Lipizzan horse

The Lipizzan, or Lipizzaner (Slovene Lipicanec), is a breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria where the finest representatives demonstrate the "high school" movements of classical dressage, including the highly advanced "airs above the ground." The Lipizzan breed dates back to the 16th century, when it was developed with the support of the Habsburg nobility. The breed takes its name from one of the earliest stud farms established, located near the Kras village of Lipica (spelled "Lipizza" in Italian), in modern-day Slovenia. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... // Horse breeds (1). ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ... For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). ... Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements trained for the battlefield, and has since developed into competitive dressage seen today. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... The Habsburg Monarchy, often called Austrian Monarchy or simply Austria, are the territories ruled by the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg, and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine, between 1526 and 1867/1918. ... An image of Italian Karst (Monfalcone). ... Lipica is a town in Slovenia, the main tourist center of the Kras region. ...

Breed characteristics

Most Lipizzans measure between 14.2 and 15.2 hands, with occasional individuals either over or under. They are compact and muscular, with very powerful hindquarters, allowing them to do the difficult "High School" (Dressage) movements, including the "airs above the ground." They generally have a strong-featured head with a convex profile, set high on a well-muscled, arched neck. They have short cannons, their legs have good bone, and well-sloped shoulders. Their gaits are powerful and elastic, although different in style from the Warmblood breeds seen in many Dressage competitions. Lipizzans are naturally balanced, well-known for excellent trainability and intelligence. A hand (or handbreadth) is a unit of length measurement, usually based on the breadth of a male human hand and thus around 1 dm, i. ... The anatomy of the horse comes with a large number of horse specific terms. ... Warmbloods are a group of sport horse breeds and the term simply distinguishes this type of horse from the cold bloods (draft horses) and the hot bloods (Thoroughbreds and Arabians). ... An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...

Lipizzans are slow to mature, usually not being put under saddle until the age of four, and not considered fully mature until the age of seven. However, they also are long-lived horses, often performing well into their mid-20s, and living into their thirties. For example, the stallion Siglavy Mantua I was a featured solo performer with the Spanish Riding School at the age of 26 during its 2005 tour of the United States.

Color

This young Lipizzan stallion has already begun the graying process.

Aside from the rare solid-colored horse (usually bay or black), all Lipizzans are gray. As with all gray horses, they are born dark—usually bay or black—and become lighter each year as the graying process takes place. Other than the rare individual who does not carry the gray gene, Lipizzans usually gray quickly and develop a completely white hair coat. They are usually completely white by the average age of seven, though the range varies from as young as six to as old as ten. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1328x840, 229 KB) A Lippizaner horse being led out of the Spanish Riding School, Vienna Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Lipizzan English... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1328x840, 229 KB) A Lippizaner horse being led out of the Spanish Riding School, Vienna Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Lipizzan English... Bay is a color of the hair coats of horses, characterized by a body color of dark red (known as blood bay) to deep brown, with black points (mane, tail, lower legs, and sometimes the muzzle and tip of the ears). ... Friesian horses are one of the best-known breeds of black-colored horse Black is a relatively uncommon coat color in horses, though not so unusual as to be considered rare. ... Gray is a coat color of horses, consisting of black skin, a white to dark gray coat, and a mane the same color or darker than the body coat. ...

Until the 18th century, Lipizzans had other coat colors, including dun and bay. However, gray is a dominant gene, and in a small breed population and also deliberately selected as a desirable feature, it came to be the color of the overwhelming majority of Lipizzan horses. However, today, it is still traditional for the Spanish Riding School to have one bay Lipizzan in residence, showing respect to an old belief that doing so will prevent bad luck. Dun is a yellow-brown color, sometimes seen in the hair coats of horses, characterized by a body color ranging from sandy yellow to reddish-brown. ... In genetics, the term dominant gene refers to the allele that causes a phenotype that is seen in a heterozygous genotype. ... Bay is a color of the hair coats of horses, characterized by a body color of dark red (known as blood bay) to deep brown, with black points (mane, tail, lower legs, and sometimes the muzzle and tip of the ears). ...

Training of Lipizzan Horses

Lipizzans training at the Spanish Riding School.

The traditional training methods for Lipizzans were developed at the Spanish Riding School and are based on the principles of classical dressage, a method of training refined during the Baroque period, developed partly for military purposes, partly for exhibitions at European royal households, with techniques specifically adapted to the temperament and conformation of horses of the time, the predecessors of breeds, like the Lipizzan, that we now refer to as "Baroque horses." Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1712 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1712 pixel, file size: 2. ... A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ... Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements trained for the battlefield, and has since developed into competitive dressage seen today. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint In the arts, Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the artistic style that dominated it. ... The Baroque horse is a term used to generally describe the type of agile but strong-bodied descendants of Horses in the Middle Ages such as the destrier and the Iberian horse known in the Middle Ages as the Spanish Jennet. ...

