All the pretty white horses

Aah well we got there eventually and in time for some snacks and a quick cocktail before the Lipizzaner show. As being not very knowledgeable on the Lipizzaner history or training I think perhaps some part of the routine was lost on me. I was under the impression that the horses wore feathered hats, no that's circus horses as Julia somewhat horrified at my ignorance told me. Besides my lack of knowledge it was still quite remarkable to see what the horses could do and all the time being so precise and synchronised. The event was also a crash course on the Lipizzaner history as well as history in general; I believe apartheid, hippies and the invention of Velcro was mentioned in between routines somewhat bizarrely by one of the four Lipizzaner directors who did a bit of a wizard of Oz on us by hiding behind that curtain the whole time.

And now I will hand you over to Julia who is into horses and would probably do better justice to this review.

For the horsey types reading this… *what a beautiful sight*. I have never been fortunate enough to see the horses perform in Vienna, but I must admit, I was very impressed with the performance of our very own South African Lipizzaner team from Gauteng. The stunning stallions were lead out by hand and we were first shown the ‘Airs above ground'. These are movements performed without a rider and are extremely difficult. It takes about 7 years to train up a fully fledged Quadrille horse that can perform all the movements perfectly. The more spectacular of these being the Courbette ( the horse assumes a rearing position and hops forward on his hind legs) and the Capriole ( where the horse leaps straight up into the air and kicks out with his hind legs before landing perfectly).

We were then introduced to the training methods for riders, the younger stallions in training and were shown the beautiful movements that these horses effortlessly perform, finally ending in the full quadrille, 'The ballet of the white horses', an impressive final display of the horses beauty, obedience, strength and bond with his rider.