It was two hours long and through out the show the narrator gave us some history of the horses and whatnot and then the riders would do fancy stuff that I've always wished I could do. I took a total of 1072 pictures. The lighting was a pain to try and work with but I did get some good pictures. The show was pretty amazing, and if you ever get the chance to go, I say go because you'll never see anything like it...
I *think* according to some comments I saw on YouTube that there are two groups. One is from Florida, which is the one I think we saw, and the other one is from Austria. The Austrians have higher standards and only allow men in their riding school. (i *think*) The Florida group just recently started because it takes so long to train the horses.
For those of you who don't know, Lipizzaner horses are from Austria originally. Most of them are white, and they were specially bred as battle horses. They were taught moves to aid their rider in times of peril and as time wore on these maneuvers became more of an art form than for battle. They're beautiful horses, majestic and absolutely amazing. The moves they perform are from the discipline Dressage, which is like dancing with a horse. Its graceful and smooth and makes the horse and rider appear to be moving as one, with apparently little or no effort on the rider's part. The Lipizzaners are special because they can do things no other horses can do. At least not that I know of, other than their Spanish ancestors, the Andalusians. Some of these things involve standing on their hind feet and kicking their forefeet in the air, or leaping up ward and kicking out their back hooves. It's pretty spectacular.
The lead rider of the evening was Victor. (Viktor? I dont know how to spell it and I forgot his last name. Darn it.) Victor is my hero. x3 This is Victor. He changed like five different times and did different routines, it was pretty awesome.
Here are some moves the Lipizzaners do.
Thats the courbette
thats the capriole, and thats actually Victor, lol. I just looked up "capriole" on youtube and there he was! The capriole is definitely my favorite.
Thats the Levade
So yeah, I havent sorted through my 1072 pictures but i'll be posting more later... it was really slowing down my computer so i'll have to sort through them.
and if they get lost i'll cry.
so there.
