Lipizzan

Most adult Lipizzans measure between . Lipizzans have a long head, with a straight or slightly convex profile. The jaw is deep, the ears small, the eyes large and expressive, and the nostrils flared. They have a neck that is sturdy, yet arched and withers that are low, muscular, and broad. They have a wide, deep chest, broad croup, and muscular shoulder. The tail is carried high and well set. The legs are well-muscled and strong, with broad joints and well-defined tendons. The feet tend to be small, but are tough. Lipizzan horses tend to mature slowly. However, they live and are active longer than many other breeds, with horses performing the difficult exercises of the Spanish Riding School well into their 20s and living into their 30s. Until the eighteenth century, Lipizzans had other coat colors, including dun, bay, chestnut, black, piebald, and skewbald. However, it is a long-standing tradition for the Spanish Riding School to have at least one bay Lipizzan stallion in residence, and this tradition is continued through the present day. ==History==

The ancestors of the Lipizzan can be traced to around 800 AD. The earliest predecessors of the Lipizzan originated in the seventh century when Barb horses were brought into Spain by the Moors and crossed on native Spanish stock. The result was the Andalusian horse and other Iberian horse breeds. By the sixteenth century, when the Habsburgs ruled both Spain and Austria, a powerful but agile horse was desired both for military uses and for use in the fashionable and rapidly growing riding schools for the nobility of central Europe. Therefore, in 1562, the Habsburg Emperor Maximillian II brought the Spanish Andalusian horse to Austria and founded the court stud at Kladrub. In 1580, his brother, Archduke Charles II, ruler of Inner Austria, established a similar stud at Lipizza (now Lipica), located in modern-day Slovenia, from which the breed obtained its name. Spanish, Barb, and Arabian stock were crossed at Lipizza, and succeeding generations were crossed with the now-extinct Neapolitan breed from Italy and other horses of Spanish descent obtained from Germany and Denmark. While breeding stock was exchanged between the two studs, Kladrub specialized in producing heavy carriage horses, while riding and light carriage horses came from the Lipizza stud. Foundation horses Today, eight foundation lines for Lipizzans are recognized by various registries, which refer to them as "dynasties". They are divided into two groups. Six trace to classical foundation stallions used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Lipizza stud, and two additional lines were not used at Lipizza, but were used by other studs within the historic boundaries of the Habsburg Empire. Two additional stallion lines are found in Croatia, Hungary, and other eastern European countries, as well as in North America. • Incitato: A stallion of Spanish lines foaled 1802, bred in Transylvania by Count Bethlen, and sold to the Hungarian stud farm Mezőhegyes In addition to the foundation stallion lines, there were 20 "classic" mare lines, 14 of which exist today. However, up to 35 mare lines are recognized by various Lipizzan organizations. Spanish Riding School The Spanish Riding School uses highly trained Lipizzan stallions in public performances that demonstrate classical dressage movements and training. In 1572, the first Spanish riding hall was built, during the Austrian Empire, and is the oldest of its kind in the world. The Spanish Riding School, though located in Vienna, Austria, takes its name from the original Spanish heritage of its horses. In 1729, Charles VI commissioned the building of the Winter Riding School in Vienna and in 1735, the building was completed that remains the home of the Spanish Riding School today. Wartime preservation The Lipizzans endured several wartime relocations throughout their history, each of which saved the breed from extinction. The first was in March 1797 during the War of the First Coalition, when the horses were evacuated from Lipica. During the journey, 16 mares gave birth to foals. In November 1797, the horses returned to Lipica, but the stables were in ruins. They were rebuilt, but in 1805, the horses were evacuated again when Napoleon invaded Austria. They were being taken care of in Đakovo Stud. They remained away from the stud for two years, returning the 1st of April 1807, but then, following the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, the horses were evacuated three more times during the unsettled period that followed, resulting in the loss of many horses and the destruction of the written studbooks that documented bloodlines of horses prior to 1700. The horses finally returned to Lipica for good in 1815, where they remained for the rest of the nineteenth century. The first evacuation of the twentieth century occurred in 1915 when the horses were evacuated from Lipica due to World War I and placed at Laxenburg and Kladrub. Following the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up, with Lipica becoming part of Italy. Thus, the animals were divided between several different studs in the new postwar nations of Austria, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The nation of Austria kept the stallions of the Spanish Riding School and some breeding stock. During World War II, the high command of Nazi Germany transferred most of Europe's Lipizzan breeding stock to Hostau, Czechoslovakia. The rescue of the Lipizzans by the United States Army, made famous by the Disney movie Miracle of the White Stallions, occurred in two parts: The Third United States Army, under the command of General George S. Patton, was near St. Martins in the spring of 1945 and learned that the Lipizzan stallions were in the area. Patton himself was a horseman, and like Podhajsky, had competed in the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, the Third Army's United States Second Cavalry, a tank unit under the command of Colonel Charles Reed, had discovered the horses at Hostau, where 400 Allied prisoners of war were also being kept, and had occupied it on 28 April 1945. "Operation Cowboy", as the rescue was known, resulted in the recovery of 1,200 horses, including 375 Lipizzans. On 12 May, soldiers began riding, trucking, and herding the horses across the border into Kotztinz, Germany. In 2005, the Spanish Riding School celebrated the 60th anniversary of Patton's rescue by touring the United States. , Croatia During the Croatian War of Independence, from 1991 to 1995, the horses at the Lipik stable in Croatia were taken by the Serbs to Novi Sad, Serbia. The horses remained there until 2007, when calls began to be made for them to be returned to their country of origin. In October 2007, 60 horses were returned to Croatia. Modern breed The Lipizzan breed suffered a setback to its population when a viral epidemic hit the Piber Stud in 1983. Forty horses and 8% of the expected foal crop were lost. Since then, the population at the stud has increased. By 1994, 100 mares were at the stud farm and a foal crop of 56 was born in 1993. In 1994, the rate of successful pregnancy and birth of foals increased from 27 to 82%; the result of a new veterinary center. In 1996, a study funded by the European Union Indo-Copernicus Project assessed 586 Lipizzan horses from eight stud farms in Europe, with the goal of developing a "scientifically based description of the Lipizzan horse". , Slovenia The Lipizzan International Federation (LIF) is the international governing organization for the breed, composed of many national and private organizations representing the Lipizzan. The organizations work together under the banner of the LIF to promote the breed and maintain standards. As of 2012, almost 11,000 Lipizzans were registered with the LIF; residing with private breeders in 19 countries and at nine state studs in Europe. The largest number are in Europe, with almost 9,000 registered horses, followed by the Americas, with just over 1,700, then Africa and Australia with around 100 horses each. The nine state studs that are part of the LIF represent almost one-quarter of the horses in Europe. Sâmbăta de Jos, in Romania, has the greatest number of horses, with 400, followed by Piber in Austria (360), Lipica in Slovenia (358), Szilvásvárad in Hungary (262), Monterotondo in Italy (230), Đakovo-Lipik in Croatia (220), and Topoľčianky in Slovakia (200). The other two studs are smaller, with stud Vučijak in Bosnia near Prnjavor having 130 horses and Karađorđevo in Serbia having just 30. Educational programs have been developed to promote the breed and foster adherence to traditional breeding objectives. Mounted regiments of Carabinieri police in Italy also employ the Lipizzan as one of their mounts. In October 2008, during a visit to Slovenia, a Lipizzan at Lipica, named 085 Favory Canissa XXII, was given to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. She decided to leave the animal in the care of the stud farm. Heritage of humanity list On the initiative of Slovenian Ministry of Culture, the tradition of breeding and maintaining a purebred Lipizzaner is recognized by UNESCO and inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as Lipizzan horse breeding traditions since 2022. Inscriptions include state parties Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. ==Training and uses==

