Sign of the Times: Saratoga Teen Lives Out Every Girl's Dream as Rider Trainee at Vienna's Spanish Riding School

The four new rider trainees at Vienna's tradition-embedded Spanish Riding School include for the first time two women, a British-born teenager who has been living in the USA and a native Austrian. (Spanish Riding School photo)

You read that headline correctly: "Girl".

A 17-year-old Saratoga, New York teen has broken through several traditional barriers this month. Sojourner Morrell, who is technically a British citizen, survived the month-long try-out phase as a stableworker and an entrance selection process to become one of four initiate riding student "Eleves" at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.

Even if an Éleve is given the unique opportunity of training with the Spanish Riding School, this does not necessarily mean that he or she will automatically eventually retire as a Chief Rider. Each prospective Rider is faced with challenging requirements and must meet high personal qualifications. It takes approximately four to six years – depending on the individual’s talent and personal commitment – for an Éleve to progress to the position of an Assistant Rider.

The Éleves are the equivalent to apprentices at the Spanish Riding School. Until now young boys aged between 15 and 16 years were admitted. However, this age limit has been raised so that ideally young people wanting to join the Spanish Riding School have already either completed their school education or an apprenticeship. Sojourner is 17; the female Austrian Eleve is 22.

There’s more to the ideal Rider than just a love for horses and an equestrian talent. The baroque Lipizzaner, bred specifically for the High School of Classical Horsemanship, is smaller and more compact than the average dressage horse today. The rider should match the horse in his or her proportions.

If age and personal requirements fit, it is now a question of an Eleve completing the first four years of the equestrian training under the guidance of an experienced Rider and learning all about the Spanish Riding School. Working in the stables is just as important as learning to care for the saddles, bridles and all the other equipment.

After those first four years the Éleve is officially evaluated by the Director of the Riding School, Ernst Bachinger, and the Riders with regard to his or her skills and also in his or her own ability to pass on to others what has been taught. A positive evaluation will enable the promotion to the position of an Assistant Rider.

An Assistant Rider is expected to train a young stallion independently and present him in a public performance. This phase also takes at least four years and sees the Assistant Rider working closely with the experienced Chief Riders. This is the time the acquired equestrian skills should be developed into an art form and be passed on to a horse. This project demands a great deal of discipline and sensitivity from a young person. Taking into account all these stages, it takes about 8 to 10 years to progress from an Éleve to a Rider.

The tradition of training the art of riding at the Spanish Riding School will remain unchanged: the experienced Chief Rider passing on traditions and expertise to the next generation. An excellent Rider is not only able to train horses but must also be a good teacher. This way the quality of training has been upheld for centuries.

For the first time since the end of the Austrian monarchy, women will sit astride the Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School. In the 18th century, during Empress Maria Theresia’s reign it was perfectly normal for the ladies of the royal court to take part in the famous carrousels and equestrian feasts which took place in the Winter Riding School. Allegedly Empress Elisabeth, a superb rider, used the world’s most beautiful riding hall so she could enjoy her personal training sessions beneath the sparkling chandeliers.

The Spanish Riding School has been planning a tour of several US cities for 2010.

Thanks to the Spanish Riding School for explanations of the road that lies ahead for the Eleves.

Siglavy Mantua I, Spanish Riding School's Master of the Piaffe, Has Died

Siglavy Mantua I ridden by Oberbereiter Krzisch in the solo ride. Normally, the Lipizzans were equipped with double bridles but this special ride was communicated through a single Weymouth bit. Herr Krzisch rode with one hand and held a special sapling switch vertical in his right hand. (Spanish Riding School photo)

We sat there, transfixed in our stadium seats. You could hear every note of the Viennese march floating from the speakers in the huge Staples Center arena in Washington, DC. All eyes were on the spotlight, on the man and horse who piaffed to the music as one.

For many people, fairy tales piaffed to life before their very eyes when they attended a live performance of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna’s famous Lipizzaner stallions. They were entranced by the quadrille, mesmerized by the pas de deux, and awed by the airs above the ground.

But one performance in the show was different. When lights went down and the single spotlight followed that magical horse and rider around the arena, we knew we were seeing something special. The motionless rider rode with one hand, holding a wooden switch upright in his free hand. Without any sign of aids, the two piaffed, passaged and literally danced in the spotlight, like a music box come to life.

