 | The Orlov-Rostopchin is an exotic Russian horse. Everything about it is unusual and romantic: its appearance, its origin, its fate. To begin with, it is a product of an exciting competition and a brainchild of two aristocratic breeding talents, Count Orlov and Count Rostopchin. | |
| The two counts followed the same breeding philosophies. And no wonder that when after their deaths their studs were bought by the Crown, the Orlovs and Rostopchins were merged to give rise to Orlov-Rostopchins. The Orlov-Rostopchin combines the size, type and dressage abilities of the Orlovs and the speed of the Rostopchins. | |
| In those days Russian breeding was dominated by the teachings of the French naturalist Buffon. Buffon maintained that crossing was the surest way to “reproduce the prototype” of a given animal species from “bits of perfection, which have been dispersed by God among individual breeds” and which through crossing and mixture “...combine to yield the supreme beauty.” All Russian breeders of the time went overboard in order to “reproduce the prototype,” with disappointing results. | |
