Spanish Riding School

Lipizzaner in regalia

One of the great tourist destinations in Vienna I wanted to take my family to was the Spanische Hofreitschule, or Spanish Riding school. Mom likes horses, and these are one-of-a-kind, pretty stinking cool horses. Tickets for a show are ridiculously expensive (on their website you can check price listings) but tickets to their morning exercises are relatively cheap by comparison. 

We did this, along with taking a tour of the stables, which are purportedly cleaner than most hotel rooms in Vienna. Since the horses are only trained and bred in Austria, they are well cared-for. 

performance ring

 The story of Lipizzaner is an interesting one. The name of the breed comes from the Slovenian town of Lipica, where the horses originated. Bred from Arabian stock, they were brought from Spain to Austria by the Habsburgs, specifically Maximilian II, in the 16th century. They were originally trained in a military capacity, but now are trained for the show.


Six original foundation stallions were bred in the 18th century, along with 20 mares, which means all the Lipizzaners in world can count one of these six stallions as an ancestor (if horses are into genealogy) and the stables make sure to include each of these stallions in the naming of the contemporary horses. It is curious to note that only stallions are allowed to be trained as Lipizzaner performers. Thing is, the presence of female horses would distract the boys too much while they're performing their exercises. In accordance, only men were traditionally allowed to become trainers and riders, but the Spanish Riding school decided to allow women to become trainers as well in 2009. There are currently three women Lipizzaner riders at the school.

performance hall

Another curiosity of the Spanish Riding School is that they prefer riders who have not had previous riding experience, since the skill set to perform with a Lipizzaner is so specific (and those training the horses may slip into old habits such as, God forbid, English standard rather than classical dressage) that preservation of the school is paramount. Those between the ages of 18 and 25 interested in a career as a rider may apply, providing adequate German language skills and minimal professional horse experience. A rider may be able to perform in five years, with little to no horse experience going in, so they can't be too old when they start.

 The performance hall was commissioned by Charles IV in 1729, and is really fit for an emperor! The floor is sand, which means the horses do not need to be shoe'd - in fact, putting shoes on them would hinder their performance, especially on the high jumps, etc. (Shoes throw off a horse's balance.) We did not get to see much at the Morning Exercises, unfortunately. But--they don't promise much, just what the horses and/or riders need to work on.

being led to stables

Another note: it may or may not be well known that all Lipizzaners are born black and slowly turn white as they grow and age. It takes about seven years for a horse to be trained (and for a rider to train them) and, although a horse may be technically proficient before--or in--seven years, he may not perform in the expensive evening show until he has turned completely white. Certain horses, due to inherent flukes in selective breeding, may never turn white. This is very rare, but tragically, a horse is not allowed to perform until he has become white.

Interesting fact: during World War II, the Spanish Riding school would have perished were it not for American General George S. Patton. (The Russians wanted to slaughter the horses for meat). He was a horse lover and petitioned to get the horses safely out of Vienna. His 60th anniversary rescue of the horses was recently celebrated by the Spanish Riding School. Not that this has sparked great love and admiration for Americans by the Viennese, but: Where there's a will, there's a way!

Vienna, by Contrast

Wednesday I got into Vienna. Still pretty tired, but wanted to look around the city.

So, I went to my hostel from Westbahnhof and, after depositing most of the luggage I had with me (THANK GOD) in a locker, I wandered around until I found the bus stop to get to my hostel.

But, of course, still being out of it, I needed a cup of coffee to stay awake long enough to get to my hostel without falling asleep on the bus or something & finding myself across town with no purse. So, I stopped at an outdoor cafe that served breakfast and had 2 cups. I think I ordered a Verlaengerte (a.k.a. Americano, if you're in Starbucks) with milk on the side. I wasn't quite sure how to get across what I wanted, especially since the owner (who was waiting on me) was Italian. Now that I know better, I can safely say there are about 30 different types of coffee one can order in Vienna alone.   

As I sat down, I happened to notice this sign across from my table: 

A long-lost relative working as a tax handler in Vienna?? Or maybe Weller is just a popular last name around here...I was tickled, at least.

 Once I got to the hostel, I was let in by the owner who was cleaning the place. And it looks really nice! With little leather rugs and parquet floors. There are 2 rooms with 8 beds in each. I'm sleeping on the top level, and it looks so nice I want to just crawl into bed right then. But, I feel like I will need to wait until the guy finishes cleaning, so I figure I and wander around for a couple of hours and then come back and nap.










<--  View of street from the room







I make it out to Museumsplatz & wander around snapping photos. I notice that the Volkstheater has some Neil Simon play on tonight, (Roses Geheimnis) so maybe I can enjoy some culture while I'm in the big city. The ticket is 9 euro, so, why the hell not?

Here are some of the photos I took while wandering around:

Natural History Museum

Statue of Maria Theresia (Hapsburg empress & mother of Marie Antoinette)
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<--  Memorial wall of Emperor Franz-Josef I (husband to infamously vain Empress-Consort Sissi)

Statue of St. Micheal in Michaelerplatz. There is one just like this in Paris in Place St. Michel. Now I wish I would have gone there to snap a photo while in Paris, just for comparison's sake.

More Michaelerplatz photos...

And, steps away, the Roman ruins of Vienna! I am such a sucker for Roman Ruins. This is what's left of some self-appointed provincial emperor's 2nd century underground central heating system:

And the remains of his garden privacy wall: 

Gotta keep those Barbarians out, you know.

And then I walked right into the Spanish Riding School stables! They allow tourists to come in during weekday afternoons. This is pretty awesome, as the school is one of the "finest examples of classical dressage" that exists in the world.

Also known as the world-famous Lippizaner  horses...purportedly the best-trained horses in the world! Emma Martinson, I hope this makes my blog worth following ;) I have a feeling if horses can't do it, nothing will.







And then I saw these two kissing (or whatever they're doing...maybe they're fighting) and got a picture! Well, maybe it is worrisome if they are kissing because the Lippizaner school only trains stallions...but perhaps we can think of it this way: Vienna is a very gay-friendly city, and this extends to it horse population.










This guy looked right at me! I had  to get a picture. Probably a little Casanova at heart.  -->

 After this, I walked back to the hostel and took an nice long nap before I went out to the theater. That didn't really help, though, because I ended up falling asleep through part (maybe most?) of the play. From what I gathered, this woman is a writer who is having writers block, and her husband or somebody dies, and then she sees his ghost or something. It was also a comedy, so I was kind of like, hey, I've seen Blithe Spirit. How different can it be from this one? Maybe when I'm better reseted, I can go back to Vienna and give the Volkstheater another chance.