Exclusive Lipizzaner, or
By Burl Burlingame
"white stallion" is known as the
good luck horse
Star-BulletinA horse is a horse, of course, of course. Well, not exactly. Like other domestic animals, they've been bred through the years into widely different editions, depending on what chores they had to perform.
The famous Lipizzaner breed dates back to the late 1500s, when horseman of the Austrian burg of Lipizza mixed and matched horses of Arabian, Spanish and Berber bloods to create a new breed. The Lipizzaner, compared to other horses, is relatively short, has a long back, a thick neck, a deep chest, small head with large soulful eyes, and powerful, chunky rear legs. This last is important because it allows the Lipizzaner to rear up steadily.
The Lipizzaners were an exclusive strain, bred only on one isolated estate at the whim of the last Hapsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire, and allowed out only as gifts for palys of the royal family. This exclusivity, plus their renown as dressage mounts, gave the Lipizzaners an almost mystical cachet.
Although the Lipizzaners are known as the "white stallions," they're born brown and turn white with age (like the rest of us). One percent of the Lipizzaners stay brown and these are considered good-luck horses.
The "haute ecole (high school)" of dressage is taught now only at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna exclusively for the Lipizzaners. Dressage is the sport of making horses do things without making it obvious who's on top. It's supposed to look easy and natural, when, in fact, there's nothing natural or easy about one animal riding another species of animal. In dressage, the two, horse and rider, need to become one, to blend, so that movements become precise and even, and commands are so subtle they become invisible.
Dressage supposedly dates back to Xenophon in the Greece of 400 B.C., who suggested that "one directs the horse to appear joyous and magnificent, proud and remarkable for having been ridden." Fancy talk for an age that had no stirrups.
Although the Lipizzaners visiting Honolulu are descended from the Austrian Lipizzaners, they are American-registered horses, and although the riders use training techniques from the Spanish Riding School, they are not connected to that institution.
The burg of Lipizza is now part of Slovenia. Things change.
The facts
What: The Royal Lipizzaner Stallions
