Wiener Style

Apparently when Emporer Maximilian II brought the cherished 200 mares and stallions over mountains from Spain to Vienna, the local Viennese thought he was a little “touched” but did not want to offend him. They spoke of his folly as being “Spanish”, much like we might say today “Its greek to me”. Hence the name of the Spanish Riding School came to be. While the influence of andalusian blood is strong, the lipizzaners have had their own studbook for over 500 years with early influences from some local carriage horses breeds.

The Hofburg Palace

The winter riding arena was built almost 200 years later by Emporer Charles II and his portrait displays prominently in the arena where each rider salutes at each entrance. As you can imagine I took full advantage of being in Vienna (Wien) to have a guided tour, watch the morning exercises, attend the gala performance, and have cafe and breakfast in the summer arena twice.

The magnificent Spanish Riding School

The SRS and the lipizzaner stallions hold a special place in my heart, as it was my first discovery of horses as a child when I received my first horse book. Ponies, classes, summer camps quickly ensued. But it was with great emotion that I watched the first group of young stallions enter the winter riding arena and perform the quadrille.

Waiting for the magic to begin ...

I had my fill of lipizzanners while I was there, with the gala, the tour, the morning exercises, and the multiple espresso stops behind the summer arena. I must say that the espresso in Vienna was outstanding. Had many.

SRS Summer Riding Arena and Oval Walker

The summer riding arena was interesting and was surrounded by on the of the largest oval walkers in the world. Built around 10 years ago, it allows the stallions to be walked with minimal turning about an hour a day. Inside the walker is a covered small riding arena that the riders use to warm up the horses before the performance, and cool down after.

Inside the walker is the summer riding arena.

The only challenge was that no pictures could be taken in the presence of horses. But I did sneak this quick one in the courtyard as a few special stallions get this privileged spot so that they can "watch the humans". Apparently some stallions need more entertainment than others.

Humans are stallion entertainment

Of course, for most of the horsey types, one of the highlights of the tour was the tack room. Yep, it smelled glorious and every inch of tack is cleaned after every use. Saddles are custom fit for each horse, and each stallion has his performance saddle/bridle and dressage saddle/bridle. Even the stallions that progress to double bridles for the performance revert back to the snaffle for the morning exercises. Funny note, the performance saddles (white ones on top) are custom-fit to be ridden without a saddle pad. The performance saddle pads (you can see them hanging on the back wall) are cut out for where the saddle fits.

SRS Tack Room … so much leather and brass!

A few elements of note on the stallions. Many of them perform well into their 20s and 30s, and the eldest (now retired) just celebrated his 40th. They speak of the durability of the breed, and the special mountain raising of the young stallions that keeps them fit and in great cardiovascular health until their fourth year. But I think the training is also a key point. They do not work more than 20-30 minutes a day, several times a week. After every difficult or challenging exercise, they get a sugar cube. Piaffe, cube. Walk around. Flying change, cube. Walk around. So watching the morning exercises is somewhat boring because there is much walking and treating and patting. The stallions do love to anticipate, so they seem to use these daily exercises to remind them to wait for the aids. Lots of half halts. Or just plain halts. They rarely work on the big jumps or difficult movements. The morning exercises were light, easy, pleasant … and for the uninformed tourist terribly boring.

What was also interesting is that the 5-6 year old stallions were still struggling with the connection on relatively basic moves. If I compare that to the finish and polish of a 5 year old reining stallion, the difference is startling. But what reining stallion do you still see working at 30 years old? Yep, Im now even more convinced that slow and steady is the best approach to longevity and soundness.

The coattails of the riders are filled with sugar cubes. Makes my paltry three peppermints per ride seem cheap. Q will enjoy my lesson learned here. When I die, I want to return to this place as an adored stallion. Each rider has 4-8 stallions each, and they remain together until one of the two retires. And they get 12 weeks of vacation spread out every two months, where they go to their countryside estate and roam big pastures. 80 stallions live in the Vienna city stables and they seem to resort mostly to grooming several times a day, and not so much showering in spite of the white coats, although I did see some powerlamps for heat drying when required.


Vienna was overall spectacular. With our transit pass, we hopped on and off trams, trains and undergrounds to visit palaces, castles, gardens and ... breweries. There was also an incredible pork knuckle we tried at the local brewery that was crispy on the outside and soft pulled pork-like on the inside. A very different Eastern Ham!

Pork Knuckle Deliciousness!

As it was  Easter weekend, we had our treat of Easter Markets and the most incredible display of Easter eggs. Of course it was Vienna, and so there were all kinds of chocolatey treats and I quickly devoured several dark chocolate covered strawberries. Yes, strawberries are in season right now and they are scrumptious. As is the white asparagus.

Easter Eggs aplenty!

We did manage a trip to the summer Hapsburg palace, Schoennbrunn. It was an easy transit commute and a lovely walk in the gardens. We did happen upon the zoo and saw some American Buffalo which was unexpected. The weather on this trip was glorious and it felt like we fastforwarded into summer. When we got back to Budapest, I quickly pulled out my shorts.

Schoennbrunn Palace

Horse carriages were everywhere, and if you were comfortable shelling out 75 euros for 20 minutes, then you were in luck! I preferred walking and taking pictures. It was delightful to fall asleep every night and wake up every morning to the clippitty clop sounds of the horses hooves.

I would definitely go back to Vienna some day, but of course there are so many other places to see and visit. Our trip did make it to my Top 10 list, mostly because of the horses.