair, which is taking place at the Three
Counties Showground, Malvern, on 8 & 9 March, is attracting
a wide range of horse breeds, but none has such a romantic history
as the Lipizzaner.
There
are only 3,500 pure bred Lipizzaners in the world, and they are
best known as the horses that are the celebrities at the Spanish
Riding School in Vienna. Adult Lipizzaners are usually white, and
there will be several of them in attendance at the Midlands Equine
Fair - not least the members of international four in hand driving
champion Dick Lane's teams. But they are likely to upstaged by Neapolitano
Inka (known as Buttons to his friends) who is a very rare brown
adult gelding, and who is making his first visit to the Fair this
year.
Only
one in 400 adult Lipizzaners are brown, a statistic that makes Buttons
very special indeed. But if that were not enough, Buttons also has
a royal ancestor - his grandmother was given to Her Majesty the
Queen as a present from President Tito of Yugoslavia. When Tito
died the mare was sold to Una Harley of the Starrock Stud near Shaftesbury,
who has been a successful breeder of Lipizzaners for over 35 years.
Buttons is a Yugoslavian cross Austrian Lipizzaner bred by Una,
who now lives in Wales with his owner Alan Thomas.
"We
are delighted to be able to show Buttons off at the Midlands Equine
Fair," said Una, who began her international breeding career
with Arabs and Anglo Arab performance horses and whose current activities
include breeding not only Lipizzaners but also miniature Shetlands
and Bengal cats. "He is an absolute delight, and we have every
confidence that he will steal the show!"
Sandra
Turner of Contour Exhibitions and Events, organisers of the Midlands
Equine Fair, added: "We always try to make the Fair a great
event for everybody, and we certainly have something for everyone
at this year's event. We are delighted that Buttons will be joining
us - for many people this might be the only time in their lives
that they will ever see a pure bred brown Lipizzaner."
As
well as the Lipizzaner Society of Great Britain, other breed societies
attending the indoor Midlands Equine Fair include: the Irish Draught
Horse Society; the Cleveland Bay Horse Society; the Appaloosa Horse
Society; the British Skewbald & Piebald Association; the Fjords
and Lipizzaner Stud-Book; the Shetland Stud Book; Exmoors; the Icelandics
Society of Great Britain; Haflingers; the Caspian Horse Society
and the British Morgan Horse Society.
Tickets
for the Midlands Equine Fair are available in advance from Contour
Exhibitions & Events by calling 08700 115007 and advance booking
discounts are available. Further information and leaflets are available
by calling 01884 841644, or by logging on at www.contour.uk.net.
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