From September 27 to October 1, 2023, the city of Le Pin au Haras in France became the venue for the top driving event. 94 competitors with 273 horses from 23 countries of the world met the qualification criteria. The organizer was the oldest French national stud farm, Haras national du Pin, which has newly built facilities for organizing large international events in various equestrian disciplines.
Authors: National Stud "Topoľčianky" š.p.; Dalibor Gregor
Pocket Edition
First edition, 2023
Number of pages: 72
Description: a small bilingual (Slovak, English) book publication from the National Stud Farm, published on the occasion of the entry of the Lipizzaner breed into the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity UNESCO
From September 22 to 24, 2023, the 30th anniversary equestrian fair connected with the horse exhibition - HORSE 2023 was held at the exhibition centre in Lysa nad Labem. Visitors had the opportunity to see 120 horses of various breeds and visit more than 60 sellers of equestrian and related assortment. Of course, the event included a rich all-day program, which started at 10:00 a.m. with a breeder's presentation of individual horse breeds, continued with an afternoon program in which these individual breeds were shown in riding demonstrations, and the culmination of the day was a night show, where the high-quality lighting and sound system enhanced the impressive atmosphere. Part of this jubilee year was live music performed by a violin quartet.
On September 26, 2023, the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia Mr. Dr. Stanislav Raščan visited the National Stud in Topoľčianky. He was welcomed by the director of the National Stud, Michal Horný, in the courtyard of the training centre. The special guest viewed the historic stables and the performance of the riders with Lipizzaner horses. He also visited the hippological exhibition and signed the memorial book of the National Stud Farm Topoľčianky.
During 9-10 September 2023, the premises of the National Stud became a place of a driving national competition at the level of two stars in the category of singles and pairs, which were also the Championships of the Slovak Republic and the qualifying round for the Golden Horseshoe driving series in 2024.
On August 26, eight vaulting clubs from Slovakia gathered in the grounds of the National Stud. The reason was the penultimate round of the Slovakian national ranking, the Slovak Vaulting Cup 2023. For all vaulters, loungers and their horses, it was an opportunity to improve their previous scores in their category. At the same time, it was the last competition before the Slovak Championships, which will be held on 15-17 September 2023 at Masaryk's yard in Vígľaš.
The first weekend of August in the premises of the National stud farm Topoľčianky racetrack, held endurance sport event. In addition to national competitions at 40, 60 and 80 km, there were also international competitions CEI*100 km, CEIYJ*100 km and CEI2*140 (2x70) km, which were also championships for seniors and juniors/young riders.
In the past few days, Michal Horný, director of the National Stud Farm "Topoľčianky", commemorated his life jubilee in the circle of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. He was born on July 27, 1963 in the picturesque village of Topoľčianky.
Pavol Gašpar was a long-time employee of the Topoľčianky National Stud, where he worked for 45 years, 23 of them as the head of the Breziny breeding facility. During his riding career, he devoted himself to almost all riding disciplines - dressage, show jumping, eventing and driving. He was also involved as an official of the Slovak Equestrian Federation. He was a national judge, course designer and holder of a coaching license. In 2018, he was awarded with the SJF gold badge for his contributions to the development of equestrian sports.
On the 22nd-23rd July 2023, the Open Slovak Dressage Championships were held in the premises of the Topoľčianky National Stud. Precious metals were fought for in the categories of young horses, pony riders and seniors.
In the days 8.-9. July 2023, the second dressage race of the year took place on the premises of the National Stud. Riders competed at levels from 'A' to 'T', including tests for young horses and for pony riders.
On June 24-25, 2023, the first of three planned dressage events took place in the premises of the National Stud. Competed at levels from "Z" to "Grand Prix", including tasks for young horses.
On June 1, it was International Children's Day at the stud. Children from kindergartens and primary schools from all over Slovakia visited National stud farm "Topoľčianky" š.p. From 9.00 a.m. a program for children was prepared, which began with a tour of the historic riding school, where they had the opportunity to see the royal breed Lipizzaner, registered in UNESCO. Subsequently, they had the opportunity to see the demonstration of all the breeds of horses bred in the stud farm in freedom in the indoor riding hall. In the outdoor areas, educational boards, an exhibition of carriages and carriages and training of the vaulting department were waiting for them.
On the last weekend of May, the first of this year's sports events took place in the grounds of the National Stud - the May Prize of the Topoľčianky National Stud. More than 80 riding pairs came to test their strength. Competitions were announced from the ZM level (90 cm) to M - 130 cm. As part of this event, one of the six rounds of the Young Horse Criteria, which is covered by the Association of Horse Breeders in Slovakia, was held.
At the 17th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, which took place from November 28 to December 3, 2022 in Rabat, Morocco, the element "Lipizzaner Horse Breeding Traditions" was accepted into the list for the protection of the World Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. It was an international nomination of eight European countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Italy - which highlighted the common heritage linking communities and states at the national and international level. The main coordinator of the entire nomination process was the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Lipica Stud Farm.
In addition to the traditional Open Day, May 1, 2023 was also the day of the inclusion of the new exhibition "European Bison and its interspecies hybridization with cattle" in the hippological exposition of the National Stud of Topoľčianky. Despite the fact that a bison and a horse are different animal species, the history of bison breeding in Slovakia is also connected with the history of the stud farm in Topoľčianky. Their joint history began to be written in 1981. In cooperation with the current Department of Genetics and Breeding Biology of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and the support of the Ministries of Culture, Education and Agriculture of the Slovak Republic and the State Forests of Topoľčianky, an experimental and breeding project was established, anchored in the research task "Study of biological and genetic issues of effective use of bison crossbreeding with cattle". The project manager was prof. Ing. Jozef Kliment, DrSc. and the co-researcher was prof. MVDr. Pavel Šťastný, PhD., who personally participated in the presentation of the new exhibition. The joint hard work was rewarded with positive results, and thus for the first time in history, an interspecies crossing of a Slovak mottled bull with a bison was achieved, which gave birth to healthy offspring. Despite the great response from the professional public, the experimental farm ended its operation in 1988. It is all the more important to remember this exhibition, which was also ground-breaking in the world in the field of interspecies hybridization.
This annual Open Door Day, which is traditionally held on May 1, broke all previous attendance records. The pleasant spring weather in connection with the prospect of a day full of experiences attracted more than 15 000 visitors to Topoľčianky.
April 22 - 23, 2023, on the grounds of the National Stud "Topoľčianky" š.p. held a general meeting of the international organization HIF (Hucul International Federation) with the participation of delegates from Hungary, Romania, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and the Slovak Republic.
On April 15, 2023, the Horses for Sale Day was held in the premises of the Topoľčianky National Stud. Despite the rainy weather, many visitors and interested parties came. From the outdoor arena, the event moved to the covered hall of the historic riding school, where horses were shown on hand, free and under saddle.
On February 25, 2023, after a three-year break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the breeding seminar organized by the National Stud in Topoľčianky was held again. Almost forty private breeders and interested parties from all over Slovakia supported the event with their presence.
