LipiData

5 Years of LipiData 🎉

It's hard to believe, but today marks the 5th anniversary of LipiData.

Looking back on that night during the Covid lockdowns when the idea of a lipizzaner database came into being, it's incredible to see how far that original idea has come. What began as a simple software project has grown into something far bigger than I ever imagined. LipiData has truly taken on a life of its own and is fostering a wonderful international community.

Over the past five years, LipiData has been fortunate to:

🦄 Partner with universities to support PhD candidates in their research.
🦄 Provide a secure online platform that enables breed associations to manage their studbooks and memberships.
🦄 Run a global High Point competition, encouraging lipizzaners to compete, helping raise public awareness of the breed.
🦄 Provide sponsorship to breed societies for their annual lipizzaner events.
🦄 Grow from 1,500 recorded pedigrees to more than 13,000 (!!).
🦄 Implement a kinship (COI) calculator that has become one of LipiData's most popular features, helping breeders find good matches for their breeding stock.
🦄 Publish articles in multiple magazines and breed society publications.
🦄 Watch daily visitors grow from just five people a day, to 30, then 50, and now regularly more than 150 visitors every single day. A little achievement that still gives me a bit of a thrill whenever I check the site's analytics.

But on a personal level, LipiData is far more than a database to me.

LipiData has given me opportunities beyond my wildest dreams. I've had the privilege of connecting with breeders around the world, hearing their stories, seeing their passion for this incredible breed. I've toured state stud farms and private breeders, meeting in person the horses whose pedigrees I've spent the past five years entering, and walked down barn aisles to find LipiData pedigrees pinned to stable doors.

I have been incredibly humbled by the support you have shown LipiData, by the warmth and generosity you have shown to me, and I hope that LipiData can continue to be here for years to come, to help showcase your lipizzaners, and to share their significance with the broader community and to continue connecting people (sometimes with rakija!).

These five years have been a privilege and a gift.

Here's to five more, and hopefully they are bigger and better than the last 🎉

Nikki
Team LipiData