Conference noted::equitation

    You might check with a travel agent.  You may not be aware that they do
    not perform from June through August (don't know exact dates, though, I
    suspect that travel agents might know this, too).  I sure was disappointed 
    when I was in Vienna in July years ago!  However, I did get to tour 
    through the stables and go into the riding hall.  They did have some 
    horses to see in the stables, but they were no where near full.  Good
    luck - hope you get to see them perform.
    
    							Jan

    Write to the Austrian National Tourist Bureau in New York City or
    Vienna (call information in NY for the address) and
    request information about the Spanish Riding School.  They'll send you
    a schedule of performances and tell you how to reserve tickets.  Some
    performances are _very_ difficult to get tickets for, others less so. 
    They also sell tickets for their practice sessions, which are performed
    without music and the riders aren't in costume.  Prices vary depending
    upon the performance and the exchange rate, but the best seats for a
    prime performance are about $50.
    
    If you do have tickets, get there early to get good seats.  Our tickets
    were not reserved seating and we ended up in the upper balcony, where
    you had to stand the whole time to see the show, and it was hard to
    take pictures.
    
    If you'll be near Piber, Austria, you can go to the Lippizan stud farm. 
    Also, in the stores in Vienna around the ReitSchule (riding school)
    you'll find lots of nice Lippizaner art and gifts.
    
    --Laura

Joan,

I was there last year.  What an experience!  If the horses
are home, make sure you attend a training session.  It was
only held one day (I think).  Go early to get in line (we
were first in line, but went 2 hours before opening) as you
can then sit where ever you choose. However, I found it so
exciting I stood the whole time.  You can stay for as long
or as short as you please -- you'll discover that it is
mobbed the first 1/2 hour or so, and then the audience thins
to just horse people.  We were next to an eventer from
Australia and a show jumper from England.  We proceeded from
the training session to lunch to discuss horses, training,
and international differences.  It was the highlight of my
European tour. We did tour the barn before lunch!  Make
sure you do this, as there is a gift shop which sells books,
tapes, etc. that you can buy only there.  The postcards and
posters are exquisite and are not sold anywhere else in
Austria.  The show is nowhere near as much fun as the
training as you get to watch them train the "well schooled"
as well as the babies (you have to stay the whole time, the
babies are last).  Anyway, do not miss the training session. 
 Even if the horses aren't home, definitely go to the 
Reitschule anyway, as the place is unbelievable.

Have fun!

Dawn

    Thanks everybody, for all your help!
    
    I am very disappointed to realize that they don't
    perform in June and July, as that is when we will
    be there.  We'll still stop there though, to see
    if there are any young ones around, and to check
    out the gift store.
    
    Joan
    

    I'd check with the Austria Tourist Bureau to get the exact dates on
    performances first (if you already haven't).
    
    						Jan

    To get a brochure of the current schedule for The Spanish Riding
    School, write to the nearest office of the Vienna Tourist Board. Any
    travel agent should be able to provide the address.
    
    The 1992 info on The Spanish Riding School is as follows:
    
    NO VISITS TO THE STABLES( This is a bummer! But, too many people were
    leaving gum in the water buckets, etc)
    
    Morning training sessions are open to the public:
    	From Mid-Feb through June and Late August through October.
    	Tues-Sat 10:00 to noon
    	Admission AS70(About US $7) No reservations.
    
    Performances
    	Long(1:20) on Weds Evening or Sunday Morning
    		Admission AS200-700(seats) or AS150-160(standing room)
                          at today's exchange rate that's about US $20-$70 and
                          $15-$16 respectively
    		For tickets ,write to:
    			Spanische Reithschule
    			Hofburg
    			A-1010 Vienna Austria
    		QUOTE FROM THE BROCHURE:
    		"Written orders are absolutely essential for all
    performances and should be sent as soon as possible, preferably at
    once. Please do not enclose cash, money orders or checks. Remaining
    tickets are sometimes available at ticket/travel agencies at short
    notice but we advise not to depend on it."
    		You can write in English. You pay in cash when you pick up the
    tickets.
    
    	Short(30 minutes) Saturday Morning
    		Admission AS165 + handling fee of the ticket agent (22% or
    				more)
    	March through June and
    	September through October
    
    
    The school will be on tour(It doesn't say where) in Nov and Dec of
    1992. They are closed each year from the end of June to the end of August.
    
    John

To celebrate our 20th anniversary(which was last April), Jan and I decided 
to take a second honeymoon. We were graduate students when we married so 
the wedding was on Saturday, Sunday we went to the zoo and Monday we went 
back to school & work. So that honeymoon was either a day or 20 years 
depending on your point of view!

We decided that this one should be more elaborate. We took that second 
honeymoon in September and spent 9 days in Austria. When we first came up 
with the idea about 6 years ago, we talked about going to Vienna to see the
Spanish Riding School, the Lipizzaner stud farms at Piber, Austria and Lipica,
Yugoslavia. We had to curtail that itinerary due to the war in Yugoslavia.

We went to morning training sessions at the Spanish Riding School 5 days as 
well as one performance. We took a drive into the country to visit Piber.
I'm going to enter a series of notes in this topic give any future 
Austria bound travellers some hints as to seating selection, ordering 
tickets, going to training sessions and the trip to Piber.

First hint, if you're able to go to morning training as well as a 
performance, go to the training session first. It will enhance your 
appreciation of the performance. If you can go to 2-3 training sessions,
you should be able to identify individual riders and in some cases horses.

John

Here's a sketch of the seating lay out of the arena level seating(indicated
by A's) and the first gallery(balcony) level seating. The first gallery is 
about 12-15' above the arena. There is a second(higher) gallery which has a
seating pattern similar to the first gallery but I wouldn't sit up there if I 
had a choice. G's are first gallery lodges, x's indicate chairs and f's
indicate fixed position chair-shaped wood seats. Structural columns and 
pillars are indicated by | | . I hope this makes discussions about seats 
easier.


                            GGGGGGGGGG
                            GGGGGGGGGG
                    x| |    GGGGGGGGGG    | |x
                  x    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA    x
                 x     AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA      x
                x      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA       x
              | |                                 | |
               x                                   x
              x                                     x
             x                                       x
            x                                         x
          | |                                         | |
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f

          | |                                         | |
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f

          | |                                         | |
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
            f                                         f
                ...about 22 times total
          | |xxxxx| |xxxxx| |         | |xxxxx| |xxxxx| |

                                 ^
                                 |
                                 |
                                 |
                                 |
                               Doors for horses to enter during performances
                              


John

Referring to the seating sketch given previously:

The arena level lodges(the A's) continue back another 3 rows but only the
first row would provide an unobstructed view. Needless to say, these are the 
most expensive seats for performances! There are about 20 seats per row. They 
don't let you sit down there for training sessions.

The first gallery lodges(the G's) have only 10 seats per row. They are on the 
same level as the HUGE portrait of the emperor that the riders salute when 
they enter the hall. These seats might be OK for a performance but they're
H*LL for training. You have to lean WAY forward to see the short end of the 
arena and that gets old in a hurry as there is no knee room. You have to 
twist your legs and lean forward....

IMHO, the best seats in the house are the 8-9 CHAIRS on the curve from the 
first gallery lodges to the sides of the hall. Since they are ordinary 
chairs, they are moveable. Fortunately, the balcony rail looks like this:
   post| |                                  | |post
       | |            rail                  | |
       | |              |                   | |
       | |              V                   | |
       | |__________________________________| |
       | |)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(| |
       ________________________________________floor

The ()'s make GREAT knee holes and you scoot your chair right up to the rail!
The chair seats on the squared off short end of the arena where the horses 
come and go during performances are almost as good but, since they aren't set 
back from the end of the arena like the seats near the lodges, you have to 
lean out to see the short end that's right under you. You also can't watch 
them as long when they come/go.

The block seats(f's) are ganged 4 together and are not too bad either. They 
have the advantage of knee holes but the seats are attached to the floor so 
you have to sit on the front edge of your chair. You lose most of the long 
side that's under you unless you lean out. Even then you lose some of it as 
there's a little ledge that partially blocks your view.

They number the seats as Left and Right sides of the gallery. So my preferred 
seats would be First Gallery Left 1 through 9 or First Gallery Right 1 through 
9. At the performance, there seemed to be a second row of chairs placed behind
the 1-9 seats but I wouldn't want them....

John

About ordering seats for a performance:

You have to write a long time in advance to get seats. In our case, we 
decided on the trip in April. We knew we couldn't get our act together to
make the trip before they stopped performances for the summer. So, about the 
first of May, I wrote and asked for tickets for the month of September. Many 
tour guide books tell you that you should write 6 months ahead to get good 
seats. We wrote about 4 months ahead and got fairly good seats but we didn't 
specify any particular seat locations which might make the request harder to 
fill. 