What people didn’t realize is just how special that treat was. There was no way that the public could know that for more than 20 years, it was always the same horse who danced in that spotlight. After all, the Lipizzaners look almost identical.

But only one horse and rider could and did perform the famous solo ride. Siglavy Mantua I and Oberbereiter Klaus Krzisch were a team admired around the world, yet few people knew their names.

I am sad to announce to his admirers around the world that Siglavy Mantua I died in August at the Spanish Riding School’s Piber stud farm in southern Austria, only a year after his official retirement from the performing troupe in Vienna. He was 28 years old.

Siglavy Mantua I lived his life within the high walls of the Vienna stables, and was ridden almost exclusively by Krzisch. When he arrived there in the winter of 1982, he was often overlooked because of his long back, and less-than-elegant carriage. With Krzisch’s dedicated training, the horse’s native intelligence and willingness helped him overcome his athletic shortcomings and he blossomed into a horse recognized for his ability to perform collected movements.

While the School’s 2005 USA tour was to have been Siglavy Mantua I’s farewell, he continued to be sound and interested in performing, so he remained in Vienna until last year, when he was sent to Piber for retirement and to breed mares. This summer, his health deteriorated and the decision was made to end his life with dignity and peace.

I remember being in a mini-press conference at the School when one of the journalists asked bluntly if the riders had a favorite horse among the many stallions. The director looked a little uncomfortable and exchanged glances with Oberbereiter Riegel. Then he shrugged and said, "Well, of course, Siglavy Mantua I is very special."

And he smiled as he said the horse's name. We all dutifully scribbled the horse's name in our notebooks. Later, I went to look for him in the stable and the head groom told stories about the aged stallion's brilliant personality and sense of humor. Mantua was certainly a favorite, at all levels, in public and in private, out of a cohesive unit of identical horses.

His 2002 son, Siglavy Malina II, is now with the School in Vienna, and every colt of his nice crop of 2008 foals knows they have big hoofprints to fill, as the traditions and performances and romance of the Spanish Riding School continue to enchant horse lovers.

The legend of Siglavy Mantua I will live in the memories of thousands of devotees of one of the world’s oldest equestrian traditions. His soundness and his longevity will continue to impress everyone in the horse health world. He delighted us all.

Note: Thank you to Oberbereiter Andreas Hausberger for sharing the news of Mantua's death.

This is a rare private moment at the 2005 Washington performance of the Spanish Riding School. In the afternoon, Oberbereiter Krzisch arrived at the makeshift stables in the bowels of the Staples Center to check on his horse and I happened to be standing outside the stall. (Mantua had the first stall, of course.) The photo above this one is the ornate sign above his stall in Vienna. I wonder who lives in that stall now! (Fran Jurga photo)

...And the White Horse You Rode in On: Genetics Research Unravels White Horse Code, Finds Suprises

This Lipizzaner foal at the Spanish Riding School's breeding farm in Piber, Austria, will soon start turning gray; he will eventually be almost white. As gray horses mature, their chances of developing melanoma, a form of skin cancer, can be as high as 75 percent. Swedish researchers found that gene regulation problems are common to all white horses and that they are all descended from a single, original white horse.

Sunday morning means reading as many newspapers as possible around here. It doesn't mean reading scientific journals, but when the Sunday papers are quoting the journal Nature Genetics for a study about horses, the keyboard goes back into action, especially when it had me thinking about equine icons.

Silver. Thunderhead. The Lippizaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School. Hirohito's white stallion. Desert Orchid. Milton. Abdullah. Snowman. Napoleon's Marengo. The list goes on and on. And let's not forget those white chalk horses cut into those British hillsides by the ancient horse worshippers. And that white horse your knight in shining armor is sure to be riding.

White horses are a symbol of something, we've never been quite sure what. Are they truly superior or just eyecatching? Is it saying something about the horse itself or is it what they say about the person riding them? Could Buffalo Bill Cody have ridden anything but a white horse? 

But if you have ever owned a white or "gray" horse, you may well know the worries of melanoma, a type of skin cancer that has become so common that about 75 percent of gray horses older than 15 years of age have a benign form of melanoma that in some cases develops into a malignant melanoma.

