The Lipizzaners

We watched the Lipizzaner stallions trotting around the Spanish Riding School,the covered parade hall in the Habsburg Palace, their white coats gleaming in the light of the chandeliers above, their hooves enlivened by the stirring tune of the Radetzky March.
The Spanish Riding School in Vienna was first built in the palace gardens in 1572, taking its name from the lineage of the Lipizzaner horses which were cross-bred in Spain from Andalusian, Arab and Vilanos bloodlines. Archduke Charles II of Austria set up a stud in Lipizza (now called Lipica and in Slovenia) from whence the new name for the breed derived. Charles VI commissioned the new building in 1729 and his portrait still oversees the parade hall.