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The Spanish Riding School of Vienna

The Horses of the Spanish Riding School
by John D'Addamio

If you have heard anything about the Spanish Riding School before this series, you probably know that the horses of the Spanish Riding School are all Lipizzaner stallions. What is a Lipizzaner? Why are the horses white? What's up with the occasional brown one? Why do they have two names and sometimes Roman numerals? This article will answer those questions.

Lipizzaner is a German word indicating that the breed originated at a stud in Lipizza. The Lipizza stud was founded in 1580 by Karl II Archduke of Inner Austria, a son of Emperor Ferdinand I. You may remember that the royal training program that we now know as the Spanish Riding School was founded by Ferdinand I. Ferdinand I divided his lands and titles among three of his sons. Maximillian II got the bulk of Austria and became the Holy Roman Emperor. Karl II got Inner Austria (Styria, Carniola and Carinthia) and Ferdinand II got three western provinces of Austria and the family's original holdings in southwestern Germany. It was during the reign of Maximillian II, in 1572, that the court records first use the name the Spanish Riding School to refer to the training program founded by Maximillian's father.

Archduke Karl chose the village of Lipica in Carniola to be the site of the stud. Carniola is currently part of Slovenia. Over the centuries, the name of the village and stud was Germanized first as Lipitza and later as Lipizza. The breed was originally known as the "Lipizza strain of the Karst horse" and eventually became known more simply as Lipizzaner.

Carniola is a Karst plateau, a region of limestone with caves, fissures and underground streams. The limestone soil and climate create a region that was famous for breeding horses even back into ancient Roman times. As headquarters for the stud, Archduke Karl bought the estate used as a summer residence by the archbishops of Trieste. The native "Karst" horses were reputed to be fast, versatile, and have good hooves. The Imperial Court needed light horses for riding and driving to light carriages as well as military purposes. Karl imported 9 stallions and 24 broodmares from Spain and crossed them back and forth with the native Karst horses.

Karl died in 1590 and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand. By 1595, the records show that the stud was sending horses to the archduke's court in Graz. In 1616, Ferdinand also became Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand II (a little confusing because he had an uncle who was also known as Ferdinand II). The quality of the horses must have been remarkable because the demand from the Imperial Court, other nobility, and the military grew steadily. The stud was expanded and more horses imported from Spain, Italy and Arabia.

In 1729, Emperor Karl VI, Ferdinand II's great grandson, commissioned the construction of the Winter Riding School, the beautiful building and arena that is still the home of the Spanish Riding School. Until that time, the Spanish Riding School used only Spanish horses to demonstrate the haute ècole. At the dedication of the Winter Riding School in 1735, Lipizzaner were shown for the first time. This was a landmark occasion because it was recognition of the breed and its quality. It also marked a change in the direction of the breeding program to meet the special needs of the Spanish Riding School rather than the more universal requirements for general use horses.

Throughout the rest of the 18th and 19th centuries, horses were imported to improve the quality and meet the needs of the School. Most of the current Lipizzaner sire lines were established in this period. The birthdates of these stallions is reported differently in various publications. I have used the dates from the publications I believe to be most reliable. Pluto (1765) came from the Royal Danish Court Stud and was of pure Spanish descent. Conversano (1767) and Neapolitano (1790) were Neapolitan horses. Maestoso (1773) and Favory (1779) came to Lipizza from the Imperial Kladruby stud. Siglavy (1810) was an Arabian and came to Lipizza about 1816. Each of them founded a sire line which endures to this day. The Maestoso line died out at Lipizza but was renewed in 1819 with a Maestoso line stallion born at an Austrian military stud in Hungary.

These sire lines are important in the Austrian naming convention for Lipizzaner stallions. Each stallion takes the sire line name of his father. He also takes his dam's name. So, you get names such as Pluto Mantua. If a mare has several sons sired by stallions from the same sire line, Roman numerals are used to distinguish them: the first might be named Siglavy Mantua, the second would be named Siglavy Mantua I, and the third would be named Siglavy Mantua II. This is not a hypothetical example! The mare Mantua produced at least 6 sons who were performers at the Spanish Riding School: Pluto Mantua I, Pluto Mantua II, Siglavy Mantua I, Siglavy Mantua II, Conversano Mantua, and Favory Mantua. I saw those stallions in performances between 1992 and 2001. Siglavy Mantua I was still performing the solo with First Chief Rider Krzisch on the 2005 tour of the USA at the age of 25!

