Phillipa Klaiber

Gypsy Gold does not clink and glitter it gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark.

- Gypsy Proverb

In the weeks between horse fairs, Travellers frequent the same stopping places every year. They are the places that nobody lives, the fringes and in-between places; lay-bys, old maintenance roads, grass verges or fens.

For hundreds of years, the lives of Gypsies and their horses have been intertwined. When the horse-drawn caravan was replaced with vehicles, that relationship continued. During the fair season some still travel on the roads via horse and caravan, walking for ten to fifteen miles a day and resting in the stopping places that have been used for generations. Generally, though, traditional caravans are now a symbol of the old ways and of the freedom they have lost.

This work is a glimpse of the relationship between Gypsies and their horses, and the quiet moments of the stopping places. For the Gypsies with, historically, no fixed abode, these sites provide the ancestral and geographical roots that shape individuals.