Lipizzaner History with a mention to the Mezöhegyes herd at the State Stud

Herd of young stock in Lipica on typical karstic pasture. 1906

The formal Austrian Court stud farm Lipizza/Lipica, after the First World War the Italian military and later the Yugoslavian stud farm Lipica, is located on the karstic plateau 415 m above the sea level, 13 km northeast of Trieste in Slovenia. The whole region was shaded by hundred-year-old oak trees, by which the entire local karst was wooded till the Venetians cut them down and used them for poles to extend their city further into the lagoons. The forest around the Slovenian village Lipica remained preserved only because it was the property of the Trieste episcopate that had a farm set there with a small settlement/village; the area was well known for breeding tough and hardy horses, which the local citizens, who were mainly merchants, needed for the long commerce travels. This was one of the reasons why then the regent over Steiermark, Karl von Steiermark, the son of Ferdinand I, purchased Lipica from the Trieste bishop in 1580, disband the settlement, modified the court into stables, added new stables and in the oak forest established pastures. This was the year after, when his nephew Rudolf I founded a stud farm in 1579 in Bohemia (today Czech Republic) in the Kladrubian manorial estate of the Pardubice domain.

At about the same time in 1580 there was imported from Spain to Lipica a herd of 24 original mares and three stallions from Andalusia (“brincos”). Later on, there were purchased for Lipica stronger horses from not far Polesina, Roviga, the Venice region and from around Verona, more likely to improve the massiveness of the Spaniard, who was supposed to serve first as a riding horse but could be used as a light draft/carriage horse as well. The first results with the Spanish stallions and the Italian crossbred mares were obviously very successful; the herd status fluctuated around 100 mares.

It is not possible to describe further the historical development of the horse breeding in Lipica. It is useful to mention that the names of the breeding horses from the early stages are not known. The first established studbook burned and the today preserved pedigrees go back only to 1701 and not even continuously. Never the less, they are showing that the original Spanish stallions were still imported in the XVII and XVIII centuries. In the beginning of the XVIII century came to Lipizza, through a mutual exchange, several Dutch and Danish stallions, which also had a great deal of the Spanish-Italian blood. From these northern stallions especially the Danish Lipp, born 1717, and thereafter from his progeny was chosen a breeding stock for more than a century. His most proven stallions from those days were the north-Italian and Spanish-Neapolitan stallions; Generale 1710, Amico 1712, Superbo 1722, Maestoso 1736, Toscanello 1749, Pluto, orig. Dutch stallion 1765, Conversano, orig. Spaniard Neapolitan 1767, Favory, Kladrubian stallion 1779, Neapolitano, orig. Spanish-Neapolitan 1790, Danese, orig. Dutch 1795.

Besides the Spanish-Italian “carosiers” in the early stages of the Lipizzaner development, the Oriental stallions were used only sporadically. The more substantial and consistent use of the Oriental horses came at the beginning of the IX century, more likely with the intend to refine the contemporary form of the carriage horse, to add more speed to his gaits and to make him eventually useful as a riding horse. From these Orientals only one line managed to survive till today, the line of the Arabian stallion Siglavi 1810, which was of course numerously through-crossbred with other mares of the Lipizzan family as well as with other Lipica’s stallion lines.

From the 1953 Special Zoo-Technique - Breeding of Horses
Published in 1953 by the Czechoslovakian Academy of Agricultural Science and certified by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Written by: MVDr Ludvik Ambroz, Frabtisek Bilek, MVDr Karel Blazek, Ing. Jaromir Dusek, Ing. Karel Hartman, Hanus Keil, pro. MVDr Emanuel Kral, Karel Kloubek, Ing. Dr. Frantisek Lerche, Ing. Dr Vaclav Michal, Ing. Dr Zdenek Munki, Ing. Vladimir Mueller, MVDr Julius Penicka, pro. MVDr Emil Pribyl, MVDr Lev Richter, prof. Ing. Dr Josef Rechta, MVDr Karel Sejkora and Ing. Dr Jindrich Steinitz.

"To Nicci, who commented the other day in regards to elephant safety "the keepers are only there 8 hours a day", I will suggest that the breeding of great animals and being a part of that, isn't for the weak of heart. It requires the devotion of a lifetime as well as lifetimes after you are gone. It is not McDonalds and it is as far away from 9 to 5 as the earth is from the sun. We see a lot of young people today, fresh out of collage, animal science degree in hand, taking positions in the zoo/animal industry as an exciting, available quick job, often lacking the dedication of a life time devotion and playing around for a while, until they find what it is they really want to do. I am not suggesting that this is Nicci, I am just suggesting that if "8 hours a day" is your goal, you have no business in the animal field, domestic or exotic.