Lipizzaner horses are not actually born white. Foals are born dark — usually black, bay or brown — and their coats gradually turn white as they grow up, usually by the age of seven. Only a very small number of Lipizzaners remain dark-coated for their whole lives, and these are considered especially lucky.
The Spanish Riding School in Vienna has been training Lipizzaner horses since 1572. The horses learn a series of very precise movements called 'airs above the ground', which include leaping into the air, kicking their back legs while hovering and balancing on their hind legs alone. These movements take years of patient training.
Both the horses and their riders train for years before performing together. A young horse starts its training at three or four years old and may not be ready to perform the most advanced movements for another eight to ten years. The partnership between horse and rider is built on trust, patience and kindness — never force.
The breed takes its name from the town of Lipizza (now in Slovenia), where the horses were first bred in the 1500s. Today the horses are bred at a famous stud farm in Austria called Piber, set in green rolling hills. Visitors can watch the foals playing in the fields.