An international team led by researcher Leif Andersson, shown at left, at Uppsala University has now identified the mutation causing this spectacular trait and show that white horses carry an identical mutation that can be traced back to a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago. The study is interesting for medical research since this mutation also enhances the risk for melanoma.

Here's some background: A "gray" horse is born dark (black, brown or chestnut) but the graying process starts as soon as the foal's first year and they are normally completely white by six to eight years of age. However, the skin remains pigmented. Thus, the process resembles graying in humans but the process is ultrafast in these horses. The research presented now demonstrates that all gray (white) horses carry exactly the same mutation which must have been inherited from a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago.

That makes the Thoroughbred breed--descended from three Arabian stallions--look quite diverse, in comparison.

The study reported today has also given new insight in a molecular pathway that may lead to tumor development. Andersson and his team propose that the gray mutation stimulates growth of melanocytes and that this leads to a premature loss of the melanocyte stem cells needed for hair pigmentation whereas the mutation promotes an expansion of some of the melanocytes causing skin pigmentation. The gray mutation does not change any protein structure but it affects the genetic regulation of two genes.

(To oversimplify: the mutation causes two reactions, one in the skin and one in the coat. The key cells needed to color the hair are lost, while the key cells that color the skin multiply.)

The researchers found that the white horses carry an extra copy of a DNA segment located in one of these genes.

"It is very likely that regulatory mutations like the one we found in these white horses constitute the dominating class of mutations explaining differences between breeds of domestic animals," concludes Leif Andersson.

Now, that's news.

USDA Ease on Quarantine is Music to the Ears of Dancing Stallions

Entertainment horses like the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna will be able to enjoy a more lenient import process while touring the USA in the future, according to the US Department of Agriculture's new ruling.

Need a good reason for a headache? Try importing a performing stallion troupe into the USA from a CEM-infected country. (CEM stands for Contagious Equine Metritis, an equine venereal disease) The paperwork and quarantine could take longer than the tour!

This has always been a known obstacle to the tours of groups like the horse-circus/opera Cavalia or the regal performances of the centuries-old Spanish Riding School Lipizzaners from Austria. A 2007 outbreak of CEM at the SRS forced cancellation of the 2008 USA tour, which is now being re-scheduled.

The new plans should be easier, thanks to an announcement made today: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has amended its import rules to allow noncompetitive entertainment horses to be temporarily brought into the U.S. from countries affected with the venereal disease, Contagious Equine Metritis. The final rule, titled Temporary Importation of Horses: Noncompetitive Entertainment Horses From Countries Affected with Contagious Equine Metritis, is effective July 7, 2008.

Noncompetitive entertainment horses are those that participate in performances or exhibitions and are not entered into competitions, such as races or shows. Examples of such horses include circus horses, the Spanish Riding School's Lippizans of Austria and the Lusitano and Andalusian performance stallions in Cavalia.

The final rules allow these non-competitive entertainment horses to enter the U.S. without having to be test bred under a special permit that is longer than the 90 day permit for competitive horses. The new rules impose additional requirements for the importation of these horses, including additional information that must be provided to apply for a permit and the plans and itineraries for housing, transit and performances while in the U.S. The permits, if approved, will last for one year, and the importer can apply to renew the permit.

The rules require that these noncompetitive entertainment horses be imported and maintained in the U.S. though a trust fund agreement executed by the horse’s owner or importer. This would ensure that the government is reimbursed for the services it provides, such as administrative costs and costs for a USDA representative to monitor the horses. The agreement is also intended to ensure that the importer will be able to fully uphold the requirements specified for these horses over extended periods of time.

Thanks to the American Horse Council for this update.

Spanish Riding School: Enjoy the New Commercial!

This little video pretty much personifies the way I felt when, after a lifetime of yearning, I finally set foot inside Vienna's Winter Riding Hall. I am sure I was giggling just like the girls in the video.

Not a word is spoken in this one-minute commercial for Europe's horsiest tourist destination. Enjoy some very elegant footage and rare closeups of the dashing Oberbereiters ("head riders") Hans Riegler and Klaus Kriszch. It was filmed on location in the stable, saddle room and riding hall that I remember so well.

If you ever have a chance to go to the Riding School in Vienna: do! This is the real thing, and it will be an unforgettable experience.