However, if you go to Vienna on short notice, don't despair! You can get 
standing room tickets readily from ticket agents right up until show time. 
Some hawk them right outside the hall starting about an hour before the 
performance. Here, they would be arrested for scalping as they charge more 
than the Spanish Riding School does but that's the way they do it. Ticket 
agents sometimes also have tickets for seats available but don't count on it.
Some places I noticed that sold tickets were: 
	1) American Express office on Kartnerstrasse
	2) A tourist information place about 1 block down the street from the 
           Spanish Riding School next to a restauarant called Caffe Palffy

The arena level lodges(the A's in my earlier diagram) are VERY expensive. In 
1992, they cost 700 Austrian Shillings or about $65-70 depending on the 
exchange rate. However, these are prime seats and they are upholstered.

We paid 400 Austrian Shillings(~$40) each for First Gallery(Left) seats 30 and
31. Since there was a rope between First Gallery Left 1-9 and First Gallery 
Left 10, I would guess that 1-9 are more expensive(maybe 500 Shillings) and 
that the first gallery lodges(the G's in my earlier diagram) are higher still
(perhaps 600 Shillings) as they are upholstered and in the center of the short 
side.

Perhaps the Spanish Riding School has a seating chart and price list. I never
asked. I'd suggest that you write and find out if you want gory details and 
exact prices.

John

About training sessions:

No seats are reserved for training sessions and you can't buy tickets before 
they open the doors for the day. This means that if you want to get good
seats, you have to get there early. 

We went to training sessions on 5 days. Each day we got there about 8:30 AM
which is 1.5 hours before they open the doors at 10:00 AM. ONCE were we the
first people in line! The other days we were 3rd through 7th in line. Take a 
book or magazine. And take something to sit on like a stadium "hot seat" 
cushion that people take to football games and such. The September weather
was excellent; sunny; 50 overnight and 70's during the day...I'm not sure I'd 
want to queue up so early in January!

The tickets for training session were 70 Shillings per person in 1992. They 
also offer a booklet(45 Shillings) which describes the school, Lipizanners 
and their history as well as having pictures of the riders. This same booklet 
is sold with a typed insert as a program for performances. The woman who
ran the ticket booth when we were there spoke at least 4 languages fluently.
I heard her use German, English, French and Italian and she seemed to have 
the knack of knowing which to use just by looking at you! I threw her a curve 
by asking for tickets in German but she still knew I was an English speaker!

Expect to be approached by other English speaking people while in line. We
encountered people from Canada, US, England, Scotland and Australia in line. 
If you admit to having been to a previous training session, be prepared for 
some of them to attach themselves to you whether or not you invite them to 
join you. I didn't mind telling people were to go for the best seats but I 
did mind(just a little) the one couple who talked to us for the whole 2 
hours! They knew some about horses and had showed 4H as kids but wanted 
to know everything about dressage and the SRS. I wouldn't have minded at all
except that it was a distraction from watching the session which is why I was 
there!

Contrary to earlier reports in this note, I never saw the crowd dwindle to 
just a small number of horse people. There are about 450 seats in the hall. 
Every day they were all filled with a VERY large standing crowd as well. 
During the last half hour of the training session, I would estimate that at 
least 350-400 people remained in the hall as most of the seats were occupied. 

The 2 hour session is divided into half hour segments. They changed horses
every segement so we got to see 4 sets of horses each day. Most days, the
horses in each set were the same and were worked by the same riders as the 
previous day. This helped figure out who was who, etc. But they did sometimes
scramble the order of the groups or change a horse or two within a group or 
the rider who worked with a horse.

Most of the people who go to a training session are NOT horse people. Just 
the garden variety tourist. Try to keep that in mind when they infuriate you
by talking to the person next to them about their children or their careers and 
start dragging out pictures of their kids, home, garden, etc. Also try not to 
snicker at the ridiculous comments they make about horses/riders...Jan has a 
whole bagful of remarkable things she overheard during training.

Consequently, the training sessions are very noisy. Picture taking is 
prohibitted but there were lots of people taking picutres anyway, even using 
FLASH! The use of a flash in this situation is criminallly stupid as well as 
INEFFECTIVE! The effective distance of a flash is only a few feet. But here 
were people trying to take pictures from 12 feet up and 50 to 200 feet away 
and hoping that their flash would help! How ignorant we are sometimes. 
Besides that the flash blinds and/or startles both horse and rider...I 
honestly don't see how the horses & riders can work without at least 5 spooks 
per minute! 

John

Since the Spanish Riding School training sessions are not open to the public 
on Sunday and Monday, we decided that we would use those days to venture
out into the countryside and visit the Lipizzaner stud at Piber. That's
pronounced "Pea bear" in case you were wondering. Actually, the stud's 
official name is "Bundesgestut Piber" with an umlaut(..) over the last u in
Bundesgestut. That's important because the directional signs sometimes use 
the official name. Othertimes, the just said "Piber." The official name 
translates loosely as Piber National Stud.

The trip from Vienna to Piber is fairly easy. Although there are trains and 
buses which will get you to within 2 miles of Piber and taxis will take 
you the rest of the way(if you don't want to walk), the fastest and most 
convenient way is to drive. Renting a car and driving is also cheaper than 
the train unless you've already bought a Eurail train pass. The drive from 
Vienna to Piber should take less than 3 hours. We made it in about 2:35.

You take an Autobahn(the A2) from Vienna to Graz(pronounced Grah-ts). This 
is a distance of about 190 KM. The speed limit on the Austrian Autobahns is 
120 KMH(75 MPH) and is not enforced. The scenic 190 KM trip to Graz will take 
about one hour and 45 minutes from downtown Vienna...unless you get lost 
finding your way out of Vienna to get to the Autobahn!

In Graz, you connect to Highway 70 and follow that west about 40 KM to the 
town of Koflach(spelled with an umlaut over the o). Highway 70 is a country 
highway and one encounters all the usual slow downs for villages, farm 
machinery, road repairs, and winding road segments. So, you end up averaging
something like 60 KMH(or 35-40 MPH) even though the nominal speed limit on 
Austria's secondary highways is 100 KMH(62.5 MPH). Therefore, the 40 KM trip 
to Koflach will take about 40 minutes or perhaps a bit more.

Piber is 7 KM northeast of Koflach and there are directional signs to direct
you from "downtown" Koflach. Another 5-10 minutes on country lanes and 
you're there! BTW, all the roads were paved and in fairly good condition.

John

Bundesgestut Piber is open to the public from Easter through October, Monday 
through Friday each week. When we went, they had guided tours in the morning 
and afternoon. Admission fee for an adult including the tour was 
50 Shillings(Less than US $5). I think the admission fee without the tour 
was 20 Shillings.

The tour times were 9 AM, 10:15 AM, 2 PM and 3:25 PM. The tours last about 
70-75 minutes. The 9 AM tour included: 
	1) a visit to the mare and foal barn with descriptions of their
           handling and care
	2) a visit with 2 stallions in the stallion barn with descriptions of
           their lineage and careers at the Spanish Riding School and Piber
	3) a visit with 2 young mares who had weaned their first foals and
	   were now in training for carriage work
	4) the spectacle of the mares and foals herd and the barren mare herd
           merging while they were being herded out to pasture
	5) a 10 minute segment from a video on the history of the stud
	6) a tour of their Lipizzaner museum which occupies 3-4 rooms in the
           castle which serves as the stud's administration building.

After the tour, our guide said that we could walk out to the pasture to 
watch the mares and foals until 10:30 or so. The horses are kept in the near 
end of their pasture until the 10:15 tour has a chance to see them. Then they 
are herded over a hill and out of sight.

It seems to be customary to TIP guides in Austria. I noticed this in castle 
& museum tours as well as at Piber. The custom seems to be 1 tip for each 
party or group. I never saw anyone give coins which means they were tipping 
at least 20 Shillings per party because Austrian paper notes begin at 20 
Shillings. I only mention this because I didn't see it mentioned in any of 
our guide books. Not everyone tipped so apparently it's not "expected".

If you want a more descriptive "essay" about the trip to the stud, I could
edit my journal notes for that day...they're only about 8 pages. Obviously,
I had a good time that day. Most days, my notes were only a page or so.

John

Do you need to speak German to enjoy such a trip? No, but you'll get more out 
of it if you have at least some familiarity with the language.

I speak a little German. At one point or another in my life, I studied French,
German, Spanish and Italian. But all that was many MANY years ago(e.g. Italian 
was the most recent foray into foreign language study and that was 1966-67). 
We both had taken German in college but had forgotten nearly all of it. We
relearned some German with a $20 "Living Language" course in conversational 
German before we went. The course material consisted of 2 1-hour cassette 
lesson tapes, a lesson book with grammar summary and a small "common usage" 
dictionary. We spent about 8 weeks doing the lessons while we drove to work.
Although we're still not really proficient, it was enough to get us by.

