Lipizzaner Association of Australasia

The Missing Mare Line of the Lipizzaner world 4sz Mesöhegysi 

There is a Lipizzaner mare bloodline that died out in Hungary, and it was thought that the line had disappeared , however this 'missing' bloodline was found to exist in Australia, and is referred to as 4sz Mesöhegysi.

This bloodline is also referred to in Hungary as "Kancacsalad sz.4", as well as Romanian family nr. 12 (aka 519 Original Hungarin ~ Mezohegyes, 1787).  The diversion of the present Romanian branch took place around 1900.

How the Bloodline Came to Exist In Australia

In the earlier 1970's, a Danish man called Bent Christensen and his brother visited the State Stud of Hungary, Szilvasvarad where hey purchased seven Lipizzaners and took them back to Denmark.

Bent Christensen and his wife Marianne, came to live in Canberra, Australia, bringing with them a number of these Lipizzaners, but particularly three of those Lipizzaner mares bred at Szilvásvárad (plus one stallion from Piber). These formed the nucleus of Lipizzaners at Bibaringa Stud.

One of these imported mares was called Incitato IX-10, and she was brown, and of a good size. This mare turned out to be the founder of one of Australasia's strongest, best quality lines, commonly recognised by their names beginning with L or I.  (Note this naming convention does not conform with a recognized naming protocol as the original handwritten pedigree omitted to state the mare family line.)

In recent years, it became clear that the family line must be clarified, so efforts were made over years to obtain assistance in the matter. Letters were sent in Hungarian, approaches made to various stud managers, but it took until 2009 to discover that the actual mare line was '4sz Mesöhegyes', which had in the meanwhile completely died out in the rest of the world and exists now only in Australasia!

This is very exciting for Australasia, as so many examples of this line are of exceptional standard.

The State Stud Piber, the keeper of the original Lipizzaner Stud books, issued in November 2010 a precise directive on what is and what is not a purebred Lipizzaner, called "Lipizzaner Stud Book of Origins' - without the mare line included in the document as it was thought to not exist anymore.  Fortunately the omission was immediately noticed and a petition made by the Lipizzaner Association of Australasia through the Lipizzan International Federation to include the line in the international book.

This has now been adopted, the mare line is safe and has a rosy future. Through the LAA, there is now a perpetual trophy for the highest point winning mare of this family line at each Accreditation. It is believed that in the future, excellent examples of this line might be sought after from Lipizzaner studs around the world.