Young stallions come to the Spanish Riding School when they are four years old and are trained with gentleness and without undue pressure. It takes at least six years for the horse to be fully trained and become a member of the School Quadrille.

The fundamentals taught to the Lipizzan stallions at the Spanish Riding School were passed down via an oral tradition until they were written down in 1898 by His Excellency Field Marshall Franz Holbein and Franz Meixner, senior rider at the Spanish Riding School from 1885 to 1916. They include: Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. ...

• Riding in as natural a position as possible in non-collected gaits in straight lines, so-called straight riding.
• Campagne, or elementary dressage, consists of riding the collected horse through all of the gaits, turns and manoeuvres while maintaining perfect balance.
• The haute école, or high school — riding in an upright position with a strong curvature of the haunches (angling of the hindquarters), regularity, skill and finesse in all of the natural gaits, dressage manoeuvres and leaps as adapted from nature. All of the above is to be executed in a methodical manner to the highest degree of perfection.^[1]

Some say that though the principles have been written down, the fundamental methods for training horses in classsical dressage can only be passed down through a one on one interaction between instructor and student, as these techniques require substantial amounts of explanation, demonstration, and sensing by the pupils themselves.

The Austrian Federal Stud farm at Piber traditionally does not break mares to saddle. Although some other Lipizzan establishments train geldings to the haute ecole, the Spanish Riding School exclusively uses stallions in its performances. ^[2] A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ...

The "Airs"

See also: Dressage#Airs above the ground

The "airs above the ground" are the difficult "high school" dressage movements made famous by the Lipizzans. They include: An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...

• The levade: a position wherein the horse raises up both front legs, standing at a 45 degree angle, entirely on its hind legs in a controlled form that requires a great deal of hindquarter strength.
• The courbette: a movement where the horse balances on its hind legs before jumping, keeping his forelegs off the ground and his hind legs together as he "hops."
• The capriole: a jump in place wherein the stallion leaps into the air, tucking his forelegs under himself, and kicking out with his hind legs at the height of elevation.
• The croupade: similar to the capriole, but both fore and hind legs are tucked under the body at the height of elevation.

Usually a Lipizzan horse will not learn more than two "airs" during their performing career.^{[citation needed]}

Other moves include the piaffe, passage, pirouette, flying changes, extended movements, and other Classical dressage movements. The piaffe is a high school dressage movement where the horse is in a highly collected and cadenced trot, in place or nearly in place. ... The passage in motion The passage is a movement seen in upper-level dressage, in which the horse performs a highly-elevated and extremely powerful trot. ... A pirouette is a movement asked of a horse in dressage. ... The flying change is a movement performed by a horse in which he changes leads at the canter. ... Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements trained for the battlefield, and has since developed into competitive dressage seen today. ...

Breed History

Lipica stud farm, Slovenia.

The ancestors of the Lipizzan can be traced to approximately A.D. 800.^[3] The predecessors of the Lipizzan included desert horses that were brought into Spain from North Africa and crossed on native Spanish horses, creating breeds such as the Andalusian and other Iberian horses. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Lipica is a town in Slovenia, the main tourist center of the Kras region. ... The Andalusian horse or Spanish horse is one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world today. ... The Iberian horse is native to the Iberian peninsula. ...

By the 16th Century, when the Hapsburg Empire ruled both Spain and Austria, a powerful but agile horse was desired for both military uses and for use in the fashionable and rapidly-growing riding schools for the nobility of central Europe. Therefore, in 1562, the Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian II brought the Spanish horse to Austria and founded the court stud at Kladrub. In 1580, his brother, Archduke Charles II, established a similar stud in 1580 at Lippiza (now spelled Lipica), located in modern-day Slovenia), whence the breed obtained its name. Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy; also used as the flag of the Austrian Empire until the Ausgleich of 1867. ... Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. His Coat of Arms Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor of the Habsburg dynasty (July 31, 1527 – October 12, 1576) was king of Bohemia from 1562, king of Hungary from 1563 and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 until his death. ... Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria (Vienna June 3, 1540 – July 10, 1590 in Graz) was an Archduke of Austria and ruler of Inner Austria (Styria, Carniola and Carinthia) from the House of Habsburg from 1564. ...