To supplement the conversational German course, we bought a pocket-sized 
English-German dictionary for $5, a phrase book(about $7-8). Because we were
planning horsey adventures, we also took along the "International Horsemanship
Dictionary" that I had bought a couple months ago. The general dictionary and
the horsey dictionary were invaluable. The phrase book was useful too. We 
reviewed it before we left but didn't have to use it much in Austria. We had
learned enough from the course that we could just remember most of the 
phrases.

Not being able to speak German would not have been too much of a 
problem in Vienna. It seems that a very high percentage of the people 
working in hotels, restaurants and shops speak enough English that one
could get by without German. However, we stayed in a small pension because 
they're cheaper than big hotels. Very little of the staff spoke English so 
some rudimentary German was useful in asking about keys, ordering breakfast 
and saying good morning/evening.

Fewer people out in the countryside have even basic English. When we made our
excursion to the Piber stud, we stopped overnight to do some sightseeing in 
Graz, the captial of the Steiermark(Styria) province. Even though this is the 
second largest city in Austria, it seemed that very little English was spoken 
by ticket agents, waiters or hotel staff. Maybe they don't get as many 
tourists or do as much international business as the folks in Vienna?

For example, when we were in Graz, we went on a tour of a castle. The tour was
strictly in German. We could follow the gist of the guide's comments but we 
had a hard time following all the details and anecdotes because of our limited 
vocabulary.

A similar situation occurred on the tour of the stud farm at Piber. Although 
the ticket seller and the souvenir seller spoke a little English, the tour 
guide spoke no English. However, we had an easier time following the tour 
for several reasons:
	1) We were familiar with the topic(horses and stud farms).
	2) We had reviewed the German vocabulary related to stud farms
	   in the horsey dictionary.
	3) There was a group of young school children on the tour so the 
	   guide kept the language simple. That helped a LOT! :-)
I would have gone on the Piber tour even if I knew absolutely no German. Just 
seeing the stud and the horses that close was worthwhile. No, it was great!

John

Are there horse related things to do in Vienna when you're not watching
Lipizzaners? Yup. Some of them are even relevant to Lipizzaners.

We found 2 museum collections that were interesting and one of our travel
guides said there are places you can rent horses to ride in the Vienna park.
Since we didn't go riding, I can't tell you anything about that.

One of the collections is at the Schonbrunn Palace, a popular tourist stop.
In one of the buildings on the grounds, they have a collection called 
"Wagenburg" which contains the Imperial Coach Collection. There are dozens 
of coaches, carriages and sleighs. Some of them are "hitched" to equine 
mannequins(equinequins?) with the matching harness for the coach. BTW, the 
horse models are Lipizzaners. They were used as imperial coach horses as 
well as in the Spanish Riding School.

The coach and harness exhibits are magnificent but there is more than coaches 
& harness! There is a gallery on a mezzanine which exhibits equine 
art(there's some in the entrance too) including portraits of saddle horses 
and breeding stock. The mezzanine also has displays of riding equipment(like 
spurs, whips and other odds and ends), documents about horses in the imperial 
years, etc. You can buy a guide(in English) to the exhibit. Admission was 30 
Shillings when we went.

The other collection is a bit uncommon. It was simply listed in our guide 
book as "Horseshoeing, Harness and Saddlery Museum; 11 Linke Bahn Gasse; 
1:30-3:30 PM weekdays" with no further description; not even it's German 
name!

The street, Linke Bahn Gasse, wasn't on the small pocket-sized map that the 
Vienna Tourist Board provides. So, we dug out a larger city map that we had 
bought. There it was! The Vienna Tourist Board map just didn't go out far 
enough from the center of the city! Or rather there they were; Linke Bahn 
Gasse and Rechts Bahn Gasse separated by a train track! If Paris can have a 
"Left Bank(of the Seine)" then Vienna can have a "Left(side of the) Train". 

With map in hand, we set out to find this place based on the address. With 
only one or two false turns, we found Linke Bahn Gasse. Now, which way is 
number 11? I could see number 10 Rechts Bahn Gasse across the way so we were 
close. We turned and the very first address we found was number 11. But, it
wasn't a museum! It was a veterinary college! It was walled in with a gate.
I went up to the gate and asked if there was a musuem. BTW, the guy in the 
gatehouse didn't speak English so the German was real handy! "Bitte, mein 
Herr. Gibt es ein Museum hier?(Please, sir. Is there a musuem here?)"

He said yes and told us which building it was in. We went where he said and
quickly became puzzled again. That building was the equine orthopedic clinic
of the school! I though perhaps we had misunderstood and looked around a bit.
We gave up and went into the clinic to ask in there. It was the right 
place. They asked us to wait. I didn't mind. They were working on a big 
handsome gelding. 

A minute or two later, a veterinary student came over and asked us all(another
couple had come in while we were waiting) to come with him. He escorted us 
upstairs to the museum. There was one room with saddles, bridles, harness, 
bits, spurs, stirrups and whips. There were also interesting pictures on 
the wall. In the other room, there was a horseshoe and farriery collection as 
well as a collection of bones and hooves showing various equine limb 
disorders. One of the horseshoes is supposed to be one of the oldest iron 
horseshoes in existence. It was found at some archaeological site. 

This place isn't fancy and it's off the beaten trackbut it's also free. 
There is no booklet to tell you what you're looking at. However, the 
veterinary student was helpful. Between our limited German, his limited 
English and the ditctionary, we did alright. In this collection, we needed 
both the horsey and the general dictionaries to understand the captions on 
exhibit items. In regular art or castle museums, just the general dictionary 
was enough. BTW, we were out of there in about an hour so it won't eat your
whole day. 

John

          Over the weekend, I finally got around to typing up my notes from
          the Piber Stud tour. I've split it into sections so it doesn't
          drive DECwindows crazy....
    
          21 Sep 1992 Monday

          After a hurried breakfast in Graz, we headed down Highway 70 to
          Koflach and followed signs from the center of Koflach to the
          village of Piber to visit Bundesgestut Piber; the Austrian
          Lipizzaner stud farm. The 45 minute drive on a country road is
          beautiful; small villages, farms and scenery. The drive from
          Graz to Piber is only 47 kilometers but we are slowed by farm
          implements, beer trucks, and construction.

          As we approach Piber, we see some Lipizzaner in one of the
          farm's remote pastures.  The 9 A.M. tour has just started when
          we arrive at the farm. The cashier tells us to hurry after them 
          and where to go. We catch up with the tour just as it reaches the 
          mare and foal barn.

          The tour is in German but we hope to understand what the
          guide is saying. Fortunately, there is a group of school
          children of about age 9 so he keeps the language simple. 

          The guide lets down a single wooden rail(about 2"x4") and we
          walk into the barn. It is a large open affair with no stalls.
          There are tie rings on the walls for the mares. There are
          plaques above the rings with the mare's name, birth year and
          lineage. The foals are loose. Why they don't wander out of the
          building, I don't know! The building is split into 2 sections: 1
          for mares with fillies and the other for mares with colts. We
          are in the colt section. There are  about 15 mares in this
          section.

          As soon as the guide starts to talk, a dark brown foal comes
          over and starts pestering him. The guide soon relents and gives
          the foal a sugar cube saying that this foal is his "Liebsling"
          (favorite). Another foal that is already turning gray comes over
          for sugar. The foals fuss and tussle with each other while the
          guide explains the care of the mares, the  farm's naming
          conventions etc.

          As we leave the mare and foal barn, someone asks the guide to
          point out the stud's boundaries. They seem so expansive that I
          ask how many hectares there are to the stud. He says 1500!
          That's over 3700 acres!

          We go to the stallion barn and the guide brings out Siglavy
          Beja, a 28 year old breeding stallion who has been retired from
          the Spanish Riding School. You know he was top class because
          only the best come back to stand at stud.  The guide just has a
          halter on this horse; no bit; not even a lead line! To top it
          off, he let's go of the halter while he is talking and the
          stallion just stands there! He never moves a leg except to beg
          for sugar which he does by lifting his knee and waggling it in
          the air. The children crowd in close to pet him. I watched the
          guide and the stud to see how they react to this. They are both
          nonchalant; no worries; no fears for the kids' safety;  the
          horse loves it! I later saw the guide of the second tour
          handling the horse in the same way.

          The guide also brought out a 27 year old Favory line stallion
          and goes through a similar procedure reciting the stallion's
          achievements, etc. This stallion is also loose while the guide
          talks. He too begs for sugar. What fantastic dispositions these
          horses have. They also have remarkable constitutions to be so
          robust at such an advanced age.

