Julip horses are a range of 1/12th-scale model horses, which have been in production since 1945. At this time, a lady called Lavender Dower began making model horses out of chamois leather, using the lead from bombed buldings in London during WWII in their legs. Five years later they had switched to making the horses out of latex, in the same way that the current line of Originals are still made today. Although Lavender Dower sold the company in the '50s, Annabel, who runs the company today, met up with her a few years ago to talk about Julips- I understand that Lavender was interested to hear about J-Club, and the current happenings at Julip. Sadly Lavender Dower passed away in 2003.

The Originals range are still made in the same way today- Julip still make their models by hand here in the UK, the Julip workshop is in Dorset. Being made of latex, old Originals often have some age-damage: common problems include worn paint and gummy or brittle latex. This particularly affects the feet, ears and nose, and so the vintage models do need lots of TLC and gentle handling.

In 1989 a new range of Julip horses were launched- the Horse of the Year (commonly abbreviated to 'HOTY') range. These models were much more solid, being first made of rubber and then solid plastic, making them much more durable for play than the line of Originals.