Nevermind the people in the funky costumes, the Lipizzaner
Stallions show is all about the horses.
Nevermind the people in the funky costumes, the Lipizzaner Stallions show is all about the horses.
The horses will leap, dance and execute a variety of maneuvers as part of the performance at the San Benito County Fairgrounds that shows off their beauty and precision.
This is the 34th year of the stallions’ show, but it’s the 426th year the breed has been around.
Pampered and pretty, the lipizzaner horses are descended from the Spanish Andalusian horses, which were brought to Lipizza, a then-Austrian town near Trieste, Italy, so the royal family could develop a better dressage horse. Dressage is the term that refers to guiding a horse through a set of maneuvers without the perceptible use of reins, hands, legs, etc.
The Andalusians in Lipizza were then crossbred with the horses that were already there, resulting in a “stocky, yet graceful” horse, said Troy Tinker, the master of ceremonies for the show.
“They also had a center of gravity that enabled them to do these leaps and jumps,” he said.
Those leaps and jumps served the horses well in battle, frightening their opponents and enabling them to deliver deadly kicks.
The horses were also used for battle reenactments over the centuries and, because of their beauty, to carry nobility and the military elite.
About 150 years after the horses were brought to Lipizza, the famed Spanish Riding School decided to replace its Andalusians with Lipizzaner horses. The show coming to San Benito still gets some of its horses from the school.
The horses go through training on a farm in Florida, and the show has 46 total, including mares and foals. Only about 13 stallions are included in any one show. The horses are given special food and accommodation to keep them healthy and performing.
“They’re very pampered,” Tinker said. “They’re our livelihood, and they’re very expensive to replace.”
The horses, which live 30 to 35 years, are usually born dark brown or black and change over six to 10 years to their final snowy color. About one in 600 of the horses will never change color, Tinker said.
“It’s considered a good luck charm to have a dark Lipizzaner in your stable at all times,” he said. “And the reason for that was any time there was a dark lipizzaner in the stables, Austria was at peace, and whenever there wasn’t, Austria was at war.”
The horses go through years of training, and travel for six months to a year without performing just to get used to being on the road. But, Tinker said, they seem to enjoy it.
“They know they’re performing; they enjoy the attention,” he said. “When they retire, it’s a difficult adjustment for them.”
The Lipizzaner stallions show begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 22. The show will be held at the San Benito Country Fairgrounds in Hollister. Tickets are $19.50 for adults; for children 12 and younger and seniors 60 and older, they are $17.50. For more information, call (831) 628-3421 or visit www.tickets.com.
Colleen Valles can be reached at 408-842-6400 or at cvalles@
gilroydispatch.com
