Spanish Riding School

Brief Information

The white riding hall of the Spanish Riding School was built in the 18th century, but it has not become a museum backdrop: Lipizzaner horses still train and perform there. The school was first mentioned under the Habsburgs in 1572, and the present winter riding hall in the Hofburg was completed in 1735. So what matters here is not only the dressage display, but also the stage itself, where the old courtly order continues to live on in the movement of horses and riders.

The name is connected with the Spanish horses that formed the basis of the Lipizzaner breed. The school uses only Lipizzaners. Their training is not limited to spectacular tricks: according to the source text, the movements should make the horse stronger and more athletic, and almost all of them are based on the animal’s natural movements.

What to Notice First

The main things to take in are the riding hall, the portrait, and the horses. The white Winterreitschule riding hall should be seen as a working space, not as a historical backdrop: it was built specifically for the school and is still used today. Opposite the entrance hangs a portrait of Charles VI; the riders honor the emperor when they enter the riding hall. This detail explains why ceremony here is built directly into the action.

With Lipizzaners, it is worth noticing more than just their white coat. According to the text, foals are born dark and become fully white only by the age of 5 to 8, so the familiar image of the white horse is the result of age, not the breed’s starting point. In the exercises themselves, one can distinguish between the “school on the ground” and the “school above the ground”: piaffe and passage show collection in place and in motion, while the levade, courbette, ballotade, and capriole turn that collection into a jump.