The traditional horse training methods for Lipizzans were developed at the Spanish Riding School and are based on the principles of classical dressage, which in turn traces to the Ancient Greek writer Xenophon, whose works were rediscovered in the sixteenth century. His thoughts on development of horses' mental attitude and psyche are still considered applicable today. Other writers who strongly influenced the training methods of the Spanish Riding School include Federico Grisone, the founder of the first riding academy in Naples, who lived during the sixteenth century, and Antoine de Pluvinel and François Robichon de la Guérinière, two Frenchmen from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The methods for training the Lipizzan stallions at the Spanish Riding School were passed down via an oral tradition until Field Marshal Franz Holbein and Johann Meixner, Senior Rider at the School, published the initial guidelines for the training of horse and rider at the school in 1898. In the mid-twentieth century, Alois Podhajsky wrote a number of works that serve as textbooks for many dressage riders today. The principles taught at the Spanish Riding School are based on practices taught to cavalry riders to prepare their horses for warfare. Young stallions come to the Spanish Riding School for training when they are four years old. Full training takes an average of six years for each horse, and schooling is considered complete when they have mastered the skills required to perform the "School Quadrille". Although the Piber Stud trains mares for driving and under saddle, the Spanish Riding School exclusively uses stallions in its performances. Worldwide, the Lipizzan today competes in dressage and driving, as well as retaining their classic position at the Spanish Riding School. =="Airs above the ground"==

from Johannesburg The "airs above the ground" are the difficult "high school" dressage movements made famous by the Lipizzans. The finished movements include: • The levade is a position wherein the horse raises up both front legs, standing at a 30° angle entirely on its hind legs in a controlled form that requires a great deal of hindquarter strength. A less difficult but related movement is the pesade, where the horse rises up to a 45° angle. • The courbette is a movement where the horse balances on its hind legs and then essentially "hops", jumping with the front legs off the ground and hind legs together. • The capriole is a jump in place where the stallion leaps into the air, tucking his forelegs under himself, and kicks out with his hind legs at the top of the jump. Other movements include: • The croupade and ballotade are predecessors to the capriole. In the croupade, the horse jumps with both front and hind legs remaining tucked under the body and he does not kick out. In the ballotade, the horse jumps and untucks his hind legs slightly, he does not kick out, but the soles of the hind feet are visible if viewed from the rear. • The mezair is a series of successive levades in which the horse lowers its forefeet to the ground before rising again on hindquarters, achieving forward motion. This movement is no longer used at the Spanish Riding School. ==In popular culture==

Lipizzans have starred or played supporting roles in many movies, TV shows, books, and other media. The 1940 film Florian stars two Lipizzan stallions. It was based on a 1934 novel by Felix Salten. The wife of the film's producer owned the only Lipizzans in the United States at the time the movie was made. The rescue during World War II of the Lipizzan stallions is depicted in the 1963 Walt Disney movie Miracle of the White Stallions. The movie was the only live-action, relatively realistic film set against a World War II backdrop that Disney has ever produced. Television programs featuring the Lipizzans include The White Horses, a 1965 children's television series co-produced by RTV Ljubljana (now RTV Slovenija) of Yugoslavia and BR-TV of Germany, rebroadcast in the United Kingdom. It followed the adventures of a teenaged girl who visits a farm where Lipizzan horses are raised. == References ==