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.