diff --git a/spacy/tests/util.py b/spacy/tests/util.py
index 9f7300c7e..385ff414b 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/util.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/util.py
@@ -4,9 +4,20 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from ..tokens import Doc
 from ..attrs import ORTH, POS, HEAD, DEP
 
+import pytest
 import numpy
 
 
+MODELS = {}
+
+
+def load_test_model(model):
+    if model not in MODELS:
+        module = pytest.importorskip(model)
+        MODELS[model] = module.load()
+    return MODELS[model]
+
+
 def get_doc(vocab, words=[], pos=None, heads=None, deps=None, tags=None, ents=None):
     """Create Doc object from given vocab, words and annotations."""
     pos = pos or [''] * len(words)