The Lipica Stud Farm in Slovenia will host the World Pairs Driving Championships this September. But first, the Lipizzaner farm hosted Bill Murray.

The American comedy actor was spotted at the farm recently, feeding carrots to the horses, mugging with the equine residents, and even going for a carriage ride in a marathon driving cart pulled by a pair of athletic Lipizzaner horses.

Murray is reportedly on Slovenia for business purposes. He became a co-owner of Slovenia Vodka in 2013 and made his first visit to the country last week. According to an article from RTV SLO, during his visit to Lipica, he took in a Lipizzaner performance that included airs above the ground set to the Ghostbusters theme. He also was named godfather to Slava, the first foal born at the farm this year.

The Lipica Stud Farm has a long history dating back to the 1500s, and the Lipizzaner breed can trace its origins back to Lipica. The breeding program has survived—sometimes barely—four centuries of natural disasters, wars, and fluctuating national boundaries. In 1945, the fate of the Lipica herd was uncertain when the horses were stuck in the Soviet-controlled territory of Czechoslovakia, nearly lost in the devastation left behind after the end of World War II. The herd was saved, however, in a military operation led by American forces that brought the horses to territory controlled by the Allied Forces. The horses were later returned to Vienna’s Spanish Riding School in an operation made famous by the 1963 Disney Film, The Miracle of the White Stallions.

Learn more at www.lipica.org.

Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com

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It’s time for another inexplicable “horse date” on The Bachelorette! (Tap here to read about the last one and here to read about the time a Mini Horse appeared with a contestant on The Bachelor.)

I don’t get it. I don’t get why combining non-horse people with horses is supposed to be such compelling television. Are horses kitschy? Nostalgic? Fluffy and cute yet also dangerous? I just can’t see this through the eyes of a “normal” person.

ANYWAY.

Anthony, a 26-year-old Education Software Manager, tells us his date card said he’d be going to the rodeo, so he thought he was going to have to rope a cow or something. “I’m up for anything!” Good attitude.

Turns out the date is shopping on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills … on horseback. “I’ve never been on a horse before!” he says. However, he was much more graceful at mounting than that disaster we saw from JoJo last season.

So, off they go. Literally just riding down the street. People everywhere are gawking and taking pictures and screaming at the bachelorette—”We love you Rachel!” It IS nice to finally see some diversity on this show.

First stop, boot store. Because of course. Anthony wears a size “13 or 14” (!!). He gets some pretty red boots—I am pained to think what those cost on Rodeo Drive. Rachel gets some matchy red flower boots, they both put on a hat, and they’re ready to be fake cowboys for a day! (At least she’s from Texas, so we’ll give her a pass.)

Then they go to a “cupcake ATM” (apparently this is a real thing), and discover one of them is called a Horse Cupcake. Anthony gets one and feeds it to the horse. Um … hmm.

At the next store, also very inexplicably, they both get coats similar to high school letterman jackets. It’s probably 80 degrees as they film this.

Finally, the inevitable happens. One of the horses makes a poopie in the store. They pixelate it out because … ??? I see so much of that every day I really don’t think of it as anything but mildly processed hay. At least it didn’t happen in the boot store; they had a white carpet!

They ride off once again and that’s it. Very strange. Not really sure what bonding was supposed to occur when two non-horse people are trying to concentrate on riding and shopping and smiling for the screaming fans.

Until next time!

Holly Caccamise is Managing Editor of Horse Illustrated. She watches reality television so you don’t have to.

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