The Circus "NO SPIN ZONE": 08/25/11

It's Amazing Who You Bump Into, Deep In the Mexican Interior!!!

Vintage Spanish Riding School--Siglavy Barbana

In my opinion, I have always considered the Siglavy line of Lipizzaners to be one the most beautiful in the world. The influence of the founding grey Arabian stallion Siglavy in the ears, jaw, muzzle, and the mesmerizing eye's is unmistakable.

From Stable made:

From the Arabians, one of the best-proven stallions in Lipica was especially Siglavi 1810, who established after him self a line that was preserved till this day. To Lipica also arrived a large transport of Arabian horses (16 stallions and 50 mares) purchased in 1857 by colonel Brunderman in the desert from the Bedouin tribes in Syria and Arabia. However, from this transport remained in Lipica only two stallions, honey gray Samson, and silver gray Hadudy, furthermore 16 desert imported mares and one foal. It was in those days, in the middle of the XVIII century, that the Lipizzaners were crossbred the most with the Arabian. In those days a part of the breeding program in Lipica was to breed also pureblooded Arabians, but later this was abandoned because the Arabian progeny was too slender/delicate for riding at the court riding stables. The Arabian material was therefore moved to other state stud farms, outside of the mares and stallions used for crossbreeding with the Lipizzaners. On the hard, stone paved streets of Vienna the Arabian crossbreds could not equal the Lipizzaner, and because it was constantly more noticeable that with further crossbreeding with the Arabian the Lipizzaner would lose his original type/form and invaluable characteristics, the use of the Arabian for crossbreeding in Lipica came suddenly to an end. The last Arabian stallions active in Lipica were: Arabian halfblood Ben Azet, “fly-gray” born 1851 and an original Arab Massaud, “trout-gray”, born 1869. From the older Arabians stallions there were mainly: Tadmor Or. Ar. 1834 and Gazlan Or. Ar. 1840, whose lines we can often see in the Lipizzaners pedigrees; especially in the line of Favory and Neapolitano is widely spread the blood of Gazlan.

Today, Lipizzans recognized by all registries worldwide trace to six classical foundation stallions. 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
Maestoso: a gray Kladruber stallion, foaled in 1773
Favory: a dun stallion from the Kladrub stud, foaled in 1779
Neapolitano: a bay Neapolitan stallion from the Polesine, foaled in 1790
Siglavy: a gray Arabian stallion, originally from Syria, foaled in 1810

There are two additional stallion lines recognized in Croatia, Hungary, and some eastern European countries as well as in North America. They are accepted as equal to the 6 classical lines by Lipizzan International Federation (LIF).

Tulipan: A line from the Croatian stud farm of Terezovac, owned by Count Jankovic-Besan. Horses of this line are of Spanish Neapolitan descent, crossed with other Lipizzans during the 19th century, forming the Tulipan line around 1880.
Incitato: A Hungarian stallion foaled in Mezohegyes in 1802. The Incitato line is derived from Spanish and Italian sources.

There are several other stallion lines that have died out over the years, but were used in the early breeding of the horses. In addition to the foundation stallions, there are 20 classic mare lines, including mares of varied color and descent. Fourteen of these lines still exist today.However, some organizations today recognize up to 35 mare lines.

There are traditional naming patterns for both stallions and mares, required by Lipizzan breed registries. Stallions traditionally are given two names, with the first being the line of the sire and the second being the name or the dam. For example, "Maestoso Austria" is a horse sired by Maestoso Trompeta out of a mare named Austria. The horse's sire line tracing to the foundation sire Maestoso. The names of mares are taken from the maternal line in the pedigree. Names from the sixth and eighth generation back in the mare's pedigree chart are reviewed. Out of those two generations the name is chosen. Thus, in Lipizzan breeding, names come back periodically and there are names for each mare family line.

Vintage Spanish Riding School--Miracle of the White Stallions

Robert Taylor riding(compare his riding skill's to Col. Podhajsky's below) Conversano Soja

Some of the Riders & Stallions appearing in the movie are:

Lauscha Rider & Siglavy Morella (Courbette)
Podhajsky and Pluto Brezia In hand Courbette.
Josef Riedler & Pluto Presciana I Capriole Rider
Podhajsky & Neapolitano Santuzza. Karl was also in the movie and Podhajsky stated N. Santuzza was the best horse at the Capriole but was never jumped under saddle.
Hans Irbinger on N. Ancona (brown)
Irbinger rode Favory Brezia in the Levade.
In the quadrille Podhajsky rode 2 horses M. Alea I and C. Soja. In the lead. Watch the mane color change.

The second horse behind Podhajsky is S. Bona (beautiful young grey at the time) & rider Josef Riedler.

The third rider is Bachinger on Pluto Wanda.

Podhajsky used to describe the horses in the quadrille should look like "A Chain of Pearls".

On May 7, 1945, the day before Germany surrendered and the war in Europe ended, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and Robert Patterson, the Undersecretary of War, drove to Schloss Arco in nearby St. Martin im Innkreiss in Upper Austria to see the white Lipizzaner stallions of the famous Spanische Hofreitschule, or Spanish Riding School.

