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The Lipizzan in Slovenia . Because of their fame and their status as the only breed of horse native to Slovenia , Lipizzaners are considered one of the country's most beloved national symbols. BREED CHARACTERISTICS The typical horse of this breed measures between fourteen and sixteen hands. They are compact and muscular, with very powerful hindquarters, allowing it to do the difficult High School Dressage movements. They generally have a fairly large head, carried quite high, and a convex face. They have short cannons, their legs have good bone, and the breed has sloping shoulders.Their gaits are powerful and elastic, although perhaps not as flamboyant as some of the Warmblood breeds. They are naturally balanced, with excellent trainability, for which they are well-known, and are very intelligent. Aside from the rare solid colored horse (usually bay or black), all Lipizzans are gray. As with all gray horses, they are born dark and slowly lighten as the graying process takes place, resulting in a horse that looks white by the time they reach their teens. The Lipizzaner is a long-lived horse, used into its 20s. BREED HISTORY stud farm, Slovenia .]] The breed is founded on Spanish horses, from which the Spanish Riding School takes its name. In the 16th century, High School riding became the fashionable thing for European courts. In 1580, Archduke Charles II of Austria imported nine stallions and twenty-four mares from Spain. With these horses, most of them Andalusians , he established a stud in Lipizza to breed for mounts for High School Dressage. The stud continued to import Spanish horses, as well as Neapolitans from Italy, as the years went on. Today, all Lipizzaners trace to six stallions, all with Andalusian blood from horses imported in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These six stallions are:
Although today most Lipizzaners are gray, there were many, up until the 18th century, other common coat colors, including dun, bay, and spotted. Today, it is traditional for the Spanish Riding School to have one bay Lipizzaner in residence, and if there is none, it is thought to bring bad luck to the area. In 1735, Charles VI established the Spanish Riding School and recorded the bloodlines of the Lipizzaners. He also built a winter riding hall in the imperial palace in Vienna. World War II was a dangerous time for the Lipizzaners, and they had to be rescued by US troops. George S. Patton , a general in the United States Army , led the rescue. Only 250 horses remained. During World War II, the 2d Cavalry Group, Mechanized under the leadership of COL Charles H. Reed, conducted a raid behind Soviet lines to rescue the famous Lipizzaner Stallions. After 1945, Piber became the main stud for the horses used in Vienna. The breeding became very selective, only allowing stallions that had proved themselves at the Riding School and mares that had passed rigorous performance testing. In 2005, the Spanish Riding School celebrated the 60th anniversary of George S. Patton 's heroic rescue by touring the United States. THE MODERN LIPPIZZANER Today, the breed is rare, with only about 3,000 horses registered. However, their numbers are increasing, with Lipizzaners bred around the world. The purebreds are excellent harness horses, as are the crossbreds. In Slovenia, stallions are used for dressage displays, and are crossed with local farm mares to make good agricultural horses. Of course, the horses shine in Classical Dressage , performing the High School "airs above the ground" with ease. And the Lipizzan stallions are the only horses still used by the Spanish Riding School. A pair of Lipizzaners will be featured on the new Slovenian Euro Coins . THE "AIRS" The "airs above the ground" are what the Lipizzaners are known for. They include:
Other moves include the Piaffe , pirouette, flying changes, extended movements, and other Classical Dressage movements. LIPPIZANER IN POPULAR CULTURE The motion picture entitled ''Miracle of the White Stallions'' (1963) depicted the Spanish Riding School and the rescue of its horses from invading Nazi forces by General George S. Patton. It starred Eddie Albert, Curd Jürgens, Lilli Palmer, James Franciscus, and Robert Taylor. It was directed by Arthur Hiller. The motion picture ''Florian'' (1940) was based on a novel written in 1934 by Felix Salton , the author of ''Bambi'' (1942). The story is set in the 1880s and tells how two young lovers met through their love of horses. The movie was directed by Edwin L. Marin and scripted by Noel Langley and James Kevin McGuinness. Its producer, Winfield Sheehan, owned the only Lipizzan horses in the U.S. at the time. The movie is not currently available. Used copies of the book are often available online. '' White Horses '' was a 1965 television series co-produced by RTS of Yugoslavia and BR-TV of Germany, and also broadcast in the United Kingdom. It followed the adventures of a teenage girl who visits a farm where white Lipizzaner horses are raised. In the climax of the submarine thriller Crimson Tide , Capt. Frank Ramsey asks Lt. Cmdr. Ron Hunter if he's ever seen Lippizaner stallions while both are waiting for a critical incoming radio transmission. Ramsey asserts that they are white, from Portugal, and are the "most highly trained horses in the world." Hunter, who rides horses, retorts that they are in fact from Spain and are born black. In the Denouement , Ramsey admits his error. REFERENCES
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