There are a lot of posts and discussions out on the wild, wild web about the origin story of the Gypsy Vanner Horse breed and about the true legacies of these horses. I have quite a number of Ancestry results for my Gypsy Vanner Horses from Etalon Diagnostics (www.etalondx.com) that paint quite a different story than the one we were all told.
Some of the common stories that I see bandied about are that the horse has its origins in European draft breeds mixed with indigenous pony breeds (which, from a very high level is accurate until you get down into the details). Some say Shire, Percheron, Friesian, and a smattering of other smaller breed horses and ponies. The overall results say something just a bit different.
Every single Gypsy Vanner Horse that I own shows up as approximately 40% Clydesdale in ancestry. Looking at physical commonalities across the wide spectrum of this breed, that makes a lot of sense. The vast majority of Gypsy Vanner Horses have the white blaze and socks, and also the iconic hair and feather of a Clydesdale horse.
What I've written below is a vast oversimplification of overall averages for bloodlines. It's not meant to be a formulaic recipe, because the mixing of breeds is way more complicated.
This 40% Clydesdale marker means that at the dawn of the breed, 3 of the 8 great grandparents of every horse that eventually went into the codification of the "type" for Gypsy Horses was a Clydesdale. What do the rest of the ancestry results tell us?
Out of those other 5 progenitor horses, on average, one was a Fell Pony, one was a Franches Montagnes, and one was a Belgian. One of the ancestors was of mixed heritage coming from smaller North Sea breeds (Icelandic, Shetland, North Swedish, Norwegian Fjord). And that last great grandparent? That last component was mutt blood interspersed into the bloodlines from all different directions. Arabian, Thoroughbred, Exmoor, Carriage Horses, Saddlebred, Standardbred, Andalusian, other Iberian breeds, and even Paso and a tiny sliver of Akhal Teke bloodlines.
One of the great misconceptions is that there is a pure bloodline for these horses. With the short span that they've been around, that is false.
Another misconception is that the standard Gypsy Horse should be piebald or skewbald, which is a more recent development in the breed.
The history of the Romanichal people shows that they began to build and live in their iconic vardos (horse-drawn wagon homes) around the mid-1800's. Prior to that, they had tilted carts that they lived in (and slept under) or they were completely on foot. If the first vardos appeared drawn by the progenitors of this breed around 1850, those first Gypsy Horses were likely acquired as flashy, smaller Clydesdale horses that weren't desired as candidates for heavy work, but were ideally suited to a life pulling Gypsy vardos. They were likely Clydesdale rejects, Clydesdale runts.
Then, for nearly 100 years, until The Great Wars, the majority of Gypsy Horses likely looked like smaller Clydesdale horses. The majority were solid colored horses. The Gypsy people purposely bred the whites into their horses so that the horses were very easily spotted on the battlefield so that they would not be conscripted into war efforts in The Great Wars. By the time these horses made it to the Americas in the late 20th century, for over half of their history, they were not historically tobiano horses. That was a more recent development in the breed.
Another more modern development is the use of Gypsy Vanner Horses as riding horses, and especially as larger and larger riding horses. The history of these horses is as small driving horses. They are not supposed to be massive riding horses. They aren't built to comfortably accommodate riders. There are many, many complaints from owners online about not being able to find suitable saddles for them. Sure, you can ride a cow also, but that's not what cows were bred for. It's much the same with Gypsy Vanner Horses. Staying true to their legacy would hone in attention on breeding efforts to continue to maintain the breed as a smaller driving horse breed.
I advocate that we should not cling to the idea that the true picture of a Gypsy Vanner Horse should be piebald or skewbald nor over 15.2hh. It's not even historically accurate. Also, we should not cling onto the idea of an ideal image of a horse breed that only existed from the time of the World Wars until the late 20th century. That's only a small 50-year period of a horse that has been in development for around 175 years...and, things change as time marches on. The Gypsy Vanner Horse of the future is the horse that will continue to delight customers with their iconic friendly disposition and flashy looks. The Gypsy Vanner Horse of the future is the one that buyers will be willing to pay for.
Every breeder must choose their "hill to die on." For me, I would rather "die on the hill" that takes into account the whole history of this breed. That has led me to several decisions in my breeding efforts. Some of those decisions are at odds with the buyer market; some are aligned with them. I choose flashy colored horses. I don't limit myself to thinking that only tobiano horses are the ideal vision. That's not what the whole history of the breed says. I also do not breed for larger and larger sizes, since, while that's the appetite of the average American consumer for these horses right now, it's not true to the legacy and history of these horses. I concentrate first on temperament, second on conformation (with suitability for driving disciplines), third on size, and fourth on flashy colors and patterns. My ideal horse is 14.2hh or less, true to breed, true to proper disposition, and of colors and patterns that interest buyers in their unique beauty. I want my cake and I want to eat it, too, so what's wrong with wanting everything? I want it all.
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