Kladrub and Lipizza stock were bred to the native Karst horses, and succeeding generations were crossed with the old Neapolitan breed and horses of Spanish descent obtained from Spain, Germany, and Denmark The studs also imported more Spanish horses, as well as Neapolitans from Italy, as the years went on. While breeding stock was exchanged between the two studs, Kladrub specialized in producing heavy carriage horses, while riding and light carriage horses came from the Lippiza stud.^[4]

In 1735, Charles VI established the Spanish Riding School and recorded the bloodlines of the Lipizzans. He also built a winter riding hall in the imperial palace in Vienna, which is the home of the Spanish Riding School today. Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI Charles VI, (German Karl VI; in full Karl Josef Franz)Holy Roman Emperor (October 1, 1685 – October 20, 1740) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1711 to 1740 and the second son of Leopold I with his third wife, Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg. ... A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ...

The Spanish Riding School, though located in Vienna, Austria, takes its name from the original Spanish heritage of both its horses and its riding techniques. A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ...

Beginning in 1920, the Piber stud, near Graz, Austria, became the main stud for the horses used in Vienna. Breeding became very selective, only allowing stallions that had proved themselves at the Riding School to stand at stud, and only breeding mares who had passed rigorous performance testing.^[5]

Foundation horses

Today, all Lipizzans recognized worldwide trace to six stallions. In order foaled, they are:

• Pluto: a gray Spanish stallion from the Royal Danish Stud, foaled in 1765
• Conversano: a black Neopolitan stallion, foaled in 1767
• Neapolitano: a bay Neopolitan stallion from Polesina, foaled in 1790
• Favory: a dun stallion from the Kladrub stud, foaled in 1779
• Siglavy: a gray Arabian stallion, foaled in 1810
• Maestoso: a gray (or possibly white) Kladruber stallion, a crossbred of Neapolitan sire and a Spanish dam, foaled at the Hungarian stud of Mezőhegyes in 1819

There are also 2 other stallion lines which are accepted as equal to the 6 classical lines by LIF (Lipizzan International Federation). These are: Kladruber stallion foto: Hanka Čertík The Kladruber is the oldest czech horse breed, bred in Kladruby nad Labem national stud. ... Kladruber stallion foto: Hanka Čertík The Kladruber is the oldest czech horse breed, bred in Kladruby nad Labem national stud. ...

• Tulipan (English Tulip): this line started in the Croatian stud farm of Terezovac of Count Janković. Horses of this line are of Neapolitan descent, crossed with other Lipizzaners during the 19th century and formed the Tulipan line around 1880.
• Incitato: the foundation sire of this Hungarian line was foaled in Mezőhegyes in 1802. The Incitato line is derived from Spanish and Italian sources.

These two lines are still found in Croatia, Hungary, and other eastern European countries as well as in North America. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Neapolitan may refer to: Neapolitan, a resident of Naples, Italy Neapolitan language, a language of Naples and environs in southern Italy Neapolitan ice cream, a mixture of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream side-by-side in the same container Neapolitan chord, in music, is the first inversion of a...

In addition to the foundation stallions, there are 18 mare family lines in the classical tradition. However, some organizations recognize up to 35 mare lines.^[6]

In acknowledgement of the importance of bloodline, every stallion has two names, referencing both the sire's name and the dam's name.^[7]

The Rescue of the Lipizzans

World War II presented perhaps the greatest threat ever faced by the Lipizzan breed. The breeding stock was taken by the Nazis from Piber to a German-run stud farm at Hostau, in what today is the Czech Republic. Threatened by bombing raids, the stallions later evacuated Vienna for St. Martin's, in upper Austria. Under the leadership of Alois Podhajsky, then the director of the Spanish Riding School, both the stallions and the equestrian traditions were preserved. However, there were still harsh challenges; while safe from aerial attacks, there was little food for human or animals, and starving refugees sometimes attempted to steal the horses, viewing them as a source of meat.^[8] Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

In 1945, the United States Army took control of St. Martins. General George S. Patton, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Group, had been a fellow equestrian competitor with Podhajsky in the Olympic Games prior to the war. The two men renewed their acquaintance, and after an impressive performance by the remaining horses and riders of the school in front of Patton and Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, the Americans agreed to place the stallions under the protection of the United States until they could safely be returned to the people of Austria after the war. The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... George Smith Patton Jr. ... Equestrianism made its Summer Olympics debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. ... Robert Patterson ( January 12, 1792- August 7, 1881) was an Irish immigrant and a noted soldier and businessman from Pennsylvania. ...

When Hostau fell behind Soviet lines, captured German officers, under interrogation by U.S. Army Captain Ferdinand Sperl, reported the Lipizzans' location and asked the Americans to rescue the horses before they fell into Soviet hands, because it was feared they would be slaughtered for horsemeat. Patton issued orders, and on April 28, 1945, Colonel Charles H. Reed, Sperl's superior officer, with members of Troops A, C and F of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conducted a raid behind Soviet lines and accepted the surrender of the Germans at Hostau. Reed later said that the surrender was "more a fiesta than a military operation, as the German troops drew up an honor guard and saluted the American troops as they came in."^[8] Although only 250 Lipizzans survived the war, the breed was saved.

