The History of the Lipizzaner and the Spanish Riding School and the Art of Classical Dressage
The history of the horse is intertwined intimately with human history, so closely together that they are one. Less than one hundred years ago, all modern civilizations relied on the horse for transportation, for work, and to fill spots within the military. Today this is not remembered. We think of horses as large nuisances that stink and belong out of our cities and even on dinner plates. People do not care that our American Mustangs are no longer protected by the Bureau of Land Management, who can be removed from public land and sent to slaughter for consumption or placed in glue. This is how we now treat these magnificent animals, which gave themselves for our selfish needs.
The horse’s greatest contribution would be as a warhorse, and in an effort to have efficient warhorses, a new form of training would be developed. The top thinker of this era would be the general of the Greek Cavalry, Xenophon, who wrote the book, Hippike, translated to be The Art of Horsemanship, which is still in existence today with his methods as popular as ever.[1] Today, we know this training to be the foundation of dressage, a word taken from the French verb dresser, which means to train, to adjust, or to straighten-out. Dressage grew for the intention of producing easily controlled horses that would be assets for army cavalries. The Greeks discovered that a quiet and civilized approach obtained the cooperation of the powerful horses and produced the best results.
Over the centuries and right up to present day, dressage has developed in different ways in different countries, and in different stages in different times. A pattern does suggest that dressage has only flourished in advanced civilizations and cultures, where patience, intelligence, and aesthetic sensitivity are at a high.[2] During the Dark and Middle Ages, dressage would sink into a lull and would not resurrect until the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries of the Renaissance Period in Italy. The dressage we know today came from this period. The credit belongs to Frenchman François de la Guérinière, who while working at
The Spanish Riding School can trace its roots back to 1729 when Emperor Charles VI, of the Hapsburg dynasty, ordered the school to be built. The school gained its name from the highly prized Spanish-descendent horses used within the school. The history of the horses goes back to 1580, when Archduke Charles II founded a Royal stud at Lipizza. Charles began importing Andalusian stallions, from the region Andalusia in Spain, and crossing them with the native Karst mares, now an extinct breed.[3] Over the next three hundred years, other breeds were also imported and crossed. Most notably the Neapolitan, an Italian breed that today is also extinct, along with Kladrubers and Fredericksborgs. The latter two breeds are also descents of the Andalusian and closely related to today’s Lipizzaner. Pure Andalusian and Barb horses were also used as foundation breeding stock.[4] Later on Arabians would be introduced with great success, as well as other breeds like the Thoroughbred with little success.
The Hapsburg’s came to Austria in 1276. It would take another two-hundred years for the country to rise up as a major European country with a strong monarchy. Originally German, the Hapsburg’s took their name from Habichtsburg, a castle which stood at the Aar and Rhine in present day Switzerland. The first Imperial Hapsburg, Rudolph I, was crowned King of the Germans at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1273.[5] Rudolph came to power after being elected to the position from Count after the death of Emperor Richard of Cornwall, son of King John of England. Known as a shadow emperor, the German Electors held a counter-election and picked Alphonso of Castile as their new ruler. Pope Gregory X, while revising the previous pope’s policies, refused to recognize Alphonso. Gregory gave orders to the German-Electors to pick a new ruler or he would do so for them. They came back with Count Rudolph of Hapsburg.[6] With Rudolph they had a strong leader with a long history of fighting behind him. He repeatedly put down bandits that terrorized the peasants in the countryside. When Rudolph made a plan he stuck with it, with large plans he knew how to implement them.
