Ahmet Erkun

Got the must- and hope-to-see sights planned out for the rest of our stay in Vienna! That was the first thing we did after breakfast … between doing a couple of loads of laundry in preparation for checking out from the apartment tomorrow.

And then it was time for sightseeing and fun.

We left the house around 10:15a to get ourselves to the Hofburg Palace Complex … this time for the 11:00a performance of the world famous white stallions. Having noted yesterday that the performance venue — the Winter Riding School — for the Spanish Riding School sits across the passageway from the Sisi Museum, we knew exactly where to go.

The Spanish Riding School is dedicated to the “… preservation of classical dressage and the training of Lipizzaner horses, … .” The name of the school is a reference to the Spanish horses that formed the base of the Lipizzan breed. The school dates back to 1565 … it is the oldest of its kind in the world, The Baroque style venue where the performances take place was built in 1729 … commissioned by Emperor Charles VI.

At first, the performances were only presented to the guests of the Imperial Court. That changed around the turn of the century when the general public was allowed to attend the performances. But the shows back then were held only on special occasions. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the school began regular performances to the general public … as a means for helping to pay for upkeep.

Our tickets scanned, an usher directed us to a parterre box. I was expecting our seats to be on the balcony, rather than on the performance level. No worries; these were better. Being fourth row center, we had a great vantage point for the performance.

The demonstration show consisted of four acts, if you will, over a period of 1¼ hours. Between each act, the emcee — automated recording would be my guess — gave information about the school, the horses, the trainers/riders and their uniforms.

The first act featured 4-6 year old youngsters … mostly in varied shades of grey since their coats don’t turn white until they are older. We were warned that these stallions can be hyper and can “act up” … one did so frequently, with some of the others joining in the fray. These horses demonstrated steps, trots, and gallops.

The second act included older horses — high schoolers. They demonstrated the movements seen in the Olympic Grand Prix Dressage test. A pair of horses wrapped up this act with the “Pas De Deux” … demonstrating movements in mirror image.

Then came the Work in Hand” … showing some of the more complex moves, including work on the diagonal, on the wall, and between the pillars. A solo trainer and a fully-trained white stallion showed us the long-rein technique where the trainer walks behind the horse on a long rein and works the horse from that position. Obviously, at this stage, there is a great bond and lots of trust between beast and trainer … one well-placed kick could easily kill the trainer … a woman in our case (in the past, it was only men who trained and rode Lipizzaners.).

The final act was the “Airs Above Ground” … during which the riders are without stirrups. This is when one gets to see the ‘dancing horses’ … performing what is called the quadrille. The performance ended with the stallions keeping tempo to the “Radetsky March.” Of course, the audience clapped along.

The performance was definitely more interesting than I thought it would be. Since no photos were allowed during the performance, we picked up a pack of postcards for me to scan … hence, I have a few performance images to share in this footprint.Read more