The first five people to comment on this post will receive a gift from me sometime this calender year! … The catch is you must make the same offer on your own page …. Offer applies worldwide – I will post anywhere! … To keep it simple, I’ll Pay it Forward for the first five comments on this blog – not on my Facebook page, Twitter account or on Haynet.
Rodney’s Saga Rewards might consist of
* A nice print if I struck it lucky with a photo this year.
* A bibelot at the intersection of LEGO and horses (I just finished four days of BrickFair).
* Ditto books and horses.
* A Spotted of your own, particularly if you live somewhere exotic relative to me (Eastern US) and are likely to retaliate with a Spotted At … photo.
Has there been a better age for armchair travel? Today, a look at how the Spanish Riding School is keeping their white horses in kibble. Ellen Broadhurst, author of The Chronicles of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2006] & The Further Adventures of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2008], is living the ex-pat life and touring the world with her family. Welcome Ellen:
Lipizzaner Als Trauzeugen!
Translation: “Lipizzaner as Groomsman!” For your wedding. Listen, these horses are expensive to maintain, so consider it a donation to a worthy cause should you decide to go this route.
Now you can tie the knot in the Spanish Riding School! Celebrate your wedding in the sumptuous lounge bar or in the impressive baroque Winter Riding School Renaissance courtyard. When organizing your dream wedding, we are very glad to help you!
I suspect it might be cheaper to purchase one of the Not Ready for Prime Time horses than it would be to use the facility for your wedding. I was trolling the Piber website (Piber being the Lipizzaner Stud) vaguely wondering if it was worth taking a day to go see the babies before we leave Austria, and decided to check out the”for sale” page for, you know, research.
There are no geldings, and only two stallions available for sale at the moment, but a host of mares (link to sale pages). One of the stallions is a “price available on request” dude, so no idea if that’s because he’s so awesome, or if he’s cart horse material, but the other fellow, one who is noted as being currently in training at the Spanish Riding School, is only €12,000 (about $16,600 US). Not including shipping, of course. That’s out of my price range, but it seems like a bargain if you are shopping for that sort of thing.
Fête Impériale
As with having the Lipizzaners join your wedding party, the ultimate goal is to support the riding school financially:
The net proceeds from the Fête Impériale will not only help to protect Europe’s oldest cultural horse breed but to preserve the quality of the Spanish Riding School. Enjoy a glittering evening under the stars to ensure that the Lipizzan Stallions continue to dance.”
The Ball Season in Vienna is January to March, so there aren’t a ton of summer balls. One imagines they do this one in the summer because at this point they will have sent the stallions off to their summer holiday in Heldenberg. The stallions are gone during July and August, although the Riding School does a program they call “Piber Meets Vienna.” Piber is of course the stud where the babies are born.
The ball this year is on Friday, June 27; tickets are not surprisingly a bit pricey, but if you are going to go to any ball, why not support the horses? For €180 (per person, to be clear), you get entry to the ball, but no table, plus an invite to a cocktail reception and access to all of the cash bar/buffet action. If you skip the cocktail party, you can get a ticket for as little as €120. Tables run more (a lot more), but if you are really interested, you can check out ticket options here: Fête Impérial Tickets.
Or, buy one of the mares. She’s way cheaper than a table.
This is where they live during the performance year. Are you wondering about the tables? It’s because the upcoming Fête Impériale. Photo by Ellen BroadhurstI love how Balls are advertised all over Vienna: on billboards. Photo by Ellen Broadhurst
At the last show, my waistband was held together with pins and I had to button my vest after I got on. My show clothes had shrunk over the winter. They seemed to have stretched back out. [Georgia] [Motivation]
I brought a stylus to the show specifically so that I could tweet with gloves on between classes. While I had plenty of time (note the time stamps), I also had to hold my valiant steed.
No trouble driving past the NASCAR track despite being race weekend. We assumed the helicopters we saw meant that the race was still on. The race fan in my family tells me that the race was well over by then. The helicopters were drivers leaving the track. Either way, we slipped right past. The real horror show is Sunday night when the track empties after the last race.
I suppose I should have felt heartless scampering off to a horse show so soon after our terrible day [Sad News]. I didn’t. I mostly felt relieved to not be sitting at home staring at the walls. When Chief Minion wasn’t at work, he brooded alone. He prefers to – as inexplicable as this is to me. I was still sad. I was going to be sad wherever I was. I kept playing back images from Friday. I couldn’t help it. It was like having a constant scream in my head that I tried to ignore. I didn’t cry. I don’t think I had any tears left. When I got gloomy, I’d wallow for awhile and then go off to take pictures or go watch the horse show.
So, I’m glad I went, eventhough I failed to cover myself with glory.
Update: (I forgot this bit.) The Dixie Cup Spring Classic, May 1-3, 2014, Georgia International Horse Park, Conyers, GA. I rode Saturday afternoon in the Academy division. Last year: Show Report.
301 SHOWMANSHIP WTC – ADULT – Second of 2Eye of the Tiger
Maggie had hopped about in her previous class. There was some thought that she might be wound up. As it turned out, she behaved just fine. A bit strong, but that’s normal for her. However, when I am thinking about the horse rather than myself, particularly if I’m trying to keep the lid on, I revert to hunter. [Boot Camp Battle]
302 EQUITATION WTC – ADULT – Second of 2
Now that I knew my horse was with me, I tried to sit up/sit back. I really did. The trotting and cantering phases lasted longer than in the first class. I assume because the judge had a harder time distinguishing between us. I still lost, but at least I gave the winner more of a run.
317 WALK-TROT-CANTER EQUITATION CH – Fifth of 5
It would be comforting to blame my poor performance on the distractions of the weekend. Alas, I cannot. I suffered an excess of zeal rather than a lack. For example, on the last trot pass, I cranked Maggie up and we flew down the long side of the arena. I felt mighty spiffy. From the outside, however, it is possible that we looked alarming rather than exciting.
Even the most dynamic Saddlebred gait is a contained fire. I get the fire. Not so good at the contained.
Three last places. My first show without a victory pass.
Casey McBride Photography
The Dixie Cup > MAY 03, SATURDAY > AFTERNOON. I haven’t looked. Given the number and ferocity of corrections yelled at me from the sidelines, I don’t dare.
Heading Home
For the first third of the drive, my inner child stomped her feet, stuck out her tongue, and said, ‘I never really wanted to ride Saddlebreds in the first place. So there. Nyeh!’ Turns out my inner child is a brat.
That sequed smoothly into
I can’t ride saddle seat ->
I can’t ride any seat ->
All those trot ribbons were a fluke ->
Why go to the next show? I’ll just screw up again ->
I’m a horrible human being.
At The Barn
My coach has a theory. When I got to the barn, she told me she had been thinking about my rides. ‘I’ll bet you have’ says I to myself. I flinched in dread of what she had to say. She reassured me that it wasn’t bad, that it might even make sense to me:
“Our canter is different than yours.”
The saddle seat canter is very gathered. I know this. I can do this in lessons. However, she posits that as soon as I storm into a show ring, my eyes glaze over and I’m looking for the next jump. Apparently, I look perfectly capable, I can clearly ride, it’s just that my position is not at all correct – for saddle seat.
It changes the interior landscape to think, ‘I can’t do X because I’m good at Y.’ versus, ‘I can’t do X because I’m a raging incompetent.’
Virtual Brush Box 