Last updated on July 3rd, 2020 at 01:59 pm
Young stallions from the Lipizzaner stud in Styria spend the summer months in the mountains to work on their agility and suitability for a future role at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
The Austrian Lipizzaner stud is located in Piber near Köflach in Styria. The herd consists of mother mares, young horses and horses that have finished their careers in the Spanish Riding School.
The most talented young stallions move from Piber to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna at the age of about four for training. It takes another six years for them to master the high school.
The 40 one- to three-year-old stallions spend the summer months on the 1500-metre high Stubalm so they can train their sure-footedness, tendons and joints at a young age.
© TVB Lipizzanerheimat | Robert Cescutti
This year the delicately decorated grey-black horses will return to the valley on Saturday, 14 September. Before they reach the stud farm in Piber, they are blessed in the courtyard of the Maria Lankowitz pilgrimage church.
The procession down from the mountains is celebrated with music and regional delicacies.
Those who would like to visit the elegant stallions on the mountain pastures can do so until 12 September. The pasture tour takes place daily at 17.00 at the Soldatenhaus on the Stubalm (weather-dependent).
Tickets cost 13 Euros. Those who would like to look at the stud can buy an extended ticket costing 34 Euros, which includes a guided tour of the stud farm in Piber and a picnic.
More information: www.lipizzanerheimat.com
