Međimurje Horse Stud ( hr, Ergela međimurskog konja) is a small

stud farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word " stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, documentation ...

comprising 20 acres in the northern part of

Međimurje County Međimurje County (; hr, Međimurska županija ; hu, Muraköz megye) is a triangle-shaped county in the northernmost part of Croatia, roughly corresponding to the historical and geographical region of Međimurje. Despite being the smallest C ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. It is located at the Žabnik village in the Sveti Martin na Muri municipality. Established in 2015, Međimurje Horse Stud is opened to help preserve and revitalize Međimurje horse, a Croatian medium-heavy horse breed of

draught horse A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less oft ...

which is endangered today, with a remaining small population in its original area in Croatia, and a larger one on the north side of the

Mura River The Mur () or Mura (; ; ; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Müra''Novak, Vilko. 2006. ''Slovar stare knjižne prekmurščine''. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, pp. 262, 269. or ''Möra'') is a river in Central Europe rising in the Hohe Tauern national park of th ...

in southwestern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, as well as in eastern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. The Stud is situated in a local municipality

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

(called ''gmajna''), i. e. common land, close to marshes at Mura River. There is a newly built stable on the farm, with other facilities necessary for horses (

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

, food depot etc.). The farm establishing was financially supported by the IPA funding mechanism of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, within the transnational cooperation. The establisher and owner of the Stud is „Međimurska priroda“ („Međimurje Nature“), a public institution in charge of

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

, control, development and promotion. After finishing the establishing and building activities, it redeemed eight

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than fo ...

s from private horse breeders to create an initial breeding fund of animals. The Stud opening ceremony took place on 30 November 2015. Because of upcoming winter, it was open for

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

only next spring—on Sunday, 1 May 2016—and included in tourist routes, in Međimurje County.

References

Gallery

{{coord missing, Croatia Tourist attractions in Međimurje County Horse farms in Europe Farms in Croatia 2015 establishments in Croatia

See also

References

Gallery