While Rudolph was being elected the new ruler, a smug Emperor from Bohemia was expecting the title. Ottocar Przemysl II was the last of the Slav Kingdom, more powerful than any of the German princes. He had built up a large empire in Central and Eastern Europe, from the Croatia on the Adriatic in the south to the Baltic in the north. Ottocar had recently seized Austria along with the providences that made up Charlemagne’s Ostmark. He had contempt for Rudolph for his refusal to recognize him as an emperor and paying his dues. This would be the beginning of the long conflict between the German Austrians and the Slavs.[7] Rudolph and Ottocar had a previous relationship that dated back to the crusade against the Prussians, where Rudolph served under Ottocar. Rudolph rose up an army smaller than Ottocar’s and on the battlefield of Marchfeld, killed Ottocar himself. As a reward for his support Carinthia went to Count Meinhardt of Tyrol. The rest of the lands were divided up between Rudolph’s two sons. Rudolph had secured the empire and the crown for his son Albert. When Albert died in 1308, the Hapsburg crown would take over a hundred years for it to rise up again under Maximilian I.[8]
Son of Frederick III, elected emperor in 1440, Maximilian was born in 1459. He would marry Marie of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Rash of Burgundy. After the death of Charles and the threat of being taken by France’s Louis XI, Marie and Maximilian were married. Maximilian came into a large inheritance and was forced to fight for Burgundy. Not a good leader in battle, which often resulted from threats or in the heat of a moment and not always well planned. Maximilian had a zest for life, enjoyed poetry and music, establishing the Vienna Singing Boys. He was all things to all men.[9] Maximilian knew the future of the Hapsburgs lied in the marriages of his children and grandchildren. He and Marie had two children, Philip and Margaret. With the death of his wife Marie and the tension between Burgundy and France. A deal was made with the disputed land under France’s control would stay with France and infant Margaret would be handed over as a perceptive bride with her a dowry of Burgundy land. The deal fell threw. Maximilian got son Philip back and sent to his grandmother, Margaret of York. Daughter Margaret, for a time being, was lost to Maximilian.[10] With no time to grieve, Maximilian was called back to Austria by his father and crowned King of the Romans. After the ceremonies, Maximilian returned to Flanders where he was met by unrest, seized and placed under horse rest for four months. His release came when seventy-year-old Frederick marched into the city with an army, demanding the release of his son.
Maximilian was determined to marry again and betrothed himself to fifteen-year-old Anne of Brittany. Anne was the heiress to the remote Atlantic duchy which had managed to keep the French at bay. On hearing the news, the acting regent of France ordered her brother, Dauphin Charles to go capture her for himself. Without troop or supplies Maximilian could not go after her, instead his daughter Margaret, who was betrothed to the Dauphin, was returned to him. Margaret then married John of Spain. Son Philip married John sister, Joanna of Spain. Both siblings were the children of Isabella of Castile and León and Ferdinand of Aragon. Tragedy struck these marriages. John died after only eighteen months of being married, leaving no heir. Joanna had four children and suffered from madness. After Philip died, she spent fourteen-years looking over into his open coffin believing he would come back to life. Her first four children were sent to her sister-in-law, Margaret for her raise them in Malines. Her fifth, Ferdinand I, remained in Spain to be raised.[11]
Ferdinand went to Hungry to fulfill a promise to marry the twenty-five year-old Princess Ann of Hungry made by his grandfather, Maximilian. He would become emperor from 1556 to 1564. They would have three sons, oldest Maximilian II, Archduke Ferdinand, and Archduke Charles II. Ferdinand would divide up his inheritance for his sons, Maximilian II would get Austria above and below the Enns River. Archduke Ferdinand got the Tyrol and Western Austria. Finally Charles II would inherit Styria, Carinthia, Gorizia, and Friuli, as the Inner Austria. As members of the influential Hapsburg family, Charles II and Maximillian, both set forth to establish Royal studs in their kingdoms. On May 19, 1580, the Lipizza Stud officially opened and shortly thereafter, the first horses from Spain were imported, nine stallions and twenty-four mares.[12] Maximillian would set up the Kladrub Stud in Northern Austria and develop the Kladruber breed, a heavier version of the Lipizzan.
