Until recently, British Gypsies, known also as Travelers, traveled throughout Great Britain in brightly colored, intricately carved horse-drawn wagons called "caravans." Gypsy breeders envisioned an extravagantly colored, heavily feathered horse to pull these bright wagons as well as complement them. According to the breed’s American discoverer, the Gypsy-bred horse called the Vanner is the embodiment of that vision. Two stallions of Irish origin are reported to have originated the breed around 60 years ago. One stallion, known as Sonny Mays, was sired by a colored Irish stallion on a mare owned by a Traveler. The second, called The Coal Horse, was born in Limerick, Ireland. These two stallions sired most of the foundation stallions of the breed.

In theory, the Vanner was bred from horses of three British draft breeds—the Shire, Clydesdale, and Dales Pony; in actuality, a Vanner’s ancestry may include other breeds, even nondrafts. The Romany Grai, another, more lightly framed Gypsy-bred horse, is reputed to have some Fells Pony ancestors. The Fells Pony is very closely related to the Dales Pony but is smaller and less heavily built. The extent of other breeds in its pedigree separates the Vanner from other Gypsy-bred horses.

Because of the breed’s ancestry, Vanners possess characteristics from the Shire, Clydesdale, and Dales Pony, which is the heaviest pony breed in Great Britain. It is responsible for the Vanner’s small size and the dainty head seen on some Vanners. Typically, a Dales Pony stands between 14.0 and 14.2 hands but weighs around 1,000 pounds. Since the Shire, Clydesdale, and Dales Pony all have feather, the Vanner does also. The source of the Vanner's extravagant coloring may be the Shire. Color was fairly common among Shires until around the 1900s, when solid coat patterns became fashionable.

What were the reasons for breeding a small draft horse such as the Vanner? One such reason, to have a horse showy enough to complement the brightly colored wagons driven by the Vanner’s Gypsy breeders, was given above. But the Vanner was not just for show; he performed a vital function—pulling his family’s wagon. For this type of work, a heavy draught horse such as the Shire, which typically stands between 16.2 and 17.2 hands and weighs between 2,240 and 2,688 lbs, was overkill. Even the smaller Clydesdale was too much horse for this task. An even smaller draft horse such as the Vanner was capable of performing the work needed and required only a fraction of the feed needed to maintain the massive Shire. This need to create a draft horse capable of performing the relatively light work of pulling a wagon and needing minimal feed was the primary reason for the creation of the horse we call the Vanner.

While the Vanner was bred for the road, the nomadic life of the road further shaped him, both physically and mentally. By necessity, he was hardy, thriving on uncertain forage found at campsites as the Gypsy caravans traveled from place to place. These campsites most likely provided no shelter for the horses; his profuse mane, tail, and feathers provided protection from the cold and wet. He was an integral part of his family, much as the Arabian was, and so had to be tolerant and kind. He had to able to be handled and managed even by the family’s children. Any horse which behaved aggressively was immediately banished.

The American discoverers of the breed were Dennis and Cindy Thompson. While driving through the English countryside in 1994, they glimpsed an extravagantly feathered black and white stallion and stopped to inquire about him. Two years later, they imported the first two Vanner mares and founded the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society, the breed's registry. For further information on the American discovery of the breed, see Gypsy Gold’s web site: www.gypsyvannerhorse.com.

The Thompsons coined the name “Vanner” for this imported breed. They intended the name to refer not to all Gypsy-bred horses, but only to those which they felt embodied the vision of the breed’s originators, whom they sought to honor. The Vanner, as defined by the Thompsons, possesses the heaviness and abundant feathering of the three draft breeds from which it was primarily created.

Despite its youth, the Vanner breed is rapidly gaining recognition. The Gypsy King, Gypsy Gold’s fabulous dressage-trained Vanner stallion, was featured at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2001, and Breyer introduced a model of him which you may see at your local tack shop. The breed was featured in November 2003's issue of Horse Illustrated, and famed equine photographer Mark J. Barrett has included several Vanners in each of his past four year's "Horse Feathers" calendars. In 2004, the Gypsy Vanner was accepted by the United States Dressage Foundation All Breeds Program so that individual Vanners can now win breed-specific awards for achievements in dressage activities sponsored by the USDF.