I confess. I fell in love with the Lippizans as a child, when I watched the Disney movie about the rescue of the Lippizans by the American Army headed by General George Patton and then director Alois Podhojsky, code name "Operation Cowboy." Finally, I got to visit Vienna, Austria, a fabulously beautiful city, full of art, music and culture. And the famous Lippizan stallions that make their home at the Spanish Riding School located in its center, are no less a work of art. Produced from centuries of selective breeding and years of intensive training, they are magnificent. Though the public performances were ceased for the season, I was able to observe a morning training session with several sets of stallions in different stages of their training. The stallions are sent from the Piber Stud to Vienna to begin their training when they are five years of age. There are now three women riders at the school, which is a recent development; previously only men were allowed as riders.
I was lucky enough to be treated to a private tour of the "backstage" riding school by Dr. Max Dobretsberger, the current director of the Piber Stud. He was in Vienna to discharge his duties as the veterinarian who oversees the health care of the Lippizans both at the stud farm and in Vienna. "But," he said, "there is little to do as a veterinarian because they are such sturdy, healthy horses and very little goes wrong with them." The strength and soundness of their blemish-free legs amazed me. When you see the levade, capriolle and other high school movements performed you'd think there would be leg issues, but their mountainside rearing pastures, gradual training and rigorous selection no doubt accounts for their soundness.
The most difficult part of their training is the mental aspect. They are confined to box stalls (roomy and well-ventilated) for 23 hours per day, being out of them only to walk on a recently-installed automatic walker and to be trained in the main riding hall. The Spanish Riding School occupies a relatively small section of the Hofburg Palace, in the very center of Vienna, and there is no place for even a small turnout paddock. So, selecting for a temperament amenable to such confinement is an important part of the  breeding selection. The expression of "stallion" behavior is also not desirable nor allowed; all of the stallions I viewed in their stalls and in the riding ring were really calm and quiet. They acted more like geldings than some of the geldings I've known!
After the tour of the stables I was driven by Dr. Budik from the University of Vienna Veterinary School to the Piber Stud, about 150 miles south of Vienna, for a tour of the breeding farm where the famous white stallions are born. Speaking of white, there are now two gorgeous bay stallions at the riding school. In former times, there were also chestnuts, duns and leopard-spotted Lippizans. Dr. Dobrethberger expressed a fondness for the colors, but only the white stallions perform in public. There is a breeding project in development whereby the leopard-spotted Lippizans will be "recreated" from the baroque-style Knabstruppers of Denmark. These horses were once raised at Piber, then migrated to Denmark and formed the Knabstrupper breed. Both breeds descend from the classical horses of Spain and Portugal. Bent Branderup of Denmark has trained several Knabstruppers in the classical movements and these are the horses being considered for reintegration into the Lippizan program. A look at them easily convinces that they are indeed the descended from Lippizans.
Dr. Sven Budik, who arranged my private tours and took me to Piber, raises the critically endangered Furioso horses. His family has almost single-handedly preserved the breed from only four mares. At one time the Furiosos were also raised at Piber but were removed from the breeding program many decades ago during a financial crisis and were dispersed throughout Europe. I arranged an importation of semen from his stallion, Furioso Morgana, to the United States last year, where it was used to inseminate a mare with a complimentary bloodline he is hoping will result in a filly that he can bring back to Europe. The Furiosos (no relation to the Anglo Norman Furioso II of warmblood fame) can use Thoroughbred and Arabian and Trakehner blood only. They trace back to the Radautz Stud and contain the blood of the famous Ramzes. Dr. Budik was excited to find the Grand Prix showjumper Bonaparte N AA on my stallion roster and plans to use him in his breeding program. His prized Shagya blood is important in the Furioso breed. A few Furiosos found their way to America. Anyone with knowledge of them or Hungarian horses in North American is asked to please contact Dr. Budik with the information.
I met with the director of the veterinary school equine division, Prof. Dr. Christine Aurich, and made an arrangement to bring semen from two Shagya stallions to the USA for 2014 (more on that later) and also from the Brandenburg Stud in Neustadt-Dosse, whose semen the university prepares. In addition to the esteemed Quaterback, I will be importing several other of their stallions in the coming years.
Dr. Budik is doing cutting edge research in cloning and embryo transfer and assured me it will soon be possible to import frozen embryos from Europe for implantation into mares in North America with a reasonable live foal rate.
Another interesting and exciting development is the possible repatriation of frozen semen from some US Lippizans which were exported from Austria in the 1960s. Because the gene pool is so limited, the Piber Stud would like to obtain some bloodlines back which have been lost from Piber. This project and the search for descendants of the Furiosos is something I look forward to in the future. It's why I travel! So much to learn and so many opportunities to meet equine experts from around the world.