          We move a few doors down to visit two lovely mares who are about
          5 years old. They have had their first foal last year and are
          now being trained for carriage work. They are gorgeous horses.
          One of them is incredibly beautiful. The children are very eager
          to pet her, especially those that didn't get to touch the
          stallions.

          Just as we leave that barn, our guide tells us to wait here and
          watch. The mares and foals are being herded out to pasture. They
          come from our right and they are a lovely sight! Although some
          Lipizzaner can be coarse or heavily muscled, these mares are
          beautiful. They have enough substance to stay sound but not so
          much that they lose their elegance. Then, we realize that the
          barren mares are coming from our left. The two groups merge and
          trot down a lane to their pasture. As they pass us, our guide
          calls out to his favorite. The foal comes trotting right over!
          He gets a sugar cube and then rejoins the herd.

          The guide directs the group towards the castle that serves as
          the administration building. As I start walking over that way,
          he says something to me about going to the horses in their
          pasture. With my marginal German, I mistakenly think he means
          now. As I turn to go to the pasture, he says "Nein, Film jetzt!" -
          No, film now...

          In the castle, we watch about 10 minutes of a 40 minute video on
          the Piber stud. Part of it shows the birth of a foal. You should
          have seen the children's faces! They were so thrilled to see a
          birth even if it was on film! After the film, the guide ushered
          us across the hall into a Lipizzaner museum.

          It's marvelous! It's by far the most interesting museum that
          we've seen in on this trip. Lipizzaner history, historical
          documents about the founding of the original stud, beautiful art
          work including a very old painting showing the foundation stock
          which was of many colors and even included palominos, photos
          from ancient performances, the Spanish Riding School's flight
          from Vienna during World War II, the performance for Patton, the
          repatriation of the mares from Czechoslovakia by one of Patton's
          units, the School's return to Vienna. The equine art was really
          stunning. There were historical displays of rider's uniforms,
          bits, spurs and tack. There was a bust of Patton under a US
          flag. In the Spanish Riding School, there was a plaque
          commemorating Patton and Col. Reed who commanded the 2nd Armored
          Cavalry during the rescue.

          As we leave the museum, I ask the guide if we can really go out
          to the mares and foals. Maybe my rudimentary German had me
          totally confused earlier. He says, "Yes, but only until 10:30."
          He goes on to explain what happens about 10:30 but I can't
          follow the explanation. He gives directions to the pasture which
          I understand until he starts talking about other ways. My confusion
          must be obvious because he says it a different way. He finally
          gives up and says "You'll see when you get there."

          We follow the lane up to the commandant's house and bear right
          onto a paved road. We follow the road a few hundred yards and,
          as we round a bend, we see them across a small valley. We also
          see what the guide meant. We can either keep following the road
          that passes the pasture or bear left onto a dirt lane which goes
          to the gate in the back corner of the pasture. First,  we walk
          down the lane to the gate to take pictures and just watch them.
          A few minutes later, we walk around to the roadside fence
          because the horses seem to be concentrated there.

          We soon see why they are in the corner! The 10:15 tour group has
          come down the road. Some of the horses are begging(for sugar
          treats, I guess) but most are just hanging out and grazing near
          the people. After the tour group leaves, we hang around for a
          few minutes before we start to walk back. The two stud farm men
          in the field with the horses herd the mares and foals over the
          hill into a more remote part of the pasture. It's a little after
          10:30.

          On the walk back to the barn complex, we talk about the
          interesting art and photographs(some by Eva Podhajsky) in the
          museum and wish we could have had more time there. We stop at
          the cashier's window and ask if there's any way we can see the
          museum again. She says, "Yes, just wait outside and when the
          second group finishes the film, you can follow them into the museum."

          We sit around enjoying the beauty of the place. After nearly a 
          week in the city, these green fields are a welcome sight. Shortly
          after 11, the cashier passes us on her way to her car. She's
          going home for lunch. She says, "In funf minuten kommt die
          Gruppe." So we keep waiting. The group does come in about 10 minutes
          but they head for the cafe not the museum! They are a tour bus
          group that has to leave at 11:30 and only have time for the
          museum or coffee. They chose coffee! BUMMERS! After a quick snack, 
          we head back to Vienna.

          In case your wondering what the performance was like, here are
          some thoughts we had during & right afterwards. Take most of the
          negative comments with a pound or two of the proverbial salt.
          We're both long time dressage riders and zero-in on the most
          miniscule points that need improvement. That doesn't mean that
          what we saw was "bad" or anything of the sort. A long performance
          lasts about 1 1/2 hours and is split into sections. Different horses
          and riders perform each section.

          The Long Performance - Wednesday Evening

          Since we had already sorted out the riders with Kottas, Eder and
          Bachinger being the most impressive, we bought a program so we 
          could identify the horses. The program turned out to be a printed 
          sheet inserted in the information guide they had been selling all 
          week at training sessions. They make welcoming announcements in at 
          least 5 languages: German, English, French, Italian and one or two 
          others that I don't recognize.

          Young Stallions

          This was a very nice group of young stallions in early stages of
          training. We had seen most of them in training sessions. They do
          essentially the same exercises we've seen them doing during
          training but with more organization. The emphasis was on forward
          movement. They were all moving energetically with good
          impulsion. Several of these young horses have very impressive
          gaits especially Bachinger's horse(Siglavy Wera). Eder's
          horse(Pluto Mantua II) is very well schooled but shows more
          roundness in his gaits than Siglavy Wera. This made Pluto Mantua
          II look a bit short gaited or constrained at this stage but wait
          until he collects! He'll probably have great piaffe and passage!


          Steps and Movements of the Classical School

          Kottas rode the brown stallion(Favory Alea II) and did piaffe
          and passage with him. The piaffe and passage themselves were
          good but the transitions into and out of piaffe/passage were
          poor and never fluid. It's clear that the work Kottas was doing
          with this horse the last two days in training sessions was intended 
          to prepare for the performance. Unfortunately, it didn't improve 
          the transitions significantly.

          Eder's horse(Favory Alea III) did excellent piaffe and passage
          with OUTSTANDING transitions. The total picture for Favory Alea
          III's piaffe and passage surpassed Olympic Gold Medalist, Rembrandt.
          Favory Alea III showed much better engagement than Rembrandt and
          the transitions were as smooth and fluid.

          Most of the four horses showed excellent canter pirouettes
          although one did get a little stuck. They all showed excellent
          flying changes every 3 strides and even every stride. Eder
          seemed to be riding Favory Alea III more quietly in the flying
          changes than he did during the training session. 

          In the training session, Eder and Favory Alea III had done 
          23 flying changes on the diagonal and they were DEAD STRAIGHT! In 
          training, he also did flying changes along the wall while going 
          away from us. They were even more impressive from behind!

          Pas de Deux

          The Pas de Deux was done by Oberbereiters(Senior Trainers) Kottas 
          and Riegler. Kottas's horse(Favory Alea I) started coughing at 
          the halt. This turned out to be very interesting because it showed 
          how amazingly soft and supple Herr Kottas's seat is. Favory Alea I 
          coughed 3 or 4 times and heaved his back dramatically each time. 

          Kottas floated up with the horse's back and floated lightly down 
          with it as the horse's back sank to it's normal position. There 
          was no bounce in his seat at all. If there had been any stiffness 
          in his seat, Kottas would have separated from the saddle at the top
          of the heave and landed heavily when the horse's back went down.

          Overall, the  Pas de Deux was excellent but Kottas had to push
          Favory Alea I a bit to complete the canter pirouette because
          the horse stuck a bit on one stride. Favory Alea I also had minor 
          difficulties with the piaffe.


          Short Hand Rein

          This section shows the early stages of training horses in
          airs above the ground. The horses have a lunge cavesson added to 
          their normal tack and demonstrate the airs above the ground in hand. 
          It was pretty good. The levade, capriole and courbette all went well.
          The  horse they had been schooling in the mornings did
          consistently good courbettes this evening. They also showed a
          horse doing piaffe between the pillars with a rider up which
          also went well.


          On the Long Rein

          This section shows a stallion being worked from the ground. The
          stallion wears a bridle fitted with reins which are about 12' long.
          The horse is "driven" by someone walking behind. They showed many
          of the classical movements but the execution was lousy! Not much 
          went right for Erste Oberbereiter(First Senior Trainer) Tschautscher 
          and Conversano Roviga. There were lots of problems with the piaffe 
          and pirouettes. The half pass was very bad. The problem seemed to 
          be the horse's stiffness although it's possible that the problem 
          was human ineptness.


