At 8.30 every morning ten dedicated riders arrive at the Lipizzaner Centre to work with thirty-five stallions, striving to train them using the same methods that the "Masters of the Art of High School Riding" have used for centuries. Lipizzaners were bred over four hundred years ago to take their riders into battle. The movements they learned for this purpose are today only performed for aesthetic purposes, but the training remains the same.
The temperament of these stallions is as diverse as the personalities of the riders who train them. Even though it is no longer a "life-and-death" situation, the responsibility of the rider to train and produce the stallion in her care is as great as fostering a child. The stallion's ability and enthusiasm to work and to learn new concepts is astonishing. The rider asks, the horse co-operates, the rider pressurises, the horse tries harder, the rider asks the impossible, the horse gives her his all.
Few will be fortunate enough to realise that working with these wonderful stallions goes far beyond merely training movements that many before us have mastered. With great appreciation for all he has given us in twenty years at the Centre, one of our top stallions, Siglavy Mars, now aged twenty-six was retired. I watched the proud stallion being led out to the large paddock where he would now spend his last years. I was convinced this was the way it was meant to be. Ten months later I watched with shock as the shell of this, once proud, stallion shuffled into the courtyard for his lunch time feed. The lack of importance and the need to belong had turned him into an old man. It was his devotion and unconditional love for his trainer that made him who he was. Not our ability to train horses.
The performances mean different things to different people. Children squeal with delight at the thought that the Capriole was designed to decapitate foot soldiers. Grandpa just wants to stroke the neck of a horse while he relives his war days, music lovers enjoy the Baroque music to which the movements are choreographed, dressage enthusiasts enjoy commenting on the quality of each movement and some people just want to get away from town for a little while. These are also the reasons why we at the Centre love, enjoy and train these magnificent animals. All in the name of preserving the art of Classical Riding. Or so I thought.
After one Sunday performance, I took a blind visitor to one of our stallions so that he could stroke his neck. The horse sniffed his cheek and then gave him a slobbery lick across his face. I wanted to apologise, thinking that the horse might have startled him. "I cannot remember when last any stranger reached out to me with such spontaneity", he said, as tears welled up in his blank, staring eyes.
At eight thirty every morning ten dedicated riders arrive at the Lipizzaner Centre to work with thirty five stallions, and at twelve thirty ten riders leave with a profound appreciation for life!
Our three babies (they will have to progress to juniors soon as we have more new babies), Favory Presciana, Favory Modena, and Favory Eldora have all come a long way in the last few months.
They have been quite a "mixed bunch". F. Presciana is very nervous and tends to frighten himself and has had to be taken very slowly - he is now happily trotting round the arena. He has taken longer than the average horse but is an example of how quiet, continual patient work does eventually pay off. Favory Eldora had a different problem. He tries very hard but had an unlevelness in his quarters which was diagnosed as a conformational problem in his hips. He was not in pain and had to be worked to strengthen the muscles. He now shows hardly any unlevelness. Favory Modena has progresssed most as he had no problems to overcome. He has been pretty much trained “by the book”. He takes his work very seriously and has already ventured outside the school to go on short outrides.
Maestoso Ergo is living proof that Lipizzaners always continue to learn. He reminds us of the old saying "age is mind over matter - if you don't mind, it doesn't matter".
He came to our Centre at the age of 19, almost three years ago. He was born at the Lipizzaner stud farm in Natal, by the Piber-bred stallion that was imported from the Spanish Riding School, Maestoso Palmira. He was sold as a youngster to the Kitchen family and he spent a wonderful life going on outrides, and attending some Jumping shows. He brought home rosettes from some of these shows, once from the 3'6" class (this may explain why he pops over logs on our Saturday outrides with such confidence). As we had only one stallion of the Maestoso line at the Centre, Maestoso Ella, we jumped at the chance to acquire him when Mrs Kitchen's son, Ashley, outgrew him. When he arrived it was without any formal dressage training so we had to start right from the beginning.
M. Ergo is, however, the pupil every teacher hopes for. He is now the lead horse in one team of the Young Stallions(!), giving confidence to those who follow him. One week a few months ago he was 'tried and tested' in a double bridle for the Andalusian item in the Sunday performance. He took to it easily.
M.Ergo is being taught Piaffe in hand, and his shoulder-in, travers, and half pass are also progressing well - perhaps we will have him in the Quadrille in the future.
Every time I feel stiff and tired, I think of Ergo's youthfulness and it inspires me!