Trip your Day
Thursday night delivered one of my favourite Balkan things - the most amazing thunderstorm complete with the brightest of lightening. I opened my windows wide and just watched. The thunderstorms were one of the things that I enjoyed when I lived in Croatia.
Fortunately Friday morning was dry, although the temperature had dropped a few degrees.
On Tuesday morning I had booked a tour to take me to Piran for the day. Piran and Predjama Caves were two of the standout things in a lovely 1950s travelogue book that Josh and Frank gave me one Christmas. So Thursday morning found me standing outside the Trip your Day office, one coffee on board, and clutching a bag of grozde (grapes). Instructions were to be outside the office at 8:30 don't- be- late. Feeling nervous at 8:25 because the street was empty,
I called them to make sure I was in the right place, to be told it was all ok, Petra would be there in a minute, and that I was the only one on the tour that day. A Private Tour Guide!
We headed out on the highway with the first stop being Lipica. Now, most of you know that I'm not an animal person - don't make me goo over photos of your kitten - so here was I heading to spend nearly two hours on a horse stud farm. It was part of the package for the day, Petra gave me a choice about not going there, but said that I may be pleasantly surprised.
So - background information - The town is called Lipica because of the old tree in the original settlement - the tree is a national icon for Slovenia and you see them everywhere - including the tree at Prejama with the hole in it from the tears of the distraught lover (which the information poster refers to as a lime tree!). The tree is a Lipa, the town Lipica and the horses bred here are the Lipizzaner horses.
The breeding of these horses dates back to the 16th century when the stud farm was established by the Hapsburg nobility. During the two world wars, the horses were moved numerous times to protect them.
All of the horses at Lipica can be traced back to the original 8 stallions used for breeding. They are bred for their white/grey colour, intelligence, strong chest and hind legs which enable them to be trained to stand on their hind legs and 'dance' and pirouette in dressage.
The interesting thing is that the foals are born dark brown or black, and over the following four to eight years, the coat turns grey/white.
Fun fact - the foals are nearly always born at night and can run within four hours of birth - nature at its best.
All of the stallions are trained in dressage for a few years, but only the best continue - some are more suited to carriage pulling. Many have featured in movies - the Disney movie of Miracle of the White Stallions shows the rescue of the horses during WWII, and Crimson Tide uses the changing colour of the horses as a symbol for race conflict during the Cold War. Who Knew.
There was one beautiful black horse in the stables which is a reverse albino if you like - this stallion was said to have the most intelligent nature, and had fathered a few foals - out of the 6 foals, only one remained black.
This particular white beauty is the horse that you see in the promotional pictures doing the hind leg pose (Airs above the Ground).
Each horse is given the name of the Stallion and the Mare as it's known name - and then a number. So the black beauty's father was Favory, the mare was Monteaura so he is known as F. Monteaura XX.
So, yes, I had to eat my words about visiting the Lipica Stud Farm - I did find it very interesting, I did enjoy looking at the beautiful horses. I even touched one on the neck when no-one was looking.
Fortunately Friday morning was dry, although the temperature had dropped a few degrees.
On Tuesday morning I had booked a tour to take me to Piran for the day. Piran and Predjama Caves were two of the standout things in a lovely 1950s travelogue book that Josh and Frank gave me one Christmas. So Thursday morning found me standing outside the Trip your Day office, one coffee on board, and clutching a bag of grozde (grapes). Instructions were to be outside the office at 8:30 don't- be- late. Feeling nervous at 8:25 because the street was empty,
We headed out on the highway with the first stop being Lipica. Now, most of you know that I'm not an animal person - don't make me goo over photos of your kitten - so here was I heading to spend nearly two hours on a horse stud farm. It was part of the package for the day, Petra gave me a choice about not going there, but said that I may be pleasantly surprised.
So - background information - The town is called Lipica because of the old tree in the original settlement - the tree is a national icon for Slovenia and you see them everywhere - including the tree at Prejama with the hole in it from the tears of the distraught lover (which the information poster refers to as a lime tree!). The tree is a Lipa, the town Lipica and the horses bred here are the Lipizzaner horses.
The breeding of these horses dates back to the 16th century when the stud farm was established by the Hapsburg nobility. During the two world wars, the horses were moved numerous times to protect them.
All of the horses at Lipica can be traced back to the original 8 stallions used for breeding. They are bred for their white/grey colour, intelligence, strong chest and hind legs which enable them to be trained to stand on their hind legs and 'dance' and pirouette in dressage.
The interesting thing is that the foals are born dark brown or black, and over the following four to eight years, the coat turns grey/white.
All of the stallions are trained in dressage for a few years, but only the best continue - some are more suited to carriage pulling. Many have featured in movies - the Disney movie of Miracle of the White Stallions shows the rescue of the horses during WWII, and Crimson Tide uses the changing colour of the horses as a symbol for race conflict during the Cold War. Who Knew.
There was one beautiful black horse in the stables which is a reverse albino if you like - this stallion was said to have the most intelligent nature, and had fathered a few foals - out of the 6 foals, only one remained black.
This particular white beauty is the horse that you see in the promotional pictures doing the hind leg pose (Airs above the Ground).
Each horse is given the name of the Stallion and the Mare as it's known name - and then a number. So the black beauty's father was Favory, the mare was Monteaura so he is known as F. Monteaura XX.
So, yes, I had to eat my words about visiting the Lipica Stud Farm - I did find it very interesting, I did enjoy looking at the beautiful horses. I even touched one on the neck when no-one was looking.
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