          Airs Above The Ground(with a rider up)

          Poor Bachinger! His horse was supposed to do capriole but it
          wouldn't do the stroke. Well, not in the air anyway. He seemed
          to jump up a bit too straight vertically and not do the stroke.
          His alternative was to jump slightly and then plant his forefeet, 
          raise his rump and kick out. It's unclear which of them was 
          confused about what needed to be done. Kottas was riding the other 
          horse that was to do caprioles and got several very nice caprioles.

          The courbette horse didn't do 3 jumps consistently which is the
          same difficulty he had during training. The levades were excellent.

          School Quadrille
    
          This was a lovely fluid performance. In the X pattern with
          lengthenings at the trot, Tschautscher got a good extension and
          everybody else had to do the best they could while maintaining
          their spacing. Eder managed a couple good strides between X and
          the corner.

          The lateral work was generally excellent and the good riders did
          all their shoulder-in on 3 tracks. Some of the less experienced
          riders did 4 tracks or had too much flexion in the neck.
          The Quadrille lasted 18 to 20 minutes which we thought was
          surprisingly long. 

          It was also interesting to note that the performance did not 
          include a display of the Erste Oberbereiter riding with one hand 
          on the curb alone with the whip balanced upright in his right 
          hand. Podhajsky maintained that this was the ultimate display of 
          a rider's skill and lightness so one has to wonder why it has been 
          eliminated from the performance since we saw them in New York about 
          10 years ago.

          After the performance, we walked along the Stallburg and located
          the same window we had found the first night. We took a final
          peek at the Lipizzaner in their stalls. We flew home the next
          morning.

It finally dawned on me that some readers might not know what the levade, 
courbette and capriole are. So, I'm entering a note here to describe
them. One could debate whether a description of "airs above the ground" 
belongs here or in the dressage note. However, this seems the appropriate 
place as the only time most of us will even SEE them is in a Lippizaner 
performance whether it be the Spanish Riding School(SRS) or the Tempel 
Lippizaner show. (I do confess that I once unintentionally produced a
resistance that was quite like a capriole!)

Podhajsky provides what is perhaps the clearest and shortest description so
I'll use his along with other comments from his successor as Director of the 
SRS, Hans Handler. Actually, there are other jumps than those performed by 
the SRS. They use many of them in training so I'll describe them too.

The levade and pesade are closely related. Both require the horse to lift his 
forehand off the ground with his forelegs folded under his chest while sitting 
in place on well bent hind legs. Both are developed from the piaffe(trot in 
place). Podhajsky says that the pesade requires a the horse to raise its body 
to an angle of 45 degrees. In the levade, the horse only raises its body to 
30 degrees. He says that the levade was introduced at the beginning of the 
20th century. Handler says that the levade is more difficult to execute as it 
requires more strength of the hindquarters and an even greater flexion in the 
joints of the hindlegs.

Podhajsky says "If the horse lifts himself higher from the ground at an angle 
more than 45 degrees and does not bend his hind legs, he does not perform any 
classical movement but simply rears up." I would add that in most rears, the 
horse actually extends the joints of the hindlegs and hyper-extends the spine.
In a levade, the horse must not only flex his hindlegs but his spine(i.e. 
"rounds his back"). The rearing horse usually flails his forelegs as a stallion 
might in a fight. The horse doing a levade tucks them up like a careful 
showjumper.

Podhajsky says that the courbette is "a series of jumps without the forelegs 
touching the ground. There are three phases[in training the courbette]: the 
piaffe, the levade developed from the piaffe and the jump landing on hindlegs 
in the position of the levade. According to the ability of the stallion, 
these jumps may be repeated from 2 to 5 times until the forelegs again touch 
the ground." In other words, the horse is expected to jump 3 to 6 times before 
his forelegs come down! That certainly requires strength as well as control!

The word "capriole" is derived from the Italian word "capra" or goat in 
English. This jump is supposed to be "goat-like." The horse is expected to
jump into the air and strike out with its hindlegs when its body is horizontal 
to the ground. According to Podhajsky, the capriole is the most difficult of 
all the jumps and cannot be taught until all the related jumps have been 
mastered.

He says that the first jump taught when training for the capriole is the 
croupade. The horse jumps into the air in a position similar to the pesade 
with his hindlegs tucked underneath his body. The horse's position is not 
horizontal to the ground abd there is no stroke of the hindlegs. In fact, 
this is the jump that Herr Bachinger's horse produced when asked for the 
capriole in the performance I described in an earlier note.

The next jump taught is the ballotade. Here the horse jumps more horizontally 
and does not tuck his hindlegs under as far. In the ballotade, his shoes 
should be visible from behind but the should not be visible in the croupade.

Hope that helps your understanding of my previous notes and aids your 
enjoyment of your next viewing(live or film!) of these movements.

This note could "fit" into several different topics(Lipizzaner, charity, 
equine_art or for_sale). I put it here because the primary thing is what's
happened to the Lipizzaner in Yugoslavia. These events have been mentioned
in passing elsewhere in this conference and I believe that the events actually 
took place last winter... This is quoted from a short article in Equine 
Images Dec/Jan 1992(sic!) issue. (I would have said Dec 1992/Jan 1993 issue.)

"LIPIZZANERS NEED YOUR HELP

The recent war in Yugoslavia has claimed countless human lives as well as the 
lives of over 200 Lipizzans. The entire Lipizzan Stud Farm at Lipica [my 
comment: this was the original stud founded over 400 years ago by the Austrian 
Emperor] was destroyed by Serbian artillery. The fate of the other four stud 
farms[in Yugoslavia] is unkown.

To help the horses, the United States Lipizzan Registry(USLR) is sending funds 
through the Spanish Riding School to spare the remaining Lipizzaners from 
destruction. Artist Mary Beth Toomey is donating part of the proceeds from the 
sale of her first print in a series of six showing 'Airs Above the Ground'
movements to the USLR, which will, in turn, channel the funds to the Spanish 
Riding School to help the Lipizzans in Yugoslavia.

For more information, contact Cheryl Wright, Secretary of the USLR, Route 4 
Box 89Y Amelia VA 23002, or call (804)561-2826."

Description of the poster as shown in an ad accompanying the article:

The print is 14"x20" and shows a riderless Lipizzaner w/ the white
performance saddle, saddle cloth, bridle and cavesson doing a Courbette. It 
has a flowery-viney looking border around the edges. It also shows some 
calligraphy over the horses head(Lipizzan) and back(400 Years of Success 
Continues). 

The black and white poster costs $35 and is the first in a series of signed 
and numbered prints depicting "'Airs Above the Ground' as performed by the 
Lipizzans of the Spanish Riding School."

	Midwest Lipizzan Assoc
	c/o Starmount Lipizzans
	5917 E. Curtis Road
	Bridgeport MI 48722

Jan and I like it from what we can tell in a 2"x3" picture in the ad. The 
horse looks accurate anatomically and shows good detail. The courbette is 
also pretty good with good position and expression on the horse. This seems 
like a good present for a dressage rider/Lipzzan & Spanish Riding School 
lover. 

John

    FYI....
    
    Did anyone see on A&E cable station last night at 10:00 there was a
    program called Equestrian Ballet.  They had the Lipizzaner doing there
    stuff to orchestra music.  The only drawback to it all, was they showed
    more of the musicians than they did of the horses.   But what I did see
    was really great......
    
    

    It has not been a good year for either the Lipizanner or Imperial
    Palaces(e.g. Queen Elizabeth's fire and the destruction of Lipica stud)! 
    Last Friday, there was a major fire in the Hofburg the Imperial Winter 
    Palace of the Hapsburgs. The Hofburg is not really a single palace but 
    rather a palace complex expanded during the entire 700 year rule of the
    dynasty. The original part of the palace was built about 1276. The
    complex includes the Spanish Riding School's offices, Riding
    Hall(started in 1729 and finished in September, 1735) and the 
    Stallburg(stables). In fact, the Stallburg was originally a palace 
    inhabitated by humans and later converted to stables. Rather fitting, eh?
    
    The sketchy report I heard said that the fire had done about
    $90,000,000 worth of damage. Since the report said that the horses were
    evacuated as a safety precaution, one might assume that neither the
    Riding Hall nor the Stallburg were damamged. The fire is believed to
    have started in a conference room elsewhere in the palace complex.

    All 69 stallions were taken to the safety by ... passers by. "Gott sei
    Dank" there are enough people in the centre of Vienna even at 2:00 a.m.
    
    One lady was kicked at by a nervous horse at taken to the hospital with
    a minor facial injury.
    
    The horses were taken to the Folks-Garten, which they used like a
    pasture - ruining lawns at bushes.
    
    Much more harm was caused to the show-room of the School. The fireman
    used lots of wasser to prevent fire from the nearby construction. The
    room (especially the roof which had taken tons of water) has to be
    slowly dried at repaired. There would be no shows for the next several
    months.
    
