Tuli
Tulipan Fergeteg, Tuli for short, is a Hungarian Lipizzaner horse who came to England at five years old.
A friend of mine had seen a social media post about a Lipizzan stud dispersal sale in Hungary and together with some friends went over there to view the horses.
When she got there she was not met with some lavish Hungarian stable with well cared for and conditioned horses, but sad-looking creatures in cross ties in stalls standing in their own dirt. These once-noble beasts could not even lie down due to the cross ties and were only taken out once a fortnight to be lunged.
Between them, my friend and the others rescued six of these horses and brought them back to England. They were all stallions and Tuli was five years old when he arrived in the UK. Out of the six horses, Tuli was the one who proved to be extremely difficult and was promptly gelded, but unfortunately one of his testicles was retained leaving him as what is known as a rig.
(Rigs are male horses who still retain one testicle and can display stallion-like behaviour, some of these rigs can even still cover mares and some can even get them pregnant!) Sometimes, these horses can be labelled as very difficult as in Tuli’s case.
After spending five years in the UK and having 10 different people in his life my instructor at the time offered Tuli to me to work with. I excitedly said “Yes please!” and after several months with me she gifted him to me for one guinea. It was the best pound and five pence I have ever spent!
I have had Tuli for nearly eight years now and in that time we competed in dressage and world breed showing. One of our proudest moments was Tuli winning UK best gelding at the Iberian championships 2017. He is also the only horse in the Cheshire area to perform a capriole, a classical school movement which involves a controlled leap while kicking out with the hind legs.
He can also perform a levade and pesade which have brought him to the attention of many photographers for photoshoots and workshops.
Together we are working towards our ridden capriole and just keeping him clean (always a struggle with a white horse!), fit and healthy for future photoshoots and making sure he is happy in what he does.
Tuli will live out his days with me and I can truly say he really is my horse of a lifetime. I am truly blessed to be able to share this magical white horse with others to help create some unique and beautiful memories.