Rare Heck Tarpan Broodmare Missing

Rare Heck Tarpan Broodmare Missing

04 March 2015

dixiepoppyMissingVAFeb15.jpg

Stolen Horse International
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Press Release

Rare Heck Tarpan Broodmare Missing-VA

Foaling Imminent-High Risk

RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY, VA February 6, 2015:  Somewhere around February, 6, Dixie Poppy didn’t come up with the rest of her herd members when called. Helen Dixon, 80, knows each of her charges by name, breeding, and temperament-in spite of the fact that they all appear to look almost exactly alike. These are the famed Heck Tarpans-recreated by Heinz and Lutz Heck in Germany when he found that the last true Tarpan had died sometime in the late 1800’s. Mrs. Dixon wants to expand the numbers she currently has-and this mare is crucial to that goal.

Heck Tarpans are differentiated from some others also called Tarpans because these little horses can trace their lineage directly back to those horses coming from the Tierpark Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, Germany without contribution from other breeds. The Heck brothers believed that the ancient genetics still existed within the breeds alive, so they carefully crossed Icelandic, Gotland, Koniks, then used to Przewalski’s to “awaken the sleeping genetics”. The result was a colt and the cross bred true.

In 1954, a stallion named Duke was imported to the Chicago Zoological Park. He was followed in 1955 by two mares. A couple of years later, two more mares were imported. All Heck Tarpans in the US are descended from these horses.

There are approximately 50 in the United States now with the majority in the hands of Helen Dixon. Her careful breeding program is ensuring the future for this incredible breed painted on the cave walls of France, Germany, and Poland as being hunted for meat with spears.

Stolen Horse International aka NetPosse.com was asked to assist in the search for Dixie Poppy as local efforts had turned up little. Social media alerts have been issued and will continue to be issued. Poppy is invaluable and irreplaceable as breeding stock. She is NOT trained at all, though she is quite friendly. She is a little less than 14 hands, grulla dun, tri-color mane and tail which is a bit on the coarse side, legs have “finger prints”, dorsal strip, and faint shoulder bar. SHE IS MICROCHIPPED.

A reward for her safe return has been offered by her owner. Telephone: (540)937-5186 Sheriff's Department / Officer: Shawn R. Walters Report Date: 2/10/2015 / Report # 2015-00983 Phone: (540)675-5300. Netposse Report NR002481 Please check her Netposse Report for updates and further information as the search progresses.

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Katherine Smitherman

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