Lipizzan

The Lipizzan is one of the most recognizable horse breeds alive, the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School.

Its origins are Spanish, from stock carrying Spanish and Moroccan Barb blood. Those horses were used for everything, but their intelligence and athleticism made them the horse of choice for the classical riding of the Renaissance, and specifically for the haute ecole movements: the controlled, stylized jumps known as the airs above the ground.

Maximilian II of Austria founded a royal stud on Spanish horses at Kladrub in 1560, in what is now the Czech Republic. His brother, Archduke Charles, set up another around 1580 in the village of Lipica near Trieste, now in Slovenia, and that village gave the breed its name. The two studs worked closely together and both supplied the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, until their breeding goals drifted apart and the Kladruby split off as a heavier carriage horse.

They are predominantly grey, with exceptional balance and gait.