Spanish Hofreitschule

Before I left for Austria I decided to take a trip to the local library. I'm too cheap to buy tourist books, so I checked out six different books about Vienna. I had never been to Austria before so I had no clue what to see or what to do. Each tourist book mentioned the Spanish Riding School. The Lipizzans, are a world famous breed and the white stallions perform in a traditional style. Most of the guide books mentioned that it was hard to get tickets to performances. They also misinformed us that performances were only on Sundays, but we actually went on a Saturday morning.

I knew this was something we would like to do, because my mom loves horses. It is almost a passion for her. We decided to buy tickets for the Thursday morning practice and a stable tour, because it was cheaper (I think we paid about 50 euros). I believe the Spanish Riding School is famous for performing dressage (something I think of as horse ballet). When I was in college I took riding classes for P.E. credit and I learned a little about dressage, but I have never really seen it performed.

We decided to leave early, just to make sure we got good seats. There are no assigned seats for the morning practice. With forty minutes to spare we stood in line. I didn't mind much because I brought a book with me, but I also decided to wear some super cute purple boots (seriously, I walked around in those all day). I had a hard time taking pictures because you weren't supposed to. But there were people taking pictures all over the place, so I decided to pull out my camera at the beginning of the practice. And I put it away right when I the staff asked me too!

Honestly I was a bit disappointed with the practice. I knew it was a practice, but I expected to see the horses jumping in mid air while lashing out their hind legs. I didn't see any of those, but they did do a lot of special trotting and the piaffe which is basically trotting on the spot. After the practice we decided to buy tickets to a performance, since the practice made us curious about the actual performance. We bought standing only tickets for the performance for the next day and it costs us 25 euros each. The pictures you see here are from the performance.


At the beginning of the show the announcer asked that the audience not take pictures of the younger horses who would perform first. I assumed that meant I could take pictures of the other horses, but I got in trouble again. This time the staff was an old, grouchy man who never smiled. German was a good language for him, because he was very harsh. He yelled at me in German and then said, "NO PICTURES!" Okay, fine, I get it...hehee too bad I already made a video!

Some of the pictures are a little blurry because I had to take them fast before the horses moved positions or because I didn't want to get caught. Usually I'm really respectful when asked not to take pictures, but I felt justified since I was given mixed signals. I must say the actual performance was really cool. The horses were completely in synch with the music. And some of the dressage moves were so crazy, I can't believe a horse can put all its weight on the hind legs and balance that way (the move is called Levade). I would have to say this is a must see in Vienna. I also suggest the stable tour.

On the stable tour the guide teaches about the building, talks about the history of the school and riders and even told us some interesting facts about the different horses. The oldest horse (27 yrs. old) really likes to show off. She said that he gets upset when the audience doesn't clap for him. Isn't that crazy? And the horses get to take two months off in July and August for a horsey vacation in the alps. Since it is a school several boys want to attend (oh, it is boys only, per tradition), but there is an 80% drop out rate in the first year because it is so hard.

I'm glad we went to the performance and I would say that it is a must do while in Vienna. Besides some of the young riders were really cute. When the horses weren't interesting to look at I could always look at them!