The Lipizzaners had been secretly evacuated to St. Martin from Vienna in March 1945 by the Spanish Riding School's director, Col. Alois Podhajsky, who was afraid the stallions would be killed by air raids or captured by the approaching Russian army and sent to the Soviet Union.

With lack of fodder for his horses and uncertainties facing the future of the school, Podhajsky thought the American Army could help him protect his magnificent stallions and the 200-year-old Spanish Riding School. To that end, Podhajsky enlisted the aid of XX Corps commander Walton Walker, who invited Gen. Patton to a demonstration of the haute école.

At Schloss Arco, Patton and Patterson watched a performance of the Lipizzaners. The white stallions were famous the world over for their splendid leaps, the graceful dance of Pas de Trois, and the quadrille ballet. Known for their classical beauty, intelligence and athleticism, the origin of the Lipizzaners goes back to the village of Lipizza in present day Slovenia, where the court stud was founded in 1580 with Spanish horses imported by Archduke Charles II.

With his stallions now in the safe hands of Gen. Patton and the U.S. Third Army, Col. Podhajsky was faced with another concern. Two years earlier in 1943, the Lipizzaners' breeding mares, which were bred to supply the Spanish Riding School's stallions, were taken by the German High Command from the lush green pastures of the Austrian Federal Stud in Fiber. Podhajsky knew that without the mares, the Lipizzaner stallions and the Spanish Riding School faced extinction.

What Col. Podhajsky did not know at the time was that Gen. Patton was already involved in the Spanish Riding School's destiny.

Nine days before, Patton had given approval to one of his commanders, Col. Charles Hancock Reed of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group (Mechanized), to execute an operation to rescue from the German Army more than 1,000 horses that included the Fiber breeding mares.

The story of the dramatic rescue began on April 25,1945, when Capt. Ferdinand P. Sperl, who was attached as an interrogator to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group, received information that a German intelligence unit that lacked transportation to Berlin was bivouacked in an area on the Czechoslovakian border. After negotiating with the German commander, Capt. Sperl led an "attack" early on April 26, and after a prearranged exchange of harmless gun fire, the Germans surrendered.

Later that day Col. Reed and the German general in charge of the intelligence unit had breakfast together. The two men found that they had a mutual interest in horses. The general showed Reed some beautiful photographs of Lipizzaners and Arabs that had recently been taken at the German Remount Depot at Hostau, Czechoslovakia.

Patton's reply was relayed to Reed: "Get them. Make it fast! You will have a new mission."

That night at about 8:00 P.M. Capt. Rudolph Lessing, German staff veterinarian at Hostau, arrived at one of Reed's border posts to arrange the surrender. He was riding a Lipizzaner and leading another. The German officer was taken to Col. Reed's headquarters, where the men had cocktails and dinner.

It was agreed that as an act of good faith, an American officer would ride back with Lessing and arrange the surrender of Hostau. Lessing warned Reed that between the American lines and Hostau there were elements of an SS Division that would fight. Reed was not concerned.

Capt. Thomas M. Stewart of the 42nd Squadron, a fine horseman from Tennessee and the son of a U.S. senator, volunteered to ride back with Lessing. The men were taken by jeep to the border post, climbed atop the Lipizzaners and rode off to Hostau.

After some harrowing experiences behind German lines, Stewart returned by motorcycle sidecar on the night of April 27. He reported that the German commanding officer, Lt. Col. Hubert Rudofsky, and his staff at Hostau, with the exception of a Czech-born lieutenant colonel, agreed to surrender when American forces arrived. Stewart told Reed that the Germans preferred to turn the horses over to the Americans rather than to the approaching Russians.

Col. Reed went ahead and gave the order to a small force he had already assembled to proceed with the mission to capture Hostau. Named Task Force Reed, the unit consisted of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group's 42nd Cavalry Squadron, which included a platoon of tanks and assault guns. Maj. Robert P. Andrews, with Capt. Stewart as his assistant, commanded the task force.

The Headquarters 2nd Cavalry Group combat log for April 28, 1945, showed the 42nd Squadron also captured 416 prisoners and released 150 Allied prisoners of war. The next morning, a part of the task force rejoined the 2nd Cavalry Group. Capt. Stewart and one platoon of tanks were left to control Hostau and to protect its valuable horses.

Fearing an attack by the SS troops in the area, Stewart organized a defense force using some of the released Polish prisoners and Hostau's German troops and their anti-communist Cossack allies, who wanted to maintain the horse farm. The SS troops attacked Hostau late on April 30, 1945. A five-hour battle took place, which resulted in Stewart's forces defeating the attackers and capturing 100 prisoners; one soldier of the 42nd Squadron was killed and another wounded.

With Germany's unconditional surrender a week later, the war in Europe ended. On the day hostilities ceased, the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group was on the general line extending about 10 miles southeast of Pilsen-Horsice-Zinkovy-Nepomuk in Czechoslovakia. Their new mission was to prevent the Russian army from penetrating American-held territory.