Credits:
Production by Faudon Movies, New York
Director & Writer: Curt Faudon
Copyright: WienTourismus.

Waltz with the Spanish Riding School on PBS on New Year's Day

Who: Spanish Riding School and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
What: Annual New Year's Day Concert from Vienna, Austria
When: Tuesday, January 1,2007 from 8-9:30 p.m. EST (Check local listings.)
Where: On your TV! Cable not required, just rabbit ears to pickup your local PBS station

Who doesn't love the Strauss waltzes? PBS will transport us all to Vienna next week, with the telecast of "From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration (2008)."

Continuing its holiday tradition, "Great Performances" returns to the stately splendor of Vienna's Musikverein for its 24th annual New Year's Day celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic. Georges Pretre leads the world-renowned orchestra in a selection of Strauss family waltzes.

Also featured are festive ballets danced by the Vienna State Opera Ballet and a special appearance of the famous Lipizzaner horses of the Spanish Riding School, who routinely perform to the Strauss waltzes and marches.

Walter Cronkite hosts the broadcast each year.

Waltzing around your living room is permitted. Ballgowns and tails optional.

The audio portion of the concert will probably be broadcast live on your local National Public Radio (NPR) station; it is on our Boston station, WGBH 89.7, at 11 a.m. EST, and you can listen on iTunes.

Turn up the volume!

Spanish Riding School Donates Oats for Bosnian Lipizzans; Controversial Serbian Farm Inspected

The Spanish Riding School in Vienna showed solidarity with other traditional national stud farms this week when it announced that the Austrian institution will donate 24 tons of oats to the historic Lipizzan state stud in Bosnia.

The oats, grown at the Spanish Riding School's famed stud farm at Piber, will be shipped to the Bosnian stud at Vucijak, said Armin Aigner, director of the School.

At a meeting of European stud directors, Aigner heard about the problems that the small, state-owned stud was having to obtain good food for its 90 Lipizzan horses.

The Spanish Riding School and Austria's environment ministry decided to help the Bosnian white horses by providing food for about one year.

Breeding records show that there are still strong bloodline connections between the horses in Bosnia and the famous Lipizzans bred in Austria. The breed remains essentially unchanged since the baroque era.

Meanwhile, not far away, Serbian officials have Lipizzaners on their minds after charges that horses from the Croatian stud are not receiving proper care.

According to the Balkan news agency Beta, the horses were brought to north Serbia from Lipik, Croatia, in 1991 to protect them during the war.

The Lipizzaners are at a farm northwest of Belgrade and are the source of a dispute between Serbia and Croatia over ownership and the cost of care.

Earlier this week, animal protection groups and the media reported that many of the horses were sick and on the verge of starvation.

Serbian Agriculture Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic visited the farm to examine the horses and said he found nothing to warrant concern. The Beta news agency also quoted veterinarians saying they had examined 74 horses and all were healthy.

Good News from Vienna: Spanish Riding School Stables Are Open Again

Perhaps you read the article I wrote in the June issue of EQUUS about the outbreak of Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM) at the Spanish Riding School stables and farm in Austria.

I learned today that the quarantine has ended. Most of the stallions are on summer vacation but there are seven in residence in Vienna if you are in the neighborhood and would like to stop by. You can also visit the hallowed temple of dressagedom, the Winter Riding School, which was built in the early 18th century.

Welcome back to the Lipizzaners! They won't get too comfortable, though; this fall they will visit Holland, France and Belgium for special performances. They are planning a tour of western USA cities in the fall of 2008. They visited eastern and central US cities in 2005 and EquiSearch.com hosted their tour blog.

When Bad Things Happen to Nice Horses: Equine Venereal Disease at Austria's Spanish Riding School

UPDATED 16 APRIL 2007

This post will prove that no one in the horse industry is immune to the spread of disease and its effect on horses.

Only about 3000 Lipizzaners are alive on Earth today, and the largest group is maintained by the Spanish Riding School (SRS) of Vienna, with a total of just over 400 horses. The SRS operates a stable in Vienna for performing stallions (a.k.a. "The Dancing White Stallions") and a glorious stud farm at Piber in the province of Styria in Lower Austria. This year, there may be fewer foals at Piber than in any year in a long time and the daily routine at the stables in Vienna has been upset.

