"The Wonderful World of Horses," featuring the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions, aristocrats of the equestrian world, will come to Salt Lake City on Friday, May 15. The performance by 15 star horses and riders will take place at 8 p.m. in the city's king-size Delta Center. The show, which emulates the Spanish Riding School, is in its 22nd year.
"Besides Vienna's Spanish Riding School, we have the only internationally recognized troupe of touring Lipizzaner stallions, and our aim is entertainment all the way," said producer Gary Lashinsky. "We make our show theatrical, geared to a family audience. You don't have to be a horseman to enjoy it."Lashinsky, the force behind the Royal Lipizzaners in America, went to Austria in 1968 and 1969 to begin accumulating a herd. He bought horses from Austria's prestigious Piber stud farm and from the Spanish Riding School, and from that beginning has grown a herd of about 40 horses, including two performing troupes of 15 each, and horses in training.
The stallions are born performers, said Lashinsky. "When the lights do down and they hear the music, they are ready for it, they stand in their stalls dancing the piaffe step," he said. "They are the prima ballerinas of the equine world."
Indeed, dressage is very much akin to ballet in its demands for balance, grace and control, and such terms as "airs above the ground," "capriole," "courbette," "croupade," "piaffe" and "pirouette" are closely related to or even carried over from French ballet vocabulary. Some program entries are billed as pas de deux, pas de trois and pas de quatre.
Each year's show is different but comprises the same steps rearranged; and the music is all classical or traditional marches, said Lashinsky.
A Lipizzaner stallion begins training at three years, and spends six months with saddle only on the long line, getting used to orders. After he becomes accustomed to a rider, it takes four to six years to train to the highest level, so a show stallion is at least 10 years old. "From that point, we see if they have the talent to learn airs above the ground and the more difficult feats," said Lashinsky.
"Airs above the ground" is a series of spectacular leaps and maneuvers, once used by riders to protect and defend themselves in battle. These stallions' ancestors were the "smart bombs" of cavalry, trained to remarkable feats, which are now carried over into exhibition dressage.
America's whole Lipizzaner contingent, training and all, is headquartered at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. While one unit tours to as many as 140 cities annually in the United States and Canada, the other is in residence at the Excalibur as a permanent attraction, though spectators may not observe the highstrung animals in training.
The forerunner of the Lipizzaner may have been bred in Carthage more than 2,000 years ago - combining the Vilano, a sturdy Pyrenees horse, with Arab and Barbary strains. The result was the fabled horse of ancient Spain, and for 700 years under Moorish rule, the breed remained essentially the same. Later, fine breeding was done in Denmark and Italy, producing classic strains.
The Lipizzaners as such date back to Archduke Maximilian, Emperor of Austria, who began breeding Spanish horses in about 1562. The herd was soon quartered at Lipizza, near Trieste - dry, craggy country, where the horses thrived, building endurance, strength and speed. They became the horse of the nobility, trained for battle.
Lipizzaners are long-lived, living 30 to 35 years on average. They are usually born black and change slowly over a period of six to 10 years to their final, pure white color.
The Lipizzaners have frequently been endangered as spoils of warfare. Most recently, General George Patton rescued them in the shaky times following World War II, when they were in danger of becoming horsemeat for hungry refugees, or being carried captive into Russia. Patton was able to return them to Vienna. Walt Disney depicted the rescue in "The Miracle of the White Stallions."
Tickets for the show are $11.50 and $13.50, children 12 and under and seniors 60 and over $2 less per ticket. They may be purchased at the Delta Center box office or all Smith'sTix outlets.