Lippizans Saddled Up for Los Angeles Show

The Lippizans have arrived at Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank. No, they’re not imports from the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna; most are American-bred descendants of the exotic European breed that has enchanted horse lovers for more than 400 years.

Nearly 50 of the breed are scheduled to compete and perform at the equestrian center Saturday and Sunday, with breeding and halter classes beginning at 8 a.m. and performance classes starting at 2 p.m. both days. Admission is free.

Breeders with 11 horses from three farms in the Pacific Northwest arrived at the center earlier this week. Among them was June Boardman of White Horse Vale stables in Goldenvale, Wash., who was introduced to the breed in the Walt Disney film, “The Miracle of the White Stallions.” She later visited the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and determined to find a Lippizan breeding stock of her own in the States.

The movie that got Boardman interested in the breed depicted Gen. George S. Patton Jr.’s actions during the last days of World War II. Patton is credited with protecting the Spanish Riding School when the Third Army advanced into Austria and engineering the dramatic recovery from behind German lines of the foundation bloodline of the Lippizans.

Another crisis with the Vienna stock occurred in 1983 when a viral epidemic claimed a number of Lippizan mares and foals at the Piber Stud in Austria. At that time, Dr. Jaromir Oulehla was commissioned to restructure and rebuild the breeding of the Lippizans in Austria. Oulehla, head of the Spanish Riding School and director of Federal Lippizan Stud at Piber, is in Los Angeles to judge the breed classes in the show and consult with American breeders.

Importance of Breeding

The weekend show is the second Lippizan competition in the United States; the first was in Michigan last October. At that time Oulehla emphasized the importance of retaining quality breeding.

“We know that the breed is in danger of extinction,” he said, pointing out that only about 500 to 600 purebred mares exist in the world.

Other statistics reveal a worldwide total of about 3,000 Lippizans, with a few more than 300 registered in the United States.

Among the owners in the United States is Margaret Gill of Highland Stables in Beaver Creek, Ore. Gill has brought her 15-year-old stallion, Siglavy Sagana II, to participate in the Los Angeles competition. The multi-talented stallion appeared, on occasion, with Circus Vargas and Ringling Brothers Circus before Gill acquired him five years ago. He will compete in dressage Saturday and in the exhibition class on Sunday, where he will demonstrate stunts he performed during his show-business days.

Debbie Sligh, livestock superintendent at Disneyland, will exhibit two Lippizans from the park on Saturday afternoon, and Joan Embery, good-will ambassador for the San Diego Zoo, will enter her own Lippizan filly, one of three Lippizans she owns, in the Saturday competition.

Barbara Gjerset, president of the Western States Lippizan Assn. and manager of the weekend event, will show a Lippizan stallion, mares and foals from Trail Canyon Equestre Center in Tujunga.

For more information on the show, telephone (818) 840-9063.