Horse Show and Tell

Beautiful Wild Horses

Some are black,

and some are red.

They are all very well breed.

They roam jut to find themselves a home.

I love the beautiful wild horses.

by Auntie Nettie age 9 1/2 4 Grade

A Portrait of My dream horse

(Which is apparently of the Godfather breed. And, oh, I'm so not a poet -- and I know it.)

Going through this old journal has reminded me of how horse crazy I was all those years ago. While I never had the "seat" for riding, some part of me is still that horse-crazy girl. When I saw that The "World Famous" Lipizzaner Horse Tour was coming to New York, you can just imagine. I had a little moment at my desk. I think I even squealed just a little bit.

There was a few tense minutes when I debated about whether to go or not, but then I remembered my resolution for the year: Life is too short, especially to pass up opportunities to try to do new things. I also realized that I am never going to get to Vienna to see the stallions at the Spanish Riding School. Plus, if I waited around to find someone to go with me, I'd talk myself out of the experience. Thank goodness I'm in New York, where no one looks at you too strangely if you go to events or restaurants by yourself. With the click of the mouse, and after slight inner battle about ticket costs, my inner child and I had tickets to the show at Madison Square Garden.

As expected, the crowd was predominately female of the pre-teen and teen variety, with some younger brothers and oh-so patient grandparents and parents to round out the demographic. The dad in the family unit next to me looked like he was a refugee from a hockey match, and seemed much relieved to be drowning his uncomfortableness in hot dogs and beer. I heard lots of stable and show talk, and saw lots of barn clothes and horse pictures on the cell phones that were waved about.

I was prepared to not be able to take flash photography during the show, so I was delighted when the emcee told us we could. I should have apologized to the people in front of me for the annoyance that I was about to become. Between the zoom and the flash, I'm glad I had back-up batteries in my bag, as I had to swap out part way through.

I wish I had been smart enough to sneakily and illegally videotape the opening number, with the presentation of the American flag and the singing of "America the Beautiful" and the National Anthem. The stallion was obviously not quite ready to go on, and although he quite patiently stood for "America," which was first, the rider had to check his pawing for the Anthem. I don't know if it was an American- or Austrian-bred Lipizzaner, but halfway through the "rockets red blare," a steaming pile of editorial statement was laid, right at the foot of the red carpet! It was priceless!

This American group is not affiliated with the Riding School in Austria, though apparently they have some kind of partnership now. Some of the stallions are from the European breeding programs, though there are some American-bred horses and some rescues now part of the act.

The show was great, and I was quite impressed that most of the riders were female. The oldest rider in the show was this 55-year old lady -- who had no problem with us knowing her age. I don't blame her. You have to be in shape to school these feisty guys. A combination of educational and artistic performance, the show was good for all kinds of horse enthusiasts. If you knew nothing about horses, the emcee was there to inform you about the history of the breed, the characteristics, markings, and brands to look for, and why only stallions are used and not mares. (Wouldn't you figure, it's a center of gravity thing.) One of the most obvious characteristics of the breed is that it matures slowly, lives a long time, and get more valuable the older and greyer it gets. (NICE! I only wish that was true for ladies.) There are rare Lipizzaners that never fade to grey/white and are prized as a sign of peace. The School in Vienna always tries to keep at least one of the rare dark Lipizzaners around. I wonder what happened during WWII, when the School was almost destroyed?

If you were a beginning rider, the emcee narrated the dressage techniques demonstrations, so you could look for them in the various "dances" that the horses performed. I tried to photograph the demonstrations of the flashy rearings and jumping techniques, but these are the best I got.
The ballet numbers were a gorgeous display of horsemanship and practice. Even if you didn't know how much work was going on between rider and horse, and how much "leg" and "arm" was required to communicate, it would still be impressive.

Although I was entranced by the show, I think the most charming moments were the ones I observed during intermission. I saw fathers playing "horsey" with their girls, carrying their little ones around on piggyback, while other little groups of children were playing around on the floor. No matter how much shopping the girls had already done at Macy's, or American Girl, or the Gap (and there were lots of bags to show for it), all they needed to see was a "real live" horse and rider and their imaginations took off. Despite the hawking from the vendors for shirts, programs, and stuffed horses, a lot of them were content to ride around to gallop around the floor.

[Of course, all I could think of was the Monty Python phrase, "you've got two halves of a coconut and you're banging them together." Clip-clop, clip-clop. That would be the inner imp part of me, not the inner child.]

Anyway, I'm so glad I went. That's another one of those "life list" items I can check off. Now my inner horse girl and I need to get to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands, not to mention Prince Edward Island to find the Lake of Shining Waters.