In 2005, the Spanish Riding School celebrated the 60th anniversary of George S. Patton's rescue by touring the United States. A Lipizzan horse in the Winter Riding School The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses. ... George Smith Patton Jr. ...

The Modern Lipizzan

A modern Lipizzan

Today, though found in many nations throughout Europe and North America, the breed is relatively rare, with only about 3,000 horses registered worldwide. However, their numbers are increasing. Lipizzans still shine in classical dressage, performing the High School "airs above the ground" with ease. Lipizzan stallions are still the "Dancing White Horses," the only horses used by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Both purebred and crossbred Lipizzans make excellent riding and harness horses. While popular for dressage exhibitions and recreational riding in Europe and North America, in some countries (such as Slovenia) stallions are crossed with local mares to make good farm horses in addition to being used for dressage. Download high resolution version (1781x1773, 772 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1781x1773, 772 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements trained for the battlefield, and has since developed into competitive dressage seen today. ... An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...

Because of their fame and their status as the only breed of horse developed in Slovenia, via the Lippiza stud, Lipizzans are considered one of that nation's most beloved national symbols. A pair of Lipizzans is featured on the 20-cent Slovenian euro coins. On January 1, 2007, Slovenia is expected to replace its national currency, the tolar, with the euro. ...

Lipizzans in popular culture

The motion picture produced by Walt Disney studios, entitled Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) depicted the Spanish Riding School and the rescue of its horses from advancing Soviet forces by General George S. Patton. It starred Eddie Albert, Curt Jürgens, Lilli Palmer, James Franciscus, and Robert Taylor. It was directed by Arthur Hiller. For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ...

The motion picture Florian (1940) was based on a novel written in 1934 by Felix Salten, the author of Bambi (1942). The story is set in the 1880s and tells how two young lovers met through their love of horses. The movie was directed by Edwin L. Marin and scripted by Noel Langley and James Kevin McGuinness. Its producer, Winfield Sheehan, owned the only Lipizzan horses in the U.S. at the time. Felix Salten (September 6, 1869 – October 8, 1945) was an Austrian writer. ...

The White Horses was a 1965 television series co-produced by RTS of Yugoslavia and BR-TV of Germany, re-broadcast in the United Kingdom. It followed the adventures of a teenage girl who visits a farm where Lipizzan horses are raised. The White Horses is a 1965 television series co-produced by RTS of Yugoslavia and BR-TV of Germany. ...

In the climax of the submarine thriller Crimson Tide, Capt. Frank Ramsey asks Lt. Cmdr. Ron Hunter if he's ever seen Lipizzan stallions, while both are waiting for a critical incoming radio transmission. Ramsey asserts that they are white, from Portugal, and are the "most highly trained horses in the world." Hunter, who rides horses, retorts that they are in fact from Spain and are born black. In the denouement, Ramsey admits his error. Crimson Tide is a 1995 Hollywood submarine film starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman and directed by Tony Scott. ... Eugene Allen Gene Hackman[1] (born January 30, 1930) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor. ... Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. ... A truly white horse has pink skin under their white hair coat True white horses, especially those that carry the White or W gene, are rare. ... Friesian horses are one of the best-known breeds of black-colored horse Black is a relatively uncommon coat color in horses, though not so unusual as to be considered rare. ... Denouement, in literature, is the end part of a story after the climax. ...

In the Nickelodeon cartoon show The Angry Beavers, Norbert's dream is to be a Lipizzan stallion. The Angry Beavers is an Emmy Award nominated Nickelodeon American animated television series about Daggett and Norbert Beaver, two brothers who are beavers who have left their parents and home to become bachelors in the forest. ...

References

1. ^ "The Training Programme"
2. ^ "Famous Schoolstallions"
3. ^ The Lipizzaner at Equiworld.net.
4. ^ Breed History at Lipizzan.Org.
5. ^ History of Piber
6. ^ Breed History at The Lipizzan Association of North America
7. ^ Lipizzan
8. ^ ^{a b} "United States 2nd Cavalry Rescued Rare and Noble Lipizzaner Stallions"

• Alois Podhajsky, My Horses, My Teachers, Doubleday, 1968, ISBN 1-57076-091-8.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lipizzaner

• Lipizzaner Society of Great Britain
• Lipizzaner National Stud Book Association of Great Britain
• Lipica stud farm official website
• Lipizzaner horse
• Lipizzan International Federation-LIF
• Spanish Riding School and Federal Stud Farm Piber
• Lipizzan Association of North America
• Lipizzaner.Com
• South African Lipizzaners
• Paddock Đakovo in Croatia
• Piber Stud
• Pictures from The Myth of the Horse - Magic of the Lippizaner