On or about May 9, 1945, Col. Reed received a message from Third Army Headquarters that Gen. Patton had been in contact with Col. Podhajsky, head of the Spanish Riding School. Reed was informed that Podhajsky was at St. Martin in Austria with the Lipizzaner stallions. The message went on to tell Reed that Podhajsky would be flown up to his headquarters at Zinkovy as soon as practical to check the breeding mares and to have them join the stallions in Austria.

Meanwhile, Reed had reason to want to move the horses.

On or around May 14, 1945, Col. Podhajsky flew into Zinkovy on an American plane, where he spent the night and dined with Col. Reed and his staff. Plans were made for the breeding herd to be returned to Col. Podhajsky at St. Martin's as soon as practical. The next day Reed and Podhajsky drove to Schwarzenberg, where the Riding School's director pointed out the horses of the Fiber herd. Podhajsky was very pleased with their condition.

Col. Reed arranged for two convoys on May 18 and 25, 1945, to return the Piber herd to Podhajsky at St. Martin in Austria, a distance that required the Lipizzaners to be transported by trucks that were refitted as best they could to carry horses. The trip was difficult and a few mares were injured; two suffered broken legs and were destroyed. Two hundred and fifteen Lipizzaners arrived at St. Martin. The arrival of the breeding mares ensured the future of the Austrian Lipizzaner stallions and the 200-year-old tradition of the Spanish Riding School.

"The remaining horses," recalled Reed, "were later transferred to the large and most suitable German horse breeding establishment of a remount depot in Hessia. This included the Arabians, racing horses, the Yugoslavian Lipizzaners and a number of the Cossack horses. Since all were war booty of the American Army, the best of these and other captured animals were later shipped to the United States for use by the U.S. Remount Service."

In appreciation of Gen. Patton's personal involvement on behalf of the Spanish Riding School, the Austrians presented him with a white stallion named Pluto XX and several mares, which he sent back to the United States.

Seven months after the Lipizzaner stallions and the Fiber herd were reunited in Austria, on December 21, 1945, Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany after an automobile accident. Col. Reed of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group commanded the guard of honor at Patton's funeral.

Of the many famous photographs of Patton taken before his death, there was one of him in Salzburg, Austria, on a white horse. It showed Patton in uniform and helmet proudly astride a magnificent Lipizzaner stallion named Favory Africa. The Lipizzaner had been chosen by Adolf Hitler as a present for Japan's Emperor Hirohito, a gift that Patton had made sure was never delivered.

Vintage Spanish Riding School--Col. Oberst Alois Podhajsky and Conversano Soja

Levade

We must live for the school. Offer our lives to it. Then, perhaps, little by little, the light will grow from the tiny candle we keep lit here, and the great art—of the haute école—will not be snuffed out. -Alois Podhajsky

Long Lining

Classical Long Lining

Exhibition Long Lining

Vintage Spanish Riding School--Long Lining

1930

1950's

1960's

In the past we have discussed long lining, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful of the equestrian art's. Done correctly, "by the book" with the horse and trainer in synch as one, it is breathtaking. If you study old pictures very closely you can not changing style's in training. Note the top picture from the 1930's. The horse is lugged into the bit, not under himself and strung out in the back. He is almost pulling the trainer off his feet. In 1939 the great Col. Alois Podhajsky was appointed Director of the school. With his thoughts and advocacy of forwardness, collection, softness, elevation, and "airiness" note in the proceeding pictures from the 50's and 60's those exact sentiments being expressed by the horse's.

Col. Podhajsky’s words:
1. The face must never come behind the vertical, as in this case the horse would be over bent and not go sufficiently forward.
2. The poll, however, must be the highest point of the horse’s head regardless of his conformation.
3. This points to the necessity of sufficient freedom for the head in the extended paces.
4. It must be emphasized that the correct position of the head cannot be obtained by strong action of the reins, which would only shorten the neck.
5. The position of the head is the means, the paces the object, of dressage. The correct position of the head will be the result of contact and balance, both developed by riding briskly forward, and will make it easier for the horse to follow the commands of the rider given through the reins.
6. The rider should aid his horse to understand him; this means that the horse should never be afraid of the aids and that the rider has sufficient patience to be sure his horse understands what is demanded of him. (I would rather rider ask and not demand) The
rider must have an exact understanding of his aids and their effect, and must make use of them intelligently; he must not allow himself to be influenced by his feelings.
7. The ultimate objective of training must be to guide the horse with invisible aids.
8. In spite of this, few riders today are sufficiently expert in the art of classical riding to perform the movements with invisible aids. Rather, they may often be seen presenting their horses while working the hands and legs and swinging their bodies. (Words written in 1967 are still true today)
9. When the leg is correctly applied, the heels should be low, and the muscles of the calf tightened.
10. If the rider leans forward while his seat remains in the saddle he will drive the horse’s forelegs into the ground and prevent the hind legs from coming under the body.
11. Experience has taught that the rider should never push more with his legs than he can control with the reins, or hold with his hands more than he can absorb with his legs and seat. This gives the individual measure of the degree of the aids. Most riders will have an inclination to hold more with the reins than they can control with their legs; therefore, the rider must always work from rear to front to ensure that the horse does not take too firm a contact with the bit.