Another possibly confusing factor is that the Austrians recycle mare names. A mare is usually named for a female ancestor in her mother's family. So, you may occasionally find horses in the School with the same second name that are not from the same dam! For example, Neapolitano Kitty performed airs above the ground in hand during the 1990's. In 2007, Conversano Kitty was being shown in the Young Stallions section of the performance. I was told they are not related. It can be even more confusing! Retired First Chief Rider Kottas rode Maestoso Bellamira in the Pas de Deux section of the performance for many years. Maestoso Bellamira was retired in 2002 and is being used as a breeding stallion at Piber. His dam (Bellamira) was born in 1975 and is long gone. However, there is a four year-old Maestoso Bellamira at the School! He was sired by Maestoso Stornella (a long rein solo horse in 1995 and 1996) and out of a younger mare named Bellamira. If he were out of Bellamira (1975), he would have had a Roman numeral added to his name.

The Riders usually refer to the stallions by their dam's name or some nickname. For example, the older Maestoso Bellamira was called Bellamira and Maestoso Basowizza is called either Basowizza or Baso.

The Lipizzaner is a small compact horse. The School's standard is that a stallion should be 155 CM to 158 CM (about 15 hands 1" to 15 hands 2"). However, there are many individuals at the School, outside that range. For example, Maestoso Basowizza looks to be about 16 hands 1" and I have seen horses that were 15 hands or a little smaller at the School. Many Lipizzaner are sturdily built but some show the refinement of the Arab and Thoroughbred influences. Lipizzaner are usually squarely proportioned horses meaning that they are about as long as they are tall whereas warmbloods are more rectangular in proportion. They have good temperaments or they couldn't stable and train more than 70 stallions together. They have strongly arched necks and often have a Roman nose.

The typical Lipizzaner is described as white. Technically, they are gray. They are born brown, bay, or occasionally chestnut and turn lighter as they age. Occasionally, you will read or hear that the horses are born black. That's an inaccurate translation of the German word Schwarz. It does indeed mean black but, when applied to the coat color of horses, the Germans use it to mean brown. This is similar to us saying "black coffee" which isn't black at all! The Germans use a different word (Rappe) for the black coat color of horses. Originally, the Lipizzaner horses were of any color. For example, Conversano was black, Favory was a dun and Neapolitano was bay. There is a well known painting of Lipizzaner mares done in 1727 by the English painter George Hamilton. This painting shows many different coat colors and even coat patterns similar to Paints and Appaloosas. In the 1800's, the emperor demanded "white" horses so selection for the dominant gray gene gradually pushed out the other coat colors.

However, there are still a lot of horses with the brown or bay gene. Occasionally, a horse will get a brown or bay gene from each parent and will remain dark colored. The brown or bay fillies are usually sold but the colts are kept and perhaps trained at the School. The School considers them good luck talismans because Austria has fallen on hard times when there was not a dark horse at the School: in 1809 Napoleon invaded; in 1934, when Dollfuss set a dictatorship; in 1938, Nazi Germany "annexed" Austria. This superstition is so strong that, during the post World War II era, Col. Podhajsky actually kept and trained the brown mare Tekla and presented her in Morning Training until they had a dark stallion. As far as I know, this was the only time that a mare was part of the School's troupe. Tekla was sold to Mrs. Evelyn Dreitzler, one of the first Lipizzaner breeders in the USA, as her good luck horse. Mrs. Dreitzler rode Tekla at Grand Prix level in numerous exhibitions including the opening of the Seattle World Fair.

When the Austrian Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, Austria lost its holdings in the Balkans including the Lipizza stud. After long negotiations, Austria obtained part of the Lipizza herd. Italy and Slovenia got the remainder of the herd. Other countries including Hungary, Croatia, and Romania established Lipizzaner breeding programs during this period. Slovenia still breeds Lipizzaner at the Lipica stud. Austria moved its stud to Piber, which had been built as a monastery but had long been converted to a military stud farm.

During World War II, Nazi Germany ruled Austria and moved the Lipizzaner herd to Hostau in Czechoslovakia. At the end of the war, Patton's Third Army rescued the herd and repatriated the Lipizzaner. Only a few hundred of Austria's Lipizzaner survived the war. Although some Lipizzaner had been imported between the wars, Lipizzaner breeding programs were only established in the USA after World War II. Today, there are fewer than 4,000 Lipizzaner in the world.

This article briefly outlined the history of the Lipizzaner. For additional information, I recommend two books: "The Imperial Horse: The Saga of the Lipizzaners" by Hans Heinrich Isenbert and "The Spanish Riding School: Four Centuries of Classic Horsemanship" by Col. Hans Handler (photos by Eric Lessing).

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