{"id":77087,"date":"2013-08-14T08:30:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T13:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=77087"},"modified":"2013-08-14T09:03:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T14:03:12","slug":"discover-the-horses-of-the-hobbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2013\/08\/14\/77087-discover-the-horses-of-the-hobbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover the horses of The Hobbit!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Savannah\"
Savannah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As well as loving Tigers, I\u2019m also a life-long Horse-lover. \u00a0I\u2019ve been riding since I was six and members of my family have run an Arabian horse stud for as long as I can remember. \u00a0So when we were contacted by \u2018Gypsy Royal Stud\u2019 I jumped at the chance to talk to them about their beautiful horses.\u00a0Because they were one of the horse breeders that Peter Jackson turned to when he was looking for animal actors for The Hobbit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

About Gypsy Royal Stud and the Gypsy Vanner Horses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gypsy Royal Stud is a 700-acre property in Canterbury in New Zealand that primarily farms beef cattle and breeds beautiful Gypsy Vanner horses \u2014 a breed sometimes called the Gypsy Cob<\/strong> (UK, NZ), Coloured Cob<\/strong> (UK, Ireland, parts of Continental Europe), Gypsy Vanner<\/strong> (US, CAN), Irish Cob<\/strong>, or the Tinker Horse<\/strong> in parts of continental Europe.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the Gypsy Vanner breed, stud owner Lynda Boulton reveals that all their breeding stock hails from the USA \u2014 and<\/p>\n

\u201cOur senior stallion the Lion Prince won several championships in the US before coming to NZ,\u201d Lynda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrince is considered one of the finest gypsy stallions in the world. He is a 1st premium Classification \u2026 the highest award you can get for conformation and type.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charm\"
Charm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lynda says that the Gypsy Vanner horse originated in the UK, bred by The Romani for use as a general family horse strong enough to pull their vargos (wagons). The horses had to be exceptionally beautiful and flashy, but also hardy, hard-working and exceptionally quiet.<\/p>\n

Placidity was important because they would often camp at night in a field with only a roped-off area to keep in the horses \u2014 and children would play with them, climbing all over their backs, running around their feet etc.<\/p>\n

Lynda says they were originally bred by crossing Shires with Dale and Dartmoor ponies.<\/p>\n

Lynda says their younger stallion, Cracker Jack, also is originally from the USA comes from multi-time Supreme Champion parents.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] is a real \u2018Cracker\u2019 of a horse. We will be using him for the first time this season. \u201c<\/p>\n

The farm has a strong tradition of breeding show winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed one of Princes babies last weekend and she won Champion youngstock,\u201d Lynda says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also showed her mother Savannah at the same show and she won Champion adult. Prince has been shown twice only in NZ and won Champion Adult, Champion Pony and Supreme Champion at the NZ Pinto Show and Reserve Champion at the Canterbury Royal Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynda says only a few have made the effort to preserve the breed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew buyers can be easily deceived by the many scallywags in the UK trying to pass off inferior stock by selling them cheap and saying they are from this stallion or that stallion but without DNA verification, these horses could be anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gypsy Vanners are also very versatile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey love jumping, will do dressage, western, and excel at cowboy challenge, trail and driving. They are the sweetest, safest, kindest horses in the world and are known as \u2018Golden Retrievers with hooves\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The horses being put through their paces on set.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Providing Horses for The Hobbit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gypsy Royal Stud provided three horses for use in the Hobbit films after discovering a message on their answer machine from the production crew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Magical
Magical Lottery (Sugar) everyones favourite on set because of her sweet nature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI thought it was a joke so I did nothing about it,\u201d Lynda says. \u201cThe next day they rang again and it was for real. \u00a0They said they had been searching for a particular looking horse and found [the Gypsy breed] on the internet. \u00a0They apparently thought they would be perfect for what they wanted and googled gypsy horses in NZ which brought up my stud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took three of our mares for almost six weeks on set and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.”<\/p>\n

Lynda says that Savannah was chosen for a lead role, but can\u2019t say who rode her because of non-disclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

All three were chosen because they\u2019re quiet, hairy, safe, well-behaved and black and white. Two had just been broken in\u2026 two-and-a-half years old; the other was a six-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent the first couple of weeks training through the usual de-spooking programme they normally do with the horses on movie sets. \u00a0The [Gypsy Vanners] are so quiet that it was really a waste of time!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to ride through flapping plastic curtains, through stacks of drums, crack stock whips off their backs, throw things through and around their legs, clamber all over them, drag things, drape tarpaulins over their faces,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest test was the helicopters hovering just above our heads for aerial shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had Animal Protection there and an ambulance, but the gypsy horses never batted an eye at the choppers, even my two year olds just stood and watched it land right in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were treated extremely well and so were the horses. \u00a0Peter Jackson came and met us and our horses and thought they were the most beautiful horses he had ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
Two of the beautiful Gyspy Vanner Horses on set with a friend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gypsy Royal Stud loves visitors and can accommodate international visitors who would like to see their horses. They offer \u2018bring your own\u2019 horse trail rides and are considering expanding to use their horses for guided treks of their property. \u00a0Contact Gypsy Royal Stud at gypsyroyal@maxnet.co.nz<\/a> or visit their website http:\/\/www.gypsyroyal.co.nz\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As well as loving Tigers, I\u2019m also a life-long Horse-lover. \u00a0I\u2019ve been riding since I was six and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":77104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,333,148,1636],"tags":[1788,2898],"class_list":["post-77087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hobbit-movie","category-hobbit-locations","category-hobbit","category-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey","tag-library","tag-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMG_1157thumbnail-e1376488949454.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-k3l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77087"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77102,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77087\/revisions\/77102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}