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U.S. horses being rounded up for $22 million theme park here
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A quiet roundup of sorts is taking place in the United States to find top-quality horses for an agricultural theme park in Costa Rica.
Agents for Parque Natural de la Cultura Agropecuaria say they are in search of more than 100 horses. The project is like a Noah's Ark of horses. Jeff Swank, a Louisiana horse expert, said that each breed will have a stallion and mare to produce offspring.
Although Costa Rica is known for its horses, the animals for the theme park appear to be those that are under-represented in Costa Rica:
Friesians, Gypsy, Haflinger, Miniature Horse and Clydesdales, Swank reported.
The Gypsy is the horse that the European Gypsies used to pull their wagons or caravans.
The Clydesdale is well known to U.S. beer drinkers as the type of giant horse that pulls the Budweiser wagon in Anheuser-Busch television commercials.
In addition, some 40 or more draft horses, perhaps Belgians, are being sought to pull wagons that will carry visitors through the park.
This is no small undertaking. Swank estimated that the park, which is near San Mateo in the province of Alajuela, will cost $22 million, not including animals. The park is part of a chain that is rapidly expanding throughout Latin America, and hopefully soon will open in the United States, he said.
"They bring the farm experience to adults and children who, many of whom, have never been able to see a horse, cow, chicken, or pig up close and personal," he added.
Swank talked by telephone Tuesday while at a horse auction in Columbia, in the U.S. State of Missouri. He said some of the animals that he will buy are pricey. He said a Gypsy foal or young animal can bring $30,000. "Costa Rica will have offspring of some of the best animals that the U.S. has to offer," he said.
Once the animals have been purchased, they will go into quarantine at Swank's High Delta Drive Thru Safari Park in Delhi, Louisiana. He estimates that the testing for various diseases, including the West Nile Virus will take at least 28 days.
Then the animals will be trucked to Florida and loaded on a modern day ark, a Boeing 747, for shipment to Costa Rica. Swank said this is the first time a project of this magnitude has been orchestrated.
A Web site entry said that the first Parque Natural De La Cultura Agropecuaria was created by a group of Colombian businessmen there in Quindío. There are now two other parks under construction besides the San Mateo location: Near Bogotá, Colombia, and near Puebla, México. The Colombian operation has 8,500 animals with 150 different races of dogs represented, according to an article from a news
