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News Flash: Parnell's is pleased to present the latest addition to our farm - two fine young Gypsy Lurchers! Lurchers are dogs bred by the Romany Gypsies in the British Isles to be hunting dogs, at a time when all the game legally belonged to the landowners. The name Lurcher is thought to come from the Romany word "lur" which means thief - they simply let the dog through the fence to see what kind of game it could bring back for their dinner stew pot!! These two boys are 1/2 greyhound (for speed in running down game) and 1/4 wolfhound + 1/4 deerhound (for the strength to bring down the larger game). The white one is Fintan ("white fire" in Irish) and the fawn-colored one is Brann (one of Finn McCool's two hunting hounds in Irish mythology). We can't wait to take them to the Irish Rose farm and introduce them to the rest of their Romany heritage, our lovely horses and wagons, and start showing them off at parades and events! Click here to go to the Gallery Page and view their PhotoShows.

   

News Flash:  We are pleased to announce that our fine young Gypsy mare Parnell’s Laoise will be going to her new home in Colorado in the coming weeks. Sam surprised his wife Alesha with her for Christmas! What a Christmas present (and what a guy)! Alesha is getting back into horses after several years absence, and was looking for a horse that she could show and compete with, as well as use to introduce her daughter to horses. You just can’t get a much better horse than a Gypsy – Congratulations, Sam and Alesha!

   

News Flash: We are pleased to announce that Parnell's Lisdoonvarna, one of the finest young mares ever bred and trained by Parnell's Irish Cobs, is in foal to our magnificent "blue" stallion, Parnell's Leannan. Lizzie's foal is due in October, 2012.


   


Welcome to The Irish Rose, home of Parnell's Irish Cobs.  We hope that you and your family have enjoyed a wonderful Holiday season – we had a quite Christmas at the Irish Rose Farm and even got a bit of snow just in time for a White Christmas!   The Gypsy Horses have put on their wonderful thick winter coats and many of them are working on great mustaches.  They don’t seem to mind the temperature extremes we have been experiencing the past few days – from single digit overnight lows to daytime highs in the low 50’s!  It does make it a bit of a challenge to keep them working over the winter, but we use every “warm” day that we get to exercise them.

It’s been a wonderful year for Parnell’s in 2011 - we sent several horses to their new “forever homes”, including Parnell’s Laoise, as mentioned in the News Flash above.  Now is the time to start planning for the 2012 show and performance season.  Parnell’s still has several fine young horses, as well as selected bloodstock, available at very attractive prices.  And we will have new foals from Cahir and Roisin in the Spring, and from Lisdoonvarna in the Fall of 2012.  Be sure and check out the “Horses for Sale” page for the latest information on our available horses.  Thinking about breeding your mare this year?  Our blue stallion, Parnell’s Leannan, will be standing to a limited number of approved Gypsy mares in 2012 – be sure and visit his page for more information (and look at Caoinlean and Si Gaoithe, his first foals from 2010!)  If you are in the Fort Collins area and would like to visit with our herd, or see Leannan in person, please contact us to arrange your visit!

We are often asked how we got involved with Gypsy Horses - we became fascinated with these small, colorful, draft-type horses and their link to our Irish ancestry a few years ago, and decided to start a horse breeding operation here in Northern Colorado.  These horses, commonly referred to as Gypsy horses, Gypsy Vanners, Gypsy Cobs or Tinker horses, are renowned for their extremely docile nature, endurance, weight-pulling ability and extraordinary looks.  As you will see from the pictures, a trademark of these horses is the extreme thickness of mane and tail, as well as the extravagant "feathering" on the legs.

At Parnell's, our goal is to breed, train and show the finest traditional Irish Cobs. We are meeting this goal by carefully matching our broodmares with hand-picked stallions in terms of conformation and color.  We also believe that it is equally important to maintain their well-deserved reputation for being hard-working horses with gentle dispositions.  We breed for performance, whether in harness or under saddle, and we focus on the qualities that promote the ability to perform in multiple disciplines.  We currently have eight horses available for purchase, including five mares (three in foal!), a gelding and our fine stallion - please see the Horses for Sale page for more information and pictures.


We are pleased that we have been able to preserve another part of the Irish culture in the form of traditional driving vehicles.  We are privileged to own two Irish Gypsy vardos or living wagons, an English Gypsy flat cart and an authentic Irish jaunting cart - please make sure you check the Driving Vehicles page for more information and photos of these lovely vehicles!

 

Thank you for visiting our website - we hope you will enjoy the pictures of our fine horses and our traditional Gypsy driving vehicles.  Please contact us for more information regarding our available Horses for Sale.  Our farm, The Irish Rose, is only an hour North of Denver, CO and we would love to show you our horses and wagons in person!

Parnell's Irish Cobs, LLC
Charlie and Jan Cox


 

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