Horse and carriage captivate crowd

MARTIN DE RUYTER/Nelson Mail

MAGICAL: Kathy Andrus drives her restored antique winged carriage from behind her gypsy vanner horse, Mr Beau Jangles, at Richmond Park.

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Mr Beau Jangles pulling his winged carriage is a show-stopper.

Owner Kathy Andrus from Brightwater took them to the Nelson A&P Show at the weekend and visitors stopped in their tracks to watch.

Ms Andrus thinks her gypsy vanner stallion and the antique carriage are both beautiful.

She has fallen in love with gypsy vanner horses and now they have a spell over her. She has seven of the 15 horses in the country, with another five on the way.

"They're quiet, you can put kids on them, walk under them – nothing fazes them. You don't need to break them in, you just get on them and ride," she said.

They are also good at pulling wagons, and the winged carriage is perfect for Mr Beau Jangles.

Ms Andrus found the solid oak carriage in Takaka, but it originates from England 100 years ago, was taken to Brazil, on to Indonesia where it carried British diplomats, then to Dunedin in the early 1980s.

Ms Andrus first fell under the magic of gypsy vanners when her daughter, Seymour, showed her a picture on the internet. That was five years ago and she has since been importing them from England.

It is an expensive exercise costing anything from $8000 to $100,000 for a horse, plus $25,000 for the quarantine and freight. "I won't be building the house I planned, I'm going to have to live in the workshop for the next 10 years," she said. "But they're just beautiful."

Gypsy vanners were smaller than clydesdales, so their size did not scare people, she said. She sees them as particularly appealing to older women who want to get back to riding.

"I never tire of them. When I go out to the paddock I just think 'Wow!'."

- © Fairfax NZ News