    	Maciej
    
    ... an exclusive direct service from Vienna ;-)
    

    Besten Dank! We have had no further news on our radio and TV so your
    report is greatly appreciated. It sounds like the Folks-Garten will be
    repaired before the Hofburg!

There was an article in this month's Dressage & CT based on an interview 
with Oberbereiter Kottas of the Spanish Riding School. Apparently, there were
more injuries to both humans and horses than previously reported. And the damage
to the palace complex was estimated in excess of $80 million.

One groom got a broken foot and the woman who was kicked in the face lost 2 
teeth.
  
The horses went wild when turned loose in the Volks-Garten and some injuries 
resulted. Mostly cuts, scrapes, bites and kicks but several horses were made 
lame by their injuries. Whether or not they were permanently lamed is not 
clear from the article but NONE had to be put down as a result of their 
injuries.

BTW, for those who get the TRAVEL channel via cable or satellite, you may want 
to check your TV listings for a show called "Hello Austria, Hello Vienna."
Last week, they said that their next new show was going to have a story about
the Hofburg fire. Unfortunately, I can't tell you EXACTLY when that will be
because the TRAVEL channel on satellite plays 2 new shows on one weekend and 
then 2 older shows the next weekend. Since other cable stations put stuff
on the satellites at the same time they do on cable, you might find Hello 
Austria, Hello Vienna in your listings at 9 AM Eastern and/or 6:30 PM Eastern 
on Saturday and Sunday. Typically, they will play the same shows on both 
Saturday and SUnday. They play different shows at the 2 times on Saturday
and then reverse the order on Sunday.

The story about the Hofburg fire finally appeared on TRAVEL channel's
"Hello Austria, Hello Vienna" show this past weekend. It was short(just
over 3 minutes) but informative. If you missed it and are interested, you 
might be able to catch it sometime in the next month or two. They tend to 
repeat the shows within a few weeks of the original broadcast.

It seems the fire was centered in the "Redoutens�le" (Assembly Halls)
which are directly adjacent to the Spanish Riding School's training & 
performance hall. The stables are across the street from the riding hall.

The fire DESTROYED the Redoutens�le completely. All the art works there
were destroyed as well. The roof caved in. It looked like it had been
bombed. In one part of the film, they showed the interior of the riding
hall from the corner of the First Gallery(Right) where we sat to watch 
training sessions. Then, they panned the camera to an exit which is right 
behind those seats. Through the door, you could see the devastation and 
debris that the fire left. It came that close to the riding hall.

They showed film of the interior of the Stallburg during the fire with
grooms, riders and pedestrians leading horses out of the building. The 
horses were quite calm about the whole thing. Since the usual exit onto
the street was blocked by fire equipment, a side door which is normally 
barricaded was opened. The horses were lead out into the side street 
called Stallburggasse(Stable Street!). They were then taken to the park
where they went wild.

Here's a not-to-scale sketch of the U-shaped layout on the Josefplatz 
side of the Hofburg:

 -------------------------------------------------------------
| National Library                        |                   |
|                                         |     Redoutens�le  |
|                                         |                   |
|                                         |                   |
|                                         |                   |
 -------------------------------------------------------------
|           |                             |                   |
|           |                             |                   |
|           |     "Josefplatz"            |                   |
|           |                             |                   |
| Chapel    |              Statue         |   Riding Hall     |
|           |                of           |                   |
|           |              Kaiser         |                   |
|           |              Josef II       |                   |
 ------------                             ---------------------

 -------------------------------------------------------------

                         STREET
 -------------------------------      ------------------------
                               |      |
                               |      |    ---------------------
                               |      |   |                     |
                               |      |   |                     |
                               |Stall-|   |  "Stallburg"        |
                               |burg- |   |   (Stables)         |
                               |Gasse |   |                     |
                               |      |   |                     |
                               |      |    ---------------------
    
    John

    The first training after fire was presented to the public. The austrian
    TV reported about it in the main news.
    
    All 67 horses are in a very good condition. This coming Saturday they
    will absolve the first show.
    
    The School is planning a special event. They will sell entry cards for
    this event on an auction. Apparently they have some costly repairs in
    the stables and in showing court.
    
    FYI: the fire damage was not covered by ANY insurance. Our goverment
    has to many old/historical buildings and too 
    
    less money to cover insurance for all these buildings.
    
    See at Hofburg next time
    
    	Maciej
    

    Corrections to .25 which quated an article in Dec/Jan 1992 Equine
    Images from the Letters column of the Apr/May 1993 issue: 
    
    "USLR Thankful for Help, Despite Errors
    
    Thank you for publishing the article, "LIPIZZANERS NEED YOUR HELP" in
    the (Dec/Jan '92) issue of Equine Images. As a result of that article,
    The United States Lipizzan Registry(USLR) has received several
    donations on behalf of the beleaugered Croatian Lipizzaners.
    
    There were, however, some errors in the article which I hope you will
    correct in an upcaoming issue. First, the Lipizzan stud which was
    destroyed in the early fighting was Lipic in Croatia, not Lipica in
    Slovenia. It is important not to confuse the two farms as the stud at
    Lipica(formerly Lipizza) is the birthplace of the Lipizzan breed an dis
    today a popular tourist resort...Lipica...has not been in an military
    danger.
    
    Lipic on the other hand was primarily an agricultural stud. The horses
    were either killed by Serbian Artillery fire, which was intentionally
    aimed at the stud, or died when they ran panic stricken into mine
    fields. All the surviving Lipizzan breeding stock[from Lipica] has been
    boarded out with local farmers until the stud can be rebuilt.
    
    Second, the USLR has raised over $2,500 through donations and two
    Lipizzan benefit horse shows held in California. Currently, plans are
    under consideration for forwarding funds and/or supplies to Croatia. At
    last contact, the Spanish Riding School in Vienna was not involved with
    any relief effort as stated in the (Dec/Jan '92) article. Possible
    plans for delivering the relief are as follows: helping fund an
    American Veterinarian to accompany supplies, forwarding donations to
    the International League for the Protection of Horses and sending funds
    directly to the veterinarian in charge at Lipic.
    
    The USLR is still accepting donations which can be mailed to Croatian
    Lipizzans, USLR, Route 4, Box 89Y, Amelia VA 23002.
    
    Sincerely,
    June Boardman
    Chairman, Publications Committee
    USLR
    Goldendale WA"

Hi all,

The following rumor was floated on usenet rec.equestrian a week or two ago 
with a request for verification:

>I heard an awful rumor at a show recently.  A woman I was talking 
>with said she had heard that the Spanish Riding School (yeah, THE 
>one in Vienna) was closing down due to financial problems.
>All the horses would be sold off and there was some concern about
>saving all of them from undesireable fates.

This sounded unlikely because the Spanish Riding School is owned & operated
by the Austrian government. However, I wrote to our occassional fellow 
noter Maciej Majewski who is in Vienna to see if there had been anything like 
    this in the news over there. He kindly replied and said that bureaucrats 
    are unpredictable and MAY be stupid enough to suggest this. However, 
    he(Maciej that is) feels that there would be an insurrection if the 
    Austrian bureaucracy tried to close the Spanish Riding School because:

	1. It is a major tourist attraction and, therefore, generates
tremendous amounts of secondary revenue for Vienna, its' hotels,
restaurants, etc. [My comments] For example, when Jan & I visited there 
last year,we met 2 young women who had come to Vienna ONLY to watch the 
Spanish Riding School's morning training session! They came the night 
before and left that afternoon! We were there for 9 days and spent most 
mornings in the riding hall. They had about 1,000 people per day watching the
morning training session that week in late September. How much money do
you think those folks spent while in Vienna? Besides, the $7.50 admission fee
and $4.50 for an info brochure that is!

	2. The is a very very deep bond between Lippizans and the city.
They are a symbol of the city along with Stefansdom(St Stephen's Cathedral)
and the Pr�ter amusement park.

	3. There was much publicity around the Spanish Riding School's 
reopening on May 7th, with everybody rich and famous donating for 
conservation/restoration of the riding hall and other exhibition areas 
that were damamged.

	4. The performance by the Spanish Riding School at the Vienna
City Festival was televised and was a tremendous open air show 
in front 20,000 paying folks at the very beginning of the festival. In other 
words, it's VERY popular.

The main thing I can think of which could have been misinterpreted and become
the basis of the rumor is the events in Croatia. The former Yugoslav 
Lipizzaner stud at Lipik (not to be confused with the original Lipizzaner 
stud at Lipica in Slovenia). The Lipik stud bred Lipizzaner for agricultural 
use and was shelled by artillery during the fighting in Croatia. Many horses 
were killed and the rest were dispersed. There is fear that some of them were
being smuggled out of the country and being sold on the international
market. 

