KET television, "Kentucky Life" series episode on Gypsy Horses
Program 1324 in Series 13
Part 2: John Hockensmith. Gypsy Horses
Video of Gypsy Horses through the eyes of Photographer John Hockensmith
Interview with Gordon Boswell (English Gypsy) and Jeff Bartko
Once on the video pane, Click on arrow to start.
BE PATIENT with the Kentucky Life story about the Sand cave.
The Gypsy Horse coverage is the second half.
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ENJOY !
On the Road Again
Photographer John Hockensmith
Long misunderstood and often persecuted, the Gypsy or Romany people (the Travelers) are understandably cautious about dealings with outsiders. In this profile, we meet a Kentucky man who got a rare inside look at this proud culture and found it a life-changing experience.
John Hockensmith is a world-renowned equine photographer and the proprietor of Fine Art Editions in Georgetown. He had long admired the horses bred by the Gypsies to pull their colorful wagons. Incredibly strong and patient, these compact draft animals often sport distinctive, bold color patterns—the better to tell them apart—and flowing manes, tails, and “feathers.” Within the traditional nomadic Gypsy culture, they are both necessity and status symbol.
A few years ago, Hockensmith was introduced to the head of a prominent Gypsy family. A friendship developed and eventually led to an invitation to travel with the clan to the Appleby Fair, a horse-trading gathering that’s been held on the same hill outside Appleby in northern England’s Cumbria region every June since the middle of the 18th century.
For Hockensmith, the trip brought a new appreciation of life on the road—and a wealth of great subjects for his artist’s eye. Kentucky Life talked with him at an exhibit of photographs from his book Gypsy Horses and the Travelers’ Way at the Kentucky Horse Park.
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North Star Gypsy
The first part of the video is about
a man who was lost in Sand Cave.
