Real Men on White Horses!

My Day with the Lipizzaner Stallions in Vienna:

On Friday November 21st 2008, I took the opportunity to spend the day in Vienna and see a performance by the world famous Spanish Lipizzaner Stallions in the Hofreitschule. I initially arrived in Vienna at about 10 am, so I had the day to explore the other city sights since the horse show wasn’t until 7p.m. My first stop was the Belvedere Schloss, with its beautiful grounds and all within the city of Vienna. It was raining pretty heavily, but I was sure to take my new, trusty Landjugend Umbrella, so that wasn’t a problem. I wanted to be sure to pick up my ticket for the Lipizzaner Show early, so stopped by the store before I walked over to the Rathaus for my first ‘Christkindlemarkt’ experience. Luckily, the heavy rain took a breather when I arrived at the market. It was a wonderland of little huts selling anything from chocolate and sweet breads back to ornaments and jewelry. I enjoyed it so much and what made it even better was walking around with a nice hot mug of Glühwein while par oozing through the endless rows of huts. I noticed, before I bought the beverage that a majority of the shoppers were holding a blue mug and I am here to experience as much as I can, so…as they say, ‘When in Rome…’ therefore, I mingled with the locals holding my own blue mug of deliciousness! ;) Fear not, those that visit the market with their car, they sell alcohol free punch, which is also quite good. I was at the advent market for a few hours and then it started to rain again, so I took refuge in a local church, it was nice to rest my feet as well as to get out of the wind and rain. Then I, once again, braved the weather to revisit Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), which is the city landmark basically and quite lovely with its tiled roof and gothic style architecture. I shopped a bit along the Kärntner Straße (one of the main shopping streets) until I decided to make my way back to the Hofburg for the venue. It was about an hour before the performance, so I stopped at a little stand by the ‘Lions Club,’ which is similar to a ruritan club; so I decided to support them a bit by having a cuppa Glühwein. A very nice couple was running the stand and the husband spoke English well, so we had a great chat until I had to leave for my performance. Then, when I was shown to my seat (which was right in front=perfect) the couple next to me were Americans currently living in London and the wife was an MLT (Medical Laboratory Technician-Associates Degree Level) which was extraordinarily coincidental; needless to say she and I were excited to speak about our work…etc. The time flew by and the music began to play signaling the start of the show. The Master of Ceremonies was a bit long-winded, but other than that the performance was amazing. The Lipizzaner Stallions are bred in Piber (where I went with my 3rd host mother) and then trained and brought up to Vienna for the shows. The Hofreitschule is the ONLY location in the world that still practices the original forms of dressage (the art or method of training a horse in obedience and in precision of movement). The Lipizzaner Studs are born black an then, as they age, turn to pure white…very cool! Throughout the performance there were different levels of dressage, a few horses did jump-kicks and one could stay in the ‘rearing position’ for a good length of time. With Mozart playing in the background and several horses moving in unison, it was just a great atmosphere. The lofty ceilings and the white columns combined with the instrumental music reverberating in the gallery added so much to the mood of the show. One of my favorite parts of the performance was seeing the different personalities of the horses, even though they are in complete unanimity, there are still subtle hints as to each individual horse’s disposition. The best horse in the show would hold each pose longer and stronger than the others and, in doing so, adding his own little twist, would blow air out of his nose loudly on each step; I liked that horse best of all, it had the most outward and forceful personality (perhaps there is a correlation there, maybe we are kindred spirits). Who knows…but the show was an absolute treat and, even though it was rather expensive, I would recommend it to future travelers visiting Vienna. Two thumbs WAY, WAY UP!

When the show ended at 8:20 p.m, I rushed on the metro back to the Südbahnhof (train station) where I had previously checked that 3 trains were running back to Münchendorf that night; However, I was very unenthusiastically told by the information desk, “There are NO more trains to Münchendorf today.” I was a little upset, but instead of wallowing in self-pity, I thought quickly and jumped on the next train to Mödling; which is only about 10 minutes drive from my host family. Luckily, my host mother had suggested I borrow Irina’s (9 yr. old host sister) Handy (cellphone) for the day in Vienna, so I was able to call them to pick me up. Even with that little mishap at the end of the day and my umbrella breaking from the extreme wind at lunchtime, I was still on ‘Cloud 9,’ smiling from ear-to-ear on the train home. It was a magical day with the Christmas market and my lovely ‘Men on White Horses!’

(Note to the ladies: MOST of the trainers/riders were ‘cute-as-a-button,’ or rather a more appropriate phrase, ‘STUD MUFFINS!’ ;) It was a super night and quite visually stimulating!)