The Hanoverian is a Warmblood horse breed originating in Germany, which is often seen in the Olympic Games and other competitive English riding styles, and has won gold medals in all three equestrian Olympic competitions. It is one of the oldest, most numerous, and most successful of the Warmblood breeds. Originally a cavalry horse, infusions of more Thoroughbred blood lightened it to make it more agile and useful for competition. The Hanoverian is known for a good temperament, athleticism, beauty, and grace.
The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner is a European breed of riding horse developed in the Habsburg Empire in the sixteenth century. It is of Baroque type, and is powerful, slow to mature and long-lived; the coat is usually gray.
Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements and training for the battlefield, and has since developed into the competitive dressage seen today. Classical riding is the art of riding in harmony with, rather than against, the horse.
The Spanish Riding School is an Austrian institution dedicated to the preservation of classical dressage and the training of Lipizzaner horses, based in Vienna, Austria, whose performances in the Hofburg are also a tourist attraction. The leading horses and riders of the school also periodically tour and perform worldwide. It is one of the "Big Four", the most prestigious classical riding academies in the world, alongside the Cadre Noir, the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art, and the Royal Andalusian School.
Alois Podhajsky was an Austrian soldier and Equestrian, riding instructor and Olympic medal-winner in dressage. He was the director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria and competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics and the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Louis Seeger (1798–1865) was a German equestrian who published several books and was influential in the development of dressage. Trained under Maximilian Weyrother, his methods were highly influenced by the great François Robichon de la Guérinière. Seeger passed on this knowledge through his riding school in Berlin, the first private school in Germany, where his students included Gustav Steinbrecht.
The Westphalian or Westfalen is a warmblood horse bred in the Westphalia region of western Germany. The Westphalian is closely affiliated with the state-owned stud farm of Warendorf, which it shares with the Rhinelander. Since World War II, the Westphalian horse has been bred to the same standard as the other German warmbloods, and they are particularly famous as Olympic-level show jumpers and dressage horses. Next to the Hanoverian, the Westphalian studbook has the largest breeding population of any warmblood in Germany.
James Fillis was a British-born French horseman and riding master. He had a profound influence on the development of the haute école of dressage in both France and Russia. He travelled widely in Europe, and lived for about twelve years in Russia. He believed he had ridden over a hundred and fifty thousand horses in his lifetime.
Witez II was a bay Arabian stallion foaled at the Janów Podlaski Stud Farm in Poland. He spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death. His name came from an archaic Polish word meaning "chieftain, knight, prince and hero."
Sankt Martin im Innkreis is a municipality in Ried im Innkreis District, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria.
An Austrian Warmblood is a warmblood type of horse registered with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Warmblutzucht in Österreich. Although the studbook is made up of jumping and dressage horses from many other countries, the mare base consists of native horses with a long history. The AWÖ keeps an open studbook, in which mares and stallions must pass rigorous inspections before becoming breeding stock.
Airs Above the Ground is a novel by Mary Stewart, first published in 1965. The title derives from Classical dressage, in particular, the graceful Airs Above the Ground, the haute ecole movements for which special breeds of horses, in particular Lippizans, are highly trained. These trained moves were once used by the horse to aid mounted soldiers in battle.
Georg Wahl was Chief Rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, dressage instructor, rider and trainer. He was also known as the coach and trainer of Swiss Olympic medalist Christine Stückelberger.
The South African Lipizzaners is a riding academy that operates according to the classical model in just outside of Paarl, in the Western Cape in the Western Cape province of South Africa. In contrast to other classical riding schools, only women ride and train the 40 Lipizzaner stallions. Public performances take place every week on Sundays. There is also an affiliated stud farm that provides horses for the academy as well as preserving a valuable genetic outcross pool for European studs.
Gottlieb Polak was Chief Rider and Riding Master of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna during the 1930s, serving until his death in 1942.
Ernst Lindenbauer was Chief Rider from 1919 - 1950 at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
The Piber Federal Stud is a stud farm dedicated to the breeding of Lipizzan horses, located at the village of Piber, near the town of Köflach in western Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1798, began breeding Lipizzan horses in 1920, and today is the primary breeding farm that produces the stallions used by the Spanish Riding School, where the best stallions of each generation bred at Piber are brought for training and later public performance. One of Piber’s major objectives is "to uphold a substantial part of Austria’s cultural heritage and to preserve one of the best and most beautiful horse breeds in its original form."
Pegasus is the official academic logo, symbol and mascot of the University of Central Florida (UCF) a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States.
Operation Cowboy was fought in the town of Hostau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, on 28 April 1945, in the last days of fighting in the European theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS, the other being the Battle of Castle Itter.
Siglavy was a gray Arabian horse at the origin of one of the Lipizzan bloodlineages, which bears his name, thanks to his activity as a stallion at the Lipica stud farm. He is also one of the five heads of Shagya bloodlineages.