The Lipik stud was shelled last year and at first the reports were that
it was the Lipica stud which is a tourist area including the stud farm
and a riding quadrille using the stallions. 

I later received a note from the treasurer of the US Lipizzan Registry who
reads the usenet. She too felt the rumor was based on these confusing events 
    and the errors in reporting.

The other possibility is that some other troup of performing Lipizzans was 
going out of business and that was misinterpretted as being the SRS.

Never fear! The SRS isn't dead!

John

    At last! Disney has re-released the movie "The Miracle of The White
    Stallions" !!!!!!!!!!!!! I've had messages from friends around the
    country who say that the movie is video stores and being sold for
    $9.99 in places like Wahlmart and Sun Coast Video.
    
    I tried the Seattle area BlockBuster Video stores but they don't have
    it and their computer claims that it's out of print with available
    copies being sold for $69.95 !!!!!!! Needless to say, I didn't buy it!
    I had a friend send me a copy from an east coast Wahlmart's instead!
    
    Anyway, this movie describes the experiences of Alois Podhajsky and the
    Lippizans of the Spanish Riding School during World War II. It's based
    on his autobiography, "Ein Leben f�r die Lippizaner" (title of the 
    English translation is "My Dancing White Horses") and is very
    interesting. However, Disney toned down the reality of the situation
    (e.g. of the refugees who took shelter at the same castle as the horses) 
    so I found the book far more gripping.

I bought the film when I was over in the states a couple of weeks ago
and watch it at the weekend. ( And I was quite embarassed to be buying 
a childrens film!! :-)


I though it was very intesting  and I am now inspired to go and see them 
in real life.  Sounds like I must read the book though!!

Michelle

I recently got a flyer for something I don't want to miss. Thought 
some of you would be interested too. It's an educational evaluation
of purebred Lipizzan horses; conducted by the director of Austria's
Spanish Riding School and Piber National Stud. Dr. Oulehla has done 
several of these seminars in the US. This one is being held in 
Graham WA which is less than 1 hour to the SE from Seattle; at a 
Lipizzan breeding farm called Charlie Horse Acres.

Friday Evening - Aug 25th Dinner and slide-show lecture about 
		European breeding programs for Lipizzaner
Sat Aug 26th 8 AM - 3 PM 
	Conformation & breed standard lecture; evaluation of 
	individual horses; Q & A period. catered lunch included.


NOTE: This is an educational clinic only; rather than an official
breed organization evaluation. The standards for officially 
sanctioned evaluations are not yet prepared for the breed either in 
Europe or the US. Lipizzan standards will soon be published
and sanctioned evaluations will begin next year.

For more info, call Charlie Horse Acres 1-(206)847-6299

Standard "No affilation" disclaimer applies.
    
    John

    Remember I mentioned an educational Lipizzan evaluation out here in WA
    back in 1995? Well, Jan and I went to it and had fun. While we were
    there, a couple of the U. S. Lipizzan Registry officials cornered me
    and talked me into writing an article on the evaluation for their
    magazine. So, I thought I'd add it to this note so anybody who's
    interested can read about it. I broke it into sections so the notes
    aren't too long. Hey, I'm only 18 months late!

We have never owned a Lipizzan but, as long time dressage
riders, Jan (my wife) and I have admired Lipizzans for many
years. We wanted to learn more about them. So, when we heard of
the educational talks and Lipizzan evaluation that was to be
held August 25-26 1995 at Cele and Tony Noble's Charlie Horse
Acres in Graham WA, we decided to go. I expected to look at
horses and hear what Dr. Jaromir Oulehla had to say about
European breeding programs and Lipizzan conformation. I did not
expect to be strongly impressed. I do not recall being more
wrong in my life.

First of all, Cele and Tony Noble, along with a small group of
volunteers, had everything organized and orchestrated to
perfection. I have rarely been to any equestrian event where
everything went according to schedule. This one did. Cele and
Tony had considered all the important things: a translator for
Dr. Oulehla, who said he is uncomfortable talking about
technical details of conformation and breeding in English; a
professional videographer so people could review tapes of the
event at leisure; lovely certificates for the owners of
successful horses; a functional sound system; comfortable
chairs for the audience; embroidered souvenir sweatshirts
designed especially for the event; coffee and good weather.
Even the box lunch they provided was excellent and you know
how miserable those can be! Their attention to such details
would have made this a pleasant experience even if the content
had been lacking. However, the content was not lacking.

Dr. Jaromir Oulehla is Director of both the Spanish Riding
School in Vienna and Austria's Piber Federal Stud which is
located in the village of Piber in the province of Styria. Dr.
Oulehla is a veterinarian who taught at the school of
veterinary medicine in Vienna as well as serving as
veterinarian for the Piber stud. He became Director of the
Piber Stud in 1983. His task was to rebuild the Lipizzan herd
after the devastation of the virus outbreak. In 1985, he
succeeded the retiring Director of the Spanish Riding School,
Brigadier Kurt Albrecht.

Dr. Oulehla was very interesting and informative. My only
"complaint" is that he said quite a lot but gave the translator
very little time to translate. This meant that the audience
members who did not speak German missed the full meaning of Dr.
Oulehla's comments because the translator had to summarize.

After dinner on Friday evening (August 25), Dr. Oulehla talked
about the various national Lipizzan breeding programs in Europe
and Lipizzan conformation. Dr. Oulehla said that the breed was
originally founded at the Lipizza (now spelled Lipica in
Slovenia) stud to supply the Imperial Court and Spanish Riding
School with horses. The horses were of the Baroque type and
very good at what we now call "The High School". Archduke
Charles founded the Lipizza stud in 1580. The situation remained
stable until the collapse of the Austrian Empire during World
War I.

After WWI, the Lipizza stock was split and various breeding
programs began. The Austrian program retained its purpose of
supplying the Spanish Riding School with horses. Therefore,
their program has continued breeding for the Baroque type riding
horse that is capable of performing piaffe, passage and the
airs above the ground.

Other national programs developed different goals. The Hungarian
studs bred Lipizzans to be larger for use as sport horses. The
Rumanian and Czechoslovak studs bred for agricultural draft
purposes. The Italian stud was a failure. After World War II,
the Yugoslav stud at Lipizza began to breed the Baroque type
again but their impact was diluted by the other Yugoslav studs
which bred for agricultural purposes. Sometimes, studs met
these various goals by covertly outcrossing to different breeds
and registering the offspring as Lipizzans. Dr. Oulehla said
that this fact has become clear since 1985 when the various
studs' records became accessible as the Iron Curtain began to
rust.

Dr. Oulehla also gave a brief presentation on classic Lipizzan
type and conformation. He illustrated this talk with slides of
horses from the Piber Stud. On Saturday morning, Dr. Oulehla
reinforced the discussion of conformation. He reviewed various
points from the previous evening's lecture with a live model,
Siglavy Farica.

He began with the head and said that the nose can be curved
(i.e., what we call "Roman nosed") but the curve should only
begin below the eyes. A curved head (i.e., what we might call
"common headed") in which the curve begins with the forehead is
a fault. The Lipizzan's eyes should be large and black.

In both the evening discussion and the demonstration with
Siglavy Farica, Dr. Oulehla stressed the importance of the
poll, throatlatch and the adjacent lower jaw. The head should
join the neck properly so that there is plenty of freedom at
the poll. Otherwise, the horse will not be able to flex
properly when his rider asks him to collect. The throatlatch
should be nice and clean with a wide jaw. With such
conformation, the horse will not become cramped when he flexes
at the poll. Horses that are thick at the throatlatch and/or
narrow in the jaw will be uncomfortable when collected which
will cause them to try to poke their nose out to relieve the
constriction.

The neck should be well set on; it should not be set on too low.
The neck should be very cresty on a stallion but not quite so
much for a gelding and even less for a mare. The topline should
flow smoothly from ears to croup in nice well-rounded curves.
The croup should be well-rounded with well-muscled thighs and
gaskins. The chest should be wide and well-developed as a narrow
chest will often impair the shoulder and allow less freedom in
the horse's way of going. The neck, chest, midsection, and
hindquarters should all be in proportion and fit together
properly.

He repeatedly and emphatically said that classic Lipizzan
stallions should stand between 155 cm (15 hands 1") and 158 cm
(15 hands 2 1/4"). He said that horses over 158 cm do not have
classical type, that they often have difficulties in training
and sometimes have undesirable movement. To emphasize his
point, Dr. Oulehla recounted an incident from 1909 when the
Emperor decreed that all Lipizzan stallions taller than 158 cm
be slaughtered. The Emperor was prompted to this action after a
10 year period of difficulties using larger horses. In 1909 with
these larger horses, the Spanish Riding School had no levade,
no courbette, no capriole, difficulties with piaffe and passage
as well as general difficulties with engaging the hindquarters.
Dr. Oulehla said that one can overlook the fact that a gelding
stands a little taller than 158 cm because castration often
makes them grow more than they would have done naturally.

