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Ljubljana, 26 Jul (Xinhua) -- Located on the outskirts of the western Slovenia city of Sezana, Lipica is a beautiful and quiet town with lush vegetation. In the early morning, walking among them, white horses bathed in the morning light, galloping past you in a low voice, that feeling, like in a painting, as if in a dream.
This is the birthplace of the world-famous Lipizza horses, and these white elves are the Lipizza horses. In 1580, Karl II, Grand Duke of Austria under the Habsburg dynasty, ordered the construction of a stud farm in Lipica, present-day Slovenia, from which the Lipiza horse was named.
According to Aaron ·Uzewu, head of sales at Lipica Stud Farm, more than 400 years ago, the Austria royal family imported horses from Spain and mixed with local horses to breed new horse breeds Spain.
"Lipicha" is derived from the Slavic word for "linden", which is the national tree of Slovenia. At the Lipica Stud Farm, staff plant a linden tree for each newborn foal as a souvenir. Currently, there are about 380 Lipizzan horses on the farm.
Visitors to the stud farm can not only admire the horses grazing and running happily in the meadows, but also enter the gilded stables to watch the staff take care of the horses. Visitors can visit the stallion farm on their own or join a group to listen to a guided tour explain the history of the stallion.
As the world's largest Lipizza horse stallion, it receives around 100,000 visitors a year. "Our main markets are Germany, Italy and Austria. There has also been a significant increase in the number of tourists from Eastern European countries in the past few years," Uzewu said.
At the stud farm, black or red foals can be seen from time to time. "One of the main and most well-known characteristics of the Lipizama is that they are born black or red and gradually turn white between the ages of 5 and 8. ”
According to him, as an artificially bred horse breed, the Lipizzan horse was originally bred from the original horse breed of the karst region where the horse farm is located with Spain horses, and later added horse breeds such as Bob horses, Arabian horses and Neapolitan horses. There are currently about 10,000 Lipiza horses in the world, of which about 1,000 live in Slovenia.
The Lipizzan horse is known for its noble temperament, abundant strength, brave spirit, gentle temper and outstanding learning ability, which make it not only a royal mount and an excellent military horse for combat missions, but also a high-class equestrian horse today.
Uzewu said that Lipica Stud Farm has been cooperating with customers from all over the world in areas such as Lipizza horse breeding through the Lipizza International Federation, and welcomes more Chinese tourists to visit and experience here, and also looks forward to more cooperation with Chinese business partners.