Breed History

Lipica stud farm, Slovenia.

The ancestors of the Lipizzan can be traced to approximately A.D. 800. The predecessors of the Lipizzan included desert horses that were brought into Spain from North Africa and crossed on native Spanish horses, creating breeds such as the Andalusian and other Iberian horses.

By the 16th Century, when the Hapsburg Empire ruled both Spain and  Austria, a powerful but agile horse was desired for both military uses and for use in the fashionable and rapidly-growing riding schools for the nobility of central Europe. Therefore, in 1562, the Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian II brought the Spanish horse to Austria and founded the court stud at Kladrub. In 1580, his brother, Archduke Charles II, established a similar stud in 1580 at Lipizza (now spelled Lipica), located in modern-day Slovenia), whence the breed obtained its name.

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

In 1735, Charles IV established the Spanish Riding School and recorded the bloodlines of the Lipizzans. He also built a winter riding hall in the imperial palace in Vienna, which is the home of the Spanish Riding School today.

The Spanish Riding School, though located in Vienna, Austria, takes its name from the original Spanish heritage of both its horses and its riding techniques.

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

 Foundation horses

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

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

There are also 2 other stallion lines which are accepted by LIF (Lipizzan International Federation). These two lines are not recognized by all registries. These are:

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

These two lines are still found in Croatia, Hungary, and other eastern European countries as well as in North America.

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

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

 The Rescue of the Lipizzans

World War II presented perhaps the greatest threat ever faced by the Lipizzan breed. The breeding stock was taken by the Nazis from Piber to a German-run stud farm at Hostau, in what today is the  Czech Republic. Threatened by bombing raids, the stallions later evacuated Vienna for St. Martin's, in upper Austria. Under the leadership of  Alois Podhajsky, then the director of the Spanish Riding School, both the stallions and the equestrian traditions were preserved. However, there were still harsh challenges; while safe from aerial attacks, there was little food for human or animals, and starving refugees sometimes attempted to steal the horses, viewing them as a source of meat.

In 1945, the United States Army took control of St. Martins. General George S. Patton, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Group, had been a fellow equestrian competitor with Podhajsky in the Olympic Games prior to the war. The two men renewed their acquaintance, and after an impressive performance by the remaining horses and riders of the school in front of Patton and Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, the Americans agreed to place the stallions under the protection of the United States until they could safely be returned to the people of Austria after the war.

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

The Modern Lipizzan

Today, though found in many nations throughout Europe and North America, the breed is relatively rare, with only about 3,000 horses registered worldwide. However, their numbers are increasing. Lipizzans still shine in classical dressage, performing the High School "airs above the ground" with ease. Lipizzan stallions are still the "Dancing White Horses," the only horses used by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Both purebred and crossbred Lipizzans make excellent riding and harness horses. While popular for dressage exhibitions and recreational riding in Europe and North America, in some countries (such as Slovenia) stallions are crossed with local mares to make good farm horses in addition to being used for dressage.

Breed characteristics

Although appearing rather large and powerful in appearance, most Lipizzans measure between 14.2 and 15.2 hands. They are compact and muscular, with very powerful hindquarters, allowing them to do the difficult "High School" (Dressage) movements, including the "airs above the ground." They generally have a strong-featured head with a convex profile, set high on a well-muscled, arched neck. They have short cannons, their legs have good bone, and well-sloped shoulders. Their gaits are powerful and elastic, they collect easily with self carriage, although different in style from the warmblood breeds seen in many dressage competitions. Lipizzans are naturally balanced, well-known for excellent trainability and intelligence.

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

 Color

This young Lipizzan stallion has already begun the graying process.

Aside from the rare solid-colored horse (usually bay or black ), most Lipizzans are gray. As with all gray horses, they are born dark—usually bay or black—and become lighter each year as the graying process takes place. Other than the rare individual who does not carry the gray gene, Lipizzans usually gray quickly and develop a completely white hair coat. They are usually completely white by the average age of seven, though the range varies from six to ten.

Until the 18th century, Lipizzans had other coat colors, including dun and bay. However, gray is a dominant gene , and in a small breed population and also deliberately selected as a desirable feature, it came to be the color of the overwhelming majority of Lipizzan horses. However, today, it is still traditional for the Spanish Riding School to have one bay Lipizzan in residence, showing respect to an old belief that doing so will prevent bad luck.

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