Dr. Oulehla said that mares can be a little smaller than the
standard for stallions. He also said that a stallion under 155
cm does not fall within the guidelines but that was not too bad
for a single individual. However, he said that a herd which is
becoming continually shorter on average is a sign of inbreeding
and the breeding program should be corrected.

The shoulder should be long but is usually a little steeper than
is common in a riding horse. Dr. Oulehla said that this
combination is what gives Lipizzans their elegant rounded gaits
with good knee action. Unfortunately, he said that it also
means that the length of stride will be shorter as the angle of
the shoulder dictates where the foot will land when the leg is
extended.

The withers and saddle area are long standing problems in the
Lipizzan breed because the withers are sometimes poorly defined
or the back has a dip where the saddle sits. According to Dr.
Oulehla, these problems are the reason that the Spanish Riding
School developed the tradition of using a crupper and breast
plate on their Lipizzans; they were necessary to keep the
saddle in place. In any event, the desired conformation is
well-defined withers and a back that has no dip in the area
where the saddle sits.

Classic Lipizzan type calls for the horse to be square. Dr.
Oulehla explained that this means one draws an imaginary line
from the highest point of the withers to the ground and another
from the withers along the back to the high point of the croup
and then down to the ground. The resulting box should ideally be
a square rather than a rectangle. A common reason that the box
would become a rectangle is that the horse is long in the loin.
Dr. Oulehla explained that a long loin makes it difficult for
the horse to "track up" and to collect. By tracking up, I mean
stepping under himself with the hind legs so that the imprint
of the hind foot lands on top of or in front of the imprint of
the front foot.

Obviously, good legs with large well defined joints are
desirable and Dr. Oulehla looked carefully at legs and feet. He
said that the front legs should be widely set within the chest.
However, the point he made several times is that Lipizzans have
lost quite a bit of substance in their leg bones. He said that
the Piber herd now averaged about 19 cm (about 7 1/2")
circumference on the front cannon bone whereas, in the past,
they averaged 21 cm (about 8 1/4"). He explained that sturdy
cannon bones are a good indicator of soundness potential and
that he did not want to see any further reduction.

After he finished demonstrating with Siglavy Farica, Dr. Oulehla
evaluated 17 more horses while providing a running commentary on
what he saw and how that justified the score he assigned. He
watched as each horse walked in and was stood in front of the
audience. Then, he went over the horse from head to tail while
it was standing still. When he was finished, he had the handler
walk and trot the horse. He was looking for straight gaits with
good tracking up. The horse was then turned loose in the arena
to evaluate its trot and canter while unencumbered by a handler.
At this point, Dr. Oulehla was looking for impulsion with upward
transitions that began in the hindquarters, rounded the back and
lifted the entire horse into the new gait. He was also looking
for suppleness in the back and elasticity in the gaits.

The speed and thoroughness of Dr. Oulehla's eye impressed me. It
seemed to me that, if he were not trying to teach us at the
same time, he could have completely evaluated a horse in 3 to 5
minutes including the free gaits. The horses evaluated were:

	1. Siglavy Farica       10. Castella
	2. Pluto Carrma     	11. Favory II Debra
	3. Pluto Candita        12. Pluto Gloria II-I
	4. Candita           	13. Neapolitano Blanca
	5. Carrma           	14. Primabona
	6. Gaela            	15. Maestina
	7. Sciana           	16. PrimaBlanca
	8. Mistea           	17. Gabriella II
	9. Cara         	18. Siglavy Amorosa

Dr. Oulehla quipped that, even though his score was
satisfactory, Siglavy Farica could not be recommended as a
breeding animal because he was already a gelding. Later in the
day, we saw two more nice geldings, Neapolitano Blanca and
Siglavy Amorosa. They too received excellent scores. In fact,
all the horses received scores high enough to qualify as
breeding stock. The scores ranged from 67.5% to 86% with most
scores being in the mid 70's. The top scores went to the
weanling filly Castella and 2 year-old colt Pluto Gloria II-I.
Castella received an excellent score of 85.5% while Pluto Gloria
II-I received a premium score of 86%. While those two were the
most remarkable of the group, Dr. Oulehla said that he was
impressed with the consistently high quality of the horses he
saw. He said that U.S. breeders have made great progress from
where they were 10 years ago. Indeed, he was not making polite
small talk; he approved four adult mares (Candita, Carrma,
Gaela, and Sciana) for breeding to Piber stallions. Three of
those mares had scores above 80% and the other was just under
80%. The gelding Neapolitano Blanca and the fillies Cara and
Gabriella II also received scores above 80%.

After the Friday night presentation and after the evaluations,
Dr. Oulehla was kind enough to take questions. With an audience
including Lipizzan breeders, a veterinarian and a geneticist,
the questions naturally focused on breeding plans for the Piber
herd and the problems of inbreeding.

When Dr. Oulehla took charge of Piber, there had been much
inbreeding. Using blood samples, they evaluated the degree of
homozygosity in the herd and found it quite high. He recited a
list of their problems caused by inbreeding including:
deformities of the nose, deformities of the genitals,
cryptorchidism (i.e. undescended testicles), infertility in
mares, parrot mouth, allergic bronchitis and substandard
adhering strength in the layers of the hoof walls.

To begin solving the problem, Dr. Oulehla tried to identify the
families with these genetic defects and cull them from the
breeding herd. He also had to introduce new breeding stock to
widen the genetic basis of the herd. Therefore, Piber purchased
33 mares from the Hungarian, Yugoslav and Rumanian Lipizzan
studs for use as broodmares.

At Piber, they bred these new mares to Piber stallions, which
have all retired from the Spanish Riding School. They evaluated
the offspring in the manner described earlier. They deemed that
the great majority of these foals were unsuitable for the Piber
program. They culled the offspring of these new mares at a 60%
to 70% rate. However, the strategy was successful as he
reported that they have eliminated all the disease problems,
have achieved a very high foaling rate and have seen no
deformities in more than 4 years.

To decrease the likelihood of extreme inbreeding occurring in
the future, Dr. Oulehla has a very strict plan. Of course, to
enter the broodmare band, a mare must pass evaluation at 4
different ages. Then, he selects 5 potential mates for her based
on conformation and type. He then uses a computer to display a
pedigree for each of the proposed matings. If the pedigree shows
that the stallion and mare have any of the same grandparents, he
doesn't consider the mating any further as the stallion and mare
are too closely related. More importantly, he uses a computer
program to calculate a coefficient of inbreeding for each mating
which gives an indication of how closely the stallion's
ancestors were related to the mare's ancestors. If the
inbreeding coefficient is higher than the limit recommended by
geneticists, he discards that stallion as a possible mate for
the mare because this indicates that their ancestors were
closely related. When he is done with the selection, he has a
match in conformation and type, a pedigree he likes and a
relatively low rate of inbreeding. With these techniques, Dr.
Oulehla estimates that it will take 100 years for inbreeding in
the Piber herd to build up enough that they will need to
outcross again.

The Piber breeding program is also taking advantage of the
latest high technology advances in equine reproduction. They are
currently using or planning the future use of frozen semen, embryo
transplantation, ova freezing and splitting of frozen ova.

When asked whether he was taking any steps to preserve the brown
color in Lipizzans, Dr. Oulehla said that he was not. In fact,
he said that they want white horses to breed at Piber. So,
whenever they have a foal that remains brown, they sell the dam
so as not to spread the gene too widely in the herd. However,
they do not sell the stallion even though he too must carry the
recessive gene that allows the foal to remain brown. Dr. Oulehla
implied that he doesn't want to entirely eliminate the "brown"
genes so that they can always have a brown stallion at the Spanish
Riding School. He said that the brown stallion was a talisman
for the Spanish Riding School and that, if they did not have
one, the Spanish Riding School might fall on hard times.

Someone also asked Dr. Oulehla which was the more important
institution, the Piber stud or the Spanish Riding School and
whether his dual role created any difficulties. He said that
the two institutions were equally important as neither could
exist without the other. He also said that in the past this
equality has not worked well if the Directors did not cooperate
with each other. As an example, he cited his second
predecessor, Colonel H�ndler. Dr. Oulehla said that Col. H�ndler
never visited Piber during his entire tenure and never spoke
with the Director of Piber about breeding. He said that H�ndler
was only interested in the riding. With one person in charge of
both institutions, there can be no difficulties between the
leaders!

When all was said and done, we learned quite a lot and had fun.
If you get a chance to attend one of Dr. Oulehla's educational
talks and evaluations, I recommend that you do. It's well worth
the effort.