While Hollywood-Star Ashley Judd vacationed in Austria, she became godmother for a little Lipizzaner horse. While in the Tyrolean town Going she spontaneously fell in love with the stunning young stallion “Rodesia”.
The Lipizzaner is a horse breed closely associated with the Viennese Spanish Riding School. The finest representatives demonstrate the “high school” movements of classical dressage, the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements known as the “airs above the ground.”
The Lipizzan breed dates back to the 16th century, when it was developed with the support of the Habsburg nobility.
The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is the only institution in the world which has practiced for over 430 years and continues to cultivate classical equitation in the Renaissance tradition of the haute école.
The objective of classical equitation is to study the way the horse naturally moves and to cultivate the highest levels of haute école elegance the horse is capable of through systematic training. The result creates an unparalleled harmony between rider and horse, as only Vienna’s Spanish Riding School achieves.
There are Lipizzans in Sarasota Florida, these horses hail from the line rescued by General Patton in Europe during World War II.