EN Today: Spanish Riding School opens its doors for the first time in 400 years

Kate Samuels reports that the Vienna institution is opening its hallowed halls to the equestrian public for symposiums and training sessions.

From Kate:

Perhaps not strictly related to Eventing news, but in the spirit of news about really cool things that effect horse lovers everywhere, this counts. There is no doubt in my mind that at one point, every Eventer out there has looked at a picture or video of a Lipizzaner doing a Capriole and thought, “I want to do that.”

The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is making history by opening its barn doors to trainers, riders and grooms to learn from the world famous institute. Beginning in the spring of 2013, this will be the first time in the 400 year history that the School and the stallions will be giving a range of symposiums and training sessions available to the equestrian public.

“The idea was to open the school for foreign riders, horses and grooms to share our century old knowledge,” Andreas Hausberger, the Chief Rider, said, “Beside that we’ll have theory seminars of one, three or five days, professional dressage trainer seminars of one, three or five days, seminars for dressage judges and seminars with international experts in fields like classical dressage, dressage in general, veterinary, hoof care, breeding.”

So, Eventing Nation, what are you waiting for? You know you’ve always wanted to visit the Spanish Riding School, and now you can do much more than that! You can ride amongst the enchanting stallions (at the risk of sounding a bit too much like a romance novel) and even take your horse and attempt to teach him the capriole.

More information on ticketing, dates, and registration, visit this website. [Spanish Riding School in Vienna]

Obviously, I had to include this video. Stick around until 1:20 for the most ridiculous one-tempi’s you’ve ever seen.