Classroom lesson · Wildlife · 🇸🇮 Slovenia

Lipizzaner horse

Graceful white horses bred in Slovenia for over 440 years

A white Lipizzaner horse performing classical dressage

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Lipizzaners are a famous breed of horse that have been raised at the Lipica stud farm in southern Slovenia since 1580. They are known for being calm, intelligent, and beautifully white - though they are born dark and only turn white over years.

Tell me more

Foals are born grey, brown, or black. As they grow, their coat slowly lightens until they are almost white by the time they're around ten years old.

Lipizzaners are famous for classical 'dressage' - a kind of dance on horseback - and perform at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

The Lipica stud farm is one of the oldest working horse breeding farms in Europe.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might a foal be born dark and turn white over years?
  2. 02What's special about an animal that lives 35 years - what would it remember?
  3. 03If you could teach a horse one trick, what would it be?
Try this

Classroom activity

Draw a Lipizzaner foal AND the same horse fully grown - colour one dark and one white.