The Lipizzan, depending on ones origin, the breed may also be spelt Lipizzaner, Lippizan, or Lippizaner, is a special breed of horse, who can trace their roots back to the Spanish Andalusian from Andalusia. With selective breeding for more than two hundred years for a gentleness and schooling ability, a new breed emerged to take its name from the Lippiza Stud Farm located within the Austrian Empire. Today, all “true” Lipizzaners belong to one of six dynasties whose founding sires are, Pluto, a white Spanish stallion born at the Danish Royal Stud Farm in 1765. Conversano, a black stallion born in 1767. Napolitano, a bay stallion born in 1790. Favory, a dun Andalusian stallion born in 1779. Maestoso, a white Andalusian stallion born in 1819. Siblavy, a white Arabian stallion born in 1810. All of today’s Lipizzaner closely resemble each other by standing a short height of 14.2 to 15.3 hands high (four-feet seven-inches to five-feet one-inch at their back). They appear noble, with an arched neck, and dark expressive eyes. They have a long back, with a rounded muscled rump and strong legs. Above all else, very few Lipizzaners do not inherit their trademark coat color of pure white in adulthood.[13]
The Royal Stud of Lipizza continued to flourish after Charles II, under his son Emperor Ferdinand II and later Emperor Joseph I. For the purpose of importing more horses from Spain, the existing stalls were enlarged in the eighteenth century. Joseph II saw to it that improving the breed meant careful and deliberate breeding. Emperor Leopold I saw to it that the entire studbook and administration was reorganized. Leopold also issued twenty-three articles of his comprehensive “Instructions for Our Stud-master at Lipizza in the Karst, the Faithful and Esteemed Peter Franz Rainer, to be Followed by Him.”[14] Emperor Charles VI would gain more land for the stud and have built the
The first mention of a riding school was on September 20, 1565. A document mentions a sum of one-hundred gulden “for the laying out of a riding arena in the gardens adjacent to the palace.”[15] An order dated on August 20, 1572, with orders of twenty logs to the governor of the palace at Ebersdorf bei Wien was the first documentation of a name, the Spanish Riding Hall. No record of how the stables looked, with Leopold I took the throne he brought the baroque style with him. Charles VI began an ambitious building plan, his biggest with the winter riding school completed September 17, 1735.[16] The school is four stories tall, with rows of double columns along the façade. The roof is steep and crowned by a cupola. Most impressive is the “austerely elegant interior of the manége.”[17] Inside it is 180-feet long, 59-feet wide, 56-feet tall, and completely white. At one end the royal court sits and at the other is where the riders enter. The hall was used for formal affairs, political meetings, and for entertainment. The hall was also used for untended purposes as in concerts, balls, and exhibitions when a wooden floor would be placed down.[18]
The goal for the school and the reason behind it was a place to train horses for use in the military. The Lipizzaners as a breed had already proven they were brave, they were trained to be trusting and willing to do anything asked of them. All the horses were trained in the same manner, they were always stallions, and training never started before the age of four. Stallions were used, and still are, because they are considered to be brave. The mares were used solely as carriage horses or broodmares. When the time came the young horses would started out on a long line, called longeing, with the chief goals of mental relaxation and physical coordination. Working with the horses in this manner gave the opportunity for the animal to familiarize themselves with new surroundings, to distinguish training aids, those for aiding and punishing. The horse needed to place its faith in the handler. Working on a line going in a circle, the horse learned how to maintain its balance. In that same first year of riding, the horse would be introduced to a rider on his back for the first time. Training then moved to forward riding, going forward in the natural position of the horse. It was responsiveness, suppleness, and the readiness to cooperate that the horse was learning now. The horse needed to be able to relax with a rider on his back. It became required that the horse walk on a loose rein, and in the trot and canter to move forward in a straight line.[19]
The second to third year of training had emphasis on impulsion, collection and suppleness. Eventually the hind legs should come under the horse more. The more under himself he came, the more light he was on the front end. How much the horse came under himself would determine if his training would continue to the Haut École and the airs above ground movements. If the horse did not pass, he would become either a stable pony or go to work as a carriage horse.[20] If the horse did pass he would move on to his third to fourth years in training. By now the horse would be around the age of nine, he would be absolutely supple in any gait, all figures, and any jump asked of him. On the ground he could perform any gait asked the piaffe, passage, and flying leads on every other lead. His ultimate training would now begin with the “airs above the ground.”[21]
The “airs above the ground” consist of a horse lifts his front end along, or front end along with his back end off the ground. These movements stem from military battle, a “levade” could put fear into the enemy and give troops courage. The “capriole” could save a rider from being attacked from behind, as his horse would leap up into the air and violently kick out behind him. The “courbette” would be used to break up a line of advancing soldiers, as the horse while on his hind legs would leap forward on his haunches. The “croupade” to save the rider from cannon fire, as the horse would leap up into the air with his legs tucked tightly under him.
