driving

So if you read the earlier post, you'd know I've been in search of the rare Czech Kladruby horse.

Well I found them today! About 50 km from Prague, by train, plus about 4 km of walking to the National Stud--owned by the government, which keeps the bloodlines of five Kladrubys going strong. There are hundreds of white, grey and black horses there, in a somewhat rough-around-the-edges but once grand palace and stables. The horses have prominent roman noses but otherwise resemble outsized Andulasians. That's their origin, in fact. The Kladruber were used as carriage horses--white for royalty and black for church functions, from the 17th century until today. During the war and the Soviet occupation, not much happened in Czech equestrian sports, but nowadays (that the Czech republic is part of the EU), there is a very real effort to bring up the interest in all things equine. There are hundreds of acres of fields, cross country jumps, and carriage driving obstacles, and the whole town of Kladruby bad Ladem (don't forget the last two words if you want to get to the right town...see earlier post!)

Kladrupy. It's a town in the Czech Republic, two hours or so by train from Prague. It also happens to be the name of a rare breed of Czech horses, and I am on a mission to find them. Only they're proving to be elusive.

Today Scot (S.O) humored me and we took the train to a town named Stribroi, where we were instructed by guidebooks to take the bus to Kladruby; there was no mention of horses, but there is a big famous monestary there, so Kladruby does appear in one or two guidebooks. Only in small-town Czech Republic the bus, too, seemed a little elusive. So after waiting around a bit, we realized it was only six kilometers, which, when you do the math, isn't that much at all--not any more than what Scot and I normally tackle on a weekend Sunday in the mountains. It turned out to be a lovely walk through the countryside, and when we arrived at Kladruby, we were just in time for lunch of gravy, beef, cranberries, and the ubiquitous dumplings at a local pub.