Not long ago, the good news came from the Peeber Federal Racecourse in Steinmark, Austria, that the first offspring of the First Pipiza horse in 2022 was born, and Austrian state television reported it for the first time. The birth of a pony touches the hearts of Austrians because Lipizá is the star of the world-famous Royal Spanish Equestrian School in Vienna, and on the other hand, the breed is very rare and precious. It is reported that at present, there are only thousands of purebred Lipiza horses in the world, and only a small number of young horses are born every year, in order to maintain the pure blood of the horses, the breeding process requires a huge amount of effort.
Horse breed that changes from "black" to "white"
In the 7th century AD, the Moors brought the Bab horses into Spain and crossed them with local horses, resulting in the Andalusian horse, the ancestor of the Lipizama. In the 16th century, the Habsburg royal family, which ruled Austria and Spain, wanted to breed a strong and agile horse that could be used both for military purposes and to meet the needs of the equestrian movement that was popular among the aristocracy at the time. Subsequently, the Habsburgs established breeding farms in Austria and Slovenia, introducing horse breeds from Spain. The breeding farm in the village of Lipisa, Slovenia today, is responsible for breeding horses suitable for riding and pulling light carriages, and the "Lipiza horse" is named after the location of the horse farm. Since the 1920s, the Peeber Federal Racecourse, located near the famous Austrian city of Graz, has been the main breeding ground for horses at the Royal Spanish Equestrian School in Vienna.
Originally, Lipizama was available in dark brown, date, maroon, black and other coat colors. However, because white hair is a dominant gene and a color favored by the royal family, it has been continuously strengthened during the breeding process, and now Lipizama is almost always white. Interestingly, foals are generally black at birth with only a few white hairs. At the age of 7 to 10, the hair will appear snow white or bright silver, which is equivalent to experiencing a change from "black" to "white". Lipizama is usually less than 1.6 meters tall, has a docile personality, elegant temperament, muscularity, although mature is relatively slow, but can live to more than 30 years old, and can still be competent for high-intensity equestrian training after the age of 20.
The pedigree of the modern Lipizama can be traced back to 8 stallions born in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and there are 35 mare pedigrees certified by organizations such as the Lipizama International Union, and the shadow of the ancestors can be seen in the name of each horse.
The routine morning exercise is open to visitors
In the corner of the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, sits the famous Spanish Royal Equestrian School, the world's earliest equestrian school, named after "Spain" because the ancestors of Lipizama originated here. As early as the 16th century, there was an equestrian venue in Josefplatz in the center of Vienna. In the 18th century, Charles VI built the Baroque style equestrian hall, which was originally a class for young nobles to take equestrian classes, and has been used to this day.
At the Federal Breeding Farm, ponies live with their mothers for 6 to 8 months after birth, then are sent into the wild for 3 years, raised separately according to sex, and live in picturesque alpine pastures in the summer, which is essential for horses to enhance lung function, develop a calm and steady personality, and train physical fitness and endurance. The selected Lipizama came to the Royal Equestrian School of Spain at about the age of 3.3 and 30 years and took an average of 6 years to train and learn 3 types of difficulty-progressive skills.
The Royal Spanish School of Equestrian has always trained and interpreted classical equestrianism in a traditional form (pictured on the right), traditionally taught by oral tradition, with each jockey responsible for training his own horse. In 2015, classical equestrianism and the Royal Spanish Equestrian School were inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and in 2016, the knowledge of Lipizama breeding at the Federal Breeding Farm of Pippen was separately included in the Austrian Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Every year from March to June, watch a show at the Royal Spanish Equestrian School and admire the superb skills of the Lipizama from rapid spinning to jumping in the air, which has become a cultural event that must be missed when visiting Vienna. Jockeys and their respective horses practice the basic equestrian movements (pictured on the left) non-stop throughout the year, and daily morning exercises are also open to visitors. Every time the jockey leaves the saddle, he immediately pulls out a delicious reward Lipiza horse, from which you can feel the mutual trust and deep affection that the jockey and the horse have established.
It has undergone many wartime migrations
Even though they prefer white, brown horses are regarded by locals as "lucky symbols." The brown Lipiza horse is very rare, so the Royal Spanish Equestrian School in Vienna has preserved a special tradition – at least one brown horse in the stables, which represents the link of the lipiza to the past.
Lipizama has appeared in numerous films, TV shows and books. In the hundreds of years since the birth of Lipizama, due to the first coalition war, the two world wars and other wars that swept across Europe, the horse breed has been repeatedly in danger, after many difficult wartime migrations to avoid extinction. The American film The Miracle of the White Horse, which tells the story of the evacuation and rescue of Lipizama during World War II, is based on the book of Colonel Alois Podhasky, the principal of the Royal Spanish Equestrian School, filmed at the Equestrian School and the stables of the Hermeswila Manor in Vienna.
In addition to Austria, Lipizama is also popular in Slovenia, where it was first bred, and is known as the country's "national animal". The 20 euro cent coin printed in Slovenia has a pair of Lipizamas on it. Queen Elizabeth II also received a Lipiza horse during her visit to Slovenia.
Source: Global Times