Royal families in Europe were not just setting up laws, conquering land and people, and going to war. They were establishing Royal studs that in an effect developed new breeds of horses that are still around today.
Dressage as we know it today still has that old world feel to it. Very much like poetry in motion, fine classical music, or a biblical portrait. It soothes the senses and leaves the viewer in awe of what they just witnessed. It takes years to master dressage, for both the horse and rider. Requires patience, discipline, and an unwavering love for it. For a horse it can take up to fifteen years before they reach the highest levels of training. A rider it can take an entire lifetime. The horse and rider teams need to be well suited together, a deep partnership needs to be formed, and often times they know each other better than anyone else.
Today’s dressage no longer requires the leaps and jumps found in the Spanish Riding School. The movements are now regulated to be seen only in special performances by the Spanish Riding School itself, or in the traveling shows not officially associated with the school. The reason would be there is simply no need to do such movements anymore, that it requires too much from the horse, and the riders and trainers lack the know how. We have gone away from the traditional teachings of the Spanish Riding School, we still see and appreciate what they do, even if we cannot duplicate. It is due to the dedication the Hapsburg family had for their horses, today there is less than 3,000 Lipizzaners in the world. Charles VI opening the Spanish Riding School. The Americans aid in getting the horses back to the school during World War II. Finally to the men and women who study and bring to life the Classical Horsemanship envisioned by Xenophon in 462B.C. Without any of these people, these magnificent animals and the classical training would have been forever lost.
[1] Windisch-Graetz, Mathilde. The Spanish Riding School: Its Traditions and Development from the Sixteenth Century until Today. (London: Cassell London: Cassell, 1958), 19.
[2] Edward, Elwyn Hartley, ed. Encyclopedia of the Horse. (New York: Crescent Books, 1977), 90.
[3] Pavia, Audrey. “Grace Under Pressure,” Horse Illustrated, 28 December 2004, 71.
[4] McBane, Susan, and Helen Douglas-Cooper. Horse Facts. (New York: Dorset Press,
1990), 112 – 113.
[5] Crankshaw, Edward. The Hapsburgs: Portrait of a Dynasty. (New York: The Viking
Press, 1971), 13.
[6] Ibid., 15.
[7] Ibid., 19.
[8] Ibid., 21.
[9] Ibid., 38.
[10] Ibid., 40 – 41.
[11] Ibid., 49 – 52.
[12] Hander, Hans. The Spanish Riding School, 16 – 17.
[13] McBane, Susan, and Helen Douglas-Cooper. Horse Facts. 112 – 113.
[14] Ibid., 20.
[15] Hander, Hans. The Spanish Riding School, 79.
[16] Windisch-Graetz, Mathilde. The Spanish Riding School, 30.
[17] Hander, Hans. The Spanish Riding School, 92.
[18] Ibid., 97, 100, 109 – 112.
[19] Ibid., 152 – 155.
[20] Ibid., 156 – 162.
[21] Ibid., 163 – 179.
[22] McBane, Susan, and Helen Douglas-Cooper. Horse Facts. 105.
[23] Ibid., 106 – 107.
[24] Ibid., 110.
[25] Ibid., 106.
Terms
The levels of dressage vary as training persists, in the United States these levels were set by committees of the American Horse Show Association, AHSA, and the United States Dressage Federation, USDF, with ten levels:
Training Level: Movements include twenty meter circles in the trot and canter, halt, free walk, medium walk, change rein across the diagonal in the trot, trot rising and sitting, and serpentines on the centerline in the trot.