The SRS has publicly announced that a stallion at Piber was found to be positive for the equine venereal disease known as contagious equine metritis (CEM). Once this horse's infection was discovered, the entire herd was tested, and then the stallions in Vienna were tested as well. Over 100 horses owned by the SRS are believed to be CEM positive.

(To learn more about CEM, please scroll down to the post following this one, or visit the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine's excellent CEM information page. Please note: CEM is not fatal, and it is curable, although temporary infertility in mares is a side effect, and that will probably affect the 2008 foal crop.)

Information provided by the Spanish Riding School includes the following:

"In the course of a routine examination this virus was detected in a horse from the Federal Stud Piber, even though this horse had never been used for breeding. Therefore there is obviously another way that this disease can be transferred other than the covering of a mare. Thereupon the horse population in Piber and Vienna was examined. In the course of this examination the virus was detected in both enterprises.

"To this date not a single horse in the Spanish Riding School or the Federal Stud Piber has shown visible signs of this contagious disease. Quite on the contrary, the fertility rate in the Federal Stud Piber is currently at 90% and thereby clearly higher than the international average.

"As the diagnostic process is very long and complicated and the verification only possible in a multilevel procedure extending over a number of weeks, the detection and the treatment of this disease is difficult. In Austria only stallions intended for breeding are routinely examined as this examination is very complex.

"In principle this disease can be treated and is curable. However, the fight against this virus is complex and long. Successful medical rehabilitation is known from various European, American and Canadian studs. Based on these experiences the therapy has been started and a catalogue of measures has been developed to rehabilitate the horse population over the summer months.

"Nothing has changed with regard to the performances of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna as the stallions are not physically affected by the virus. This means that the classic performances, the daily morning training and the Privatissimum will continue as normal.

"Guided tours through the stables in Vienna will be limited and no contact to the horses will be permitted. (At Piber) horses identified as virus carriers are stabled in the veterinary ward which is not open to the public.

"The scheduled performance of a four-in-hand from the Federal Stud Piber and a School Stallion from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna in the course of 'Pferd International' in Munich in May this year has been cancelled.

"The total cost of the treatment for the horses concerned, the loss of business through the limitation in guided tours, various hygienic measures and increased staff costs will amount to several hundred thousand Euros."

(end quote from SRS statement)

Today I interviewed Gary Lashinsky of White Stallion Productions; Gary is the producer of the upcoming 2008 Spanish Riding School tour of western United States cities. "This will be cleared up in a few months," he stressed. "This outbreak will not affect the upcoming US tour." Gary noted that he has been assured that the SRS is taking every precaution to eradicate CEM from the herd in Piber and from the performing stallions in Vienna. Horses from Piber are routinely sold to American buyers.

The Spanish Riding School has survived Napoleon, Hitler, bombing attacks, EHV, politics, privatization, world tours, and everything else that has been thrown at it in the past 400 years. They may have a gene puddle instead of a pool, but they are survivors. These are not the first Lipizzaners to contract CEM and probably they won't be the last.

But in this Internet age, there is no below-the-radar way to go about treating a herd for a contagious disease. I hope more entities and governments will follow the SRS's lead and make public statements about their problems. Observing the SRS example may make it easier for horse owners at all levels to be honest about their horses' health issues and help control the spread of equine disease sooner instead of later.

The cost of this disease control program, coupled with the financial loss of performances and tours, is estimated to be several hundred thousand US dollars. Disease outbreaks usually are not a line item in a business plan, and the Spanish Riding School has only recently been launched as a private corporation.

We don't have Barbaro to cheer on anymore, so let's cheer on the Lipizzaners to recover and get back to the capriole, the levade, and the courbette--back in the "good news" spotlight, where they belong.

(Originally posted 11 April 2007)

16 April Update: The Spanish Riding School has issued a document explaining all details of the CEM infection and their plan to treat the horses in the weeks to come. They have announced that the original discovery of the infection was found in a stallion that was exported to the USA in November 2006. The SRS contends that the horse tested negative before export, but his subsequent test in the US was positive.

Here's a link to the official English-language version of the document from the SRS: http://www.srs.at/index.php?id=320&action=detail&iid=116