Dreams of a 9 Year Old Realized

In about 1959, I saw a movie that impressed me greatly (as a 9-year old).  It was "The Miracle of the White Stallions".  Since that time I have wanted to go to Austria and see the Spanish Riding School.  Today that dream came true.  We arrived in Vienna last night and checked into our hostel.

One of the hallways

Although unassuming from the outside, it is really nice inside.

Front sign

Our room

Outside patio

This morning, we had a reservation at the Spanish Riding School (the Winter School) for a 2 hour training session.  I had decided that I would rather do that than just attend a performance.  In addition, I made reservations for us to join a tour of the school afterward.

Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed for performances or training sessions, however, I was happy to get some other good photos that I can share with you.  The School is located in a very different place than I anticipated.  It is in the middle of a very famous plaza, in the Hofburg Palace. 

Many carriages around the Palace

Hofburg Palace, home of the
Spanish Riding School

On arrival and after finding the school inside the Palace, we were ushered into the hall, or arena where we had come to observe 2 hours of training sessions. 

The riders were dressed in their uniforms which I thought was amazing for a training session. Each trainer starts as an Elevey, around the age of 15, and is entrusted with one horse they are to train up the level of being put into a performance.  This takes 4-6 years.  After that time, they become an assistant rider.  Then as an assistant rider, they are assigned 5 horses and are under the toutelage of a chief rider.  When the trainers are assigned a horse, it is assumed that that trainer will stay with that horse for it's entire performing life - which can be up to around 23 years of age.  The horses are not started until they are 4 as they are allowed to grow up and mature before starting the training. 

I was surprised to see that the horses are often given treats while being trained.  The riders have a special pocket in the back of their jackets in which (I was later told) they keep sugar cubes.  When a horse does a particularly good job, they are given a sugar cube.  Another thing of interest I learned is that they do very little warm-up before either training or performing.  These horses are apparently well built for the work they do, which looks, and is, VERY collected, and they do not require a big warmup.  I noticed the trainer would walk maybe twice around the arena, then trot for a couple minutes and would then begin asking for the exercise, whether it be passage, tempes, side passes, whatever.  And always in collection.  They would however, after a particularly long session of collection, drop them and let them stretch out.  I noticed one horse being worked very hard on the Piaffe (trotting in place).  After the exercise that looked very hard, the horse was allowed to trot out for a few strides - like a release.

During the training session we watched, assistant riders working their charges. (No photos allowed inside at that time). There were four 1/2-hour groups of  5 horses trained.  Only one horse did airs above the ground and it was only 2 times.  He was practiced on the courbette - raising full height on the hind legs and completing a series of jumps forward.  One amazing note was the the rider had no stirrups.  Later I asked and was told that NONE of the airs are ever ridden with stirrups.

After the training session, we had signed up for a tour of the school.  It was wonderful to see the barns which are also in the palace.

There is 3 story courtyard,  built by a early king who wanted his son to live in the quarters in the second story, above the horses.  The son thought it was too small for living and chose a different home (he was obviously crazy).  The whole bottom story is the stalls.  Some of the stalls face out into the courtyard, there are two more rows of stall behind those that are facing out. These stalls house a total of 76 stallions - IN the palace which is in the middle of Vienna - just amazing.

We had noticed one beautiful blood bay horse in the training session.  We were told it is because it is considered good luck for there to be at least 1 horse "of color" in the stables.  They currently have two.

We visited the tack room which was stacked ceiling high with all of the saddles and bridles.

Each has a name plate as every saddle is made custom for each horse and because they are fit for the horse, they require no padding.
There are 1/2 pads that go behind the saddle (seen on the far wall in the frame).  The green ones are for those horses that still do only flat work.  The red pads are for those horses that can do Airs Above the Ground.  Stripes on the pad signify the rank of the trainer, whether assistant or chief. 

Two bridles were red and those signified those horses as worked from the ground (long reins).




Finally we went outside and saw the outside training ring, although it was located inside the hot walker.  The hot walker was actually a oval shaped building which they put the horses into, seperated by large hanging rubber dividers. The horses are put into the walker loose and between two of these dividers.  When the hot walker begins to move, the horse is gently prodded along by the divider.  The section they are in is quite a bit longer than they are.  When the walker changes direction, the guide said the horses know and will automatically turn around inside their section.  You can almost see the arena behind the hotwalker, which goes around the entire perimeter of the arena.

I have much more information and many more photos, but that is all I could fit in here.  I have to say it was one of my best days - EVER.  I hope to share more with my horse-friends who may be interested.

Becky