First Level: Movements include halt, medium walk, free walk, halt to medium walk, 10 meter circle in the trot, lengthen stride in trot sitting and rising, full arena serpentines in the trot, leg yielding, lengthen stride in canter, fifteen meter canter circles, change of leads through trot, and serpentines on the center line in the counter canter.
Leg Yielding: Sideways movements in which the horse moves away from the rider’s leg aid. The horse should remain straight in the body, except for a very slight inclination away from the direction in which he is traveling.
Counter Canter: Canter around the arena or on a circle when the horse leads with the outside foreleg.
Second Level: Movements include working, collected, and medium trot, shoulder-in, halt, rein-back, working, collected and medium canter, walk to canter, ten meter circles in canter, half turn on haunches in the walk, and transition of canter to walk to canter.
Shoulder-In: Requires more bend and collection from the horse. The hind legs remain on the original track, and the forelegs are brought inward on to a separate, parallel, but overlapping track. The horse is bent away from the direction of movement.
Rein-Back: Backing the horse five steps in a straight line. The horse should not show any resistance, with the steps fluid.
Third Level: Movements include regular, medium, and extended walk, collected, extended, and medium canter, full arena serpentines with no change of lead, canter half pass, a flying lead change, collected, medium and extended trot, trot half pass, and eight meter circle in trot.
Half Pass: A forward and sideways movement on two tracks, in which the horse is very slightly bent through the length of his body in the direction in which he is going. May be performed in any gait.
Flying Lead Changes: While cantering at the rider’s request, the horse jumps from one canter leading leg to the other during the moment of suspension in the pace.
Fourth Level: Movements include medium to collected to medium trot, Halt-back-trot, half pirouette in the walk, collected walk, serpentine in the canter with flying lead changes, counter canter, flying lead changes every fourth stride, flying lead changes every third stride, quarter and half canter pirouettes.
Half-Pirouettes: A 180º turn, in which the horse steps around the inside hind leg without stopping, his body flexed in the direction of the movement. Seen at the walk or canter.
FEI Prix St. George: Performs medium, collected, and extended paces with half-passes, flying lead changes every third stride, and a half-pirouettes at the canter.
Pirouettes: A 360º degree turn, the horse executes the circle in one fluent movement without stopping, and the diameter of the circle should be approximately equal to the horse’s body length.
FEI Intermédiare I: Includes flying lead changes at every second stride and full canter pirouettes to the left and right.
FEI Intermédiare II: Includes flying lead changes every other stride and a few steps of piaffe.
Piaffe: An advanced movement in which the horse remains on the spot, lifting his legs in two-time in a springy, cadenced trot.
Grand Prix: Movements required include, passage, piaffe, flying lead changes at every stride, full pirouettes at the canter, and all schooling gaits. Seen at top competitions Nationally and Internationally.
Passage: An advanced dressage movement in which the horse springs forward in a very slow, cadenced trot, the moment of suspension being increased by the high, slowly executed steps.
Haute Ecole: The classical art of riding and training, in its highest form it includes the Airs Above Grounds, generally only practiced today by the Lipizzaners and the riders at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Also known as high school.
Airs Above Grounds: Advanced movement performed by the horses trained in the art of haute école. Horses trained in the art of dressage are not expected to perform these movements. Levade, courbette, croupade, and capriole.
Levade: The horse must maintain a haunched position at a 45º angle to the ground, requiring muscle control and perfection of balance. The horse raises its forehand off the ground, bending its forelegs, and remains motionless, with its hind legs deeply bent under him.
Courbette: The horse assumes the levade position, then takes a series of jumps forward on his hind legs while his front legs are off the ground.
Croupade: The jump is similar to the capriole, in this maneuver the horse tucks both his fore and hind legs under his body at the height of elevation.
Capriole: The horse raises its forelegs off the ground with the hocks deeply bent, then jumps forward with the body horizontal, then kicks out violently with his hind legs. The most famous of all the movements, with the horse approximately six-feet off the ground.
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