Horses and Dressage: November 2008

A member of H&D gave me the link with this text:

On May 7, 1945, the day before Germany surrendered and the war in Europe ended, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and Robert Patterson, the Undersecretary of War, drove to Schloss Arco in nearby St. Martin im Innkreiss in Upper Austria to see the white Lipizzaner stallions of the famous Spanische Hofreitschule, or Spanish Riding School.

The Lipizzaners had been secretly evacuated to St. Martin from Vienna in March 1945 by the Spanish Riding School's director, Col. Alois Podhajsky, who was afraid the stallions would be killed by air raids or captured by the approaching Russian army and sent to the Soviet Union.With lack of fodder for his horses and uncertainties facing the future of the school, Podhajsky thought the American Army could help him protect his magnificent stallions and the 200-year-old Spanish Riding School. To that end, Podhajsky enlisted the aid of XX Corps commander Walton Walker, who invited Gen. Patton to a demonstration of the haute école.

At Schloss Arco, Patton and Patterson watched a performance of the Lipizzaners. The white stallions were famous the world over for their splendid leaps, the graceful dance of Pas de Trois, and the quadrille ballet. Known for their classical beauty, intelligence and athleticism, the origin of the Lipizzaners goes back to the village of Lipizza in present day Slovenia, where the court stud was founded in 1580 with Spanish horses imported by Archduke Charles II.

Through the centuries, the descendants of the Lipizzaners were carefully bred from the foundation sires: Pluto (b.1765), Conversano (b.1767), Neapolitano (b.1790), Favory (b.1779), Maestoso (son of a Neapolitaner and Spanish horse) or Siglavy (b.1810). The Lipizzaner is known for its expressive head, a highly set neck, a long and powerful back, and a tail and mane that are thick and fine haired. The foals are born dark, either black or brown, and they acquire their white coloring between the ages of four and 10 years.

At the end of the performance at Schloss Arco, Podhajsky rode a white Lipizzaner stallion named Neapolitano Africa over to Patton, who was in uniform and wearing his trademark helmet with stars embossed on the front. Podhajsky saluted with a wave of his gold-cockaded hat. Patton rose from his seat.

Podhajsky, who held his hat in his right hand and the reins and a crop in his left, addressed Patton and the other visitors.

"I ask you, Gen. Patton," said Podhajsky, "and the representatives of the U.S. government to take under your protecting hand this old Austrian Academy, a cultural institution of the noble art of riding, unique in Europe and perhaps unique in the world. This school demonstrates the development of culture of the 16th century and it represents the era of the Baroque almost intact."

Patton nodded and replied, "Magnificent! These horses will be wards of the U.S. Army until they can be returned to the new Austria." In appreciation, Podhajsky, and the other riders slowly raised their hats in salute. The white Lipizzaner stallions stood at attention.

As one of the outstanding field commanders in the U.S. Army, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was flamboyant, temperamental and controversial. Closely associated with the development of tanks and the tactics of armored warfare, Patton was a former cavalryman and an accomplished horseman.

After graduation from West Point in 1909, Patton's second assignment was with the 15th Cavalry at Fort Myer, Va. There he found time to race horses, compete in steeplechases and play polo. His equestrian skills were evident. As a member of the American team in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympiad at Stockholm, Sweden, Patton, on a borrowed Swedish cavalry horse, registered a perfect score in the 5,000 meter steeplechase.

Patton distinguished himself during World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, where he commanded the 304th Tank Brigade. In the peacetime era before the outbreak of World War II, he rejoined the cavalry and owned a dozen horses. While pursuing his military career, Patton also played on the Army polo team and enjoyed foxhunting, steeplechasing and horse shows, where he won some 400 ribbons and 200 cups.

Patton's cavalry training and fondness for horses made his decision in 1945 to assume responsibility for the magnificent white Lipizzaner stallions understandable.

Patton wrote in his diary that day:

It struck me as rather strange that, in the midst of a world at war, some 20 young and middle-aged men in great physical condition, together with about 30 grooms, had spent their entire time teaching a group of horses to wriggle their butts and raise their feet in consonance with certain signals from the heels and reins. Much as I like horses, this seemed to me wasted energy. On the other hand, it is probably wrong to permit any highly developed art, no matter how fatuous, to perish from the earth-and which arts are fatuous depends on the point of view. To me the high-schooling of horses is certainly more interesting than either painting or music.

With his stallions now in the safe hands of Gen. Patton and the U.S. Third Army, Col. Podhajsky was faced with another concern. Two years earlier in 1943, the Lipizzaners' breeding mares, which were bred to supply the Spanish Riding School's stallions, were taken by the German High Command from the lush green pastures of the Austrian Federal Stud in Fiber. Podhajsky knew that without the mares, the Lipizzaner stallions and the Spanish Riding School faced extinction.

What Col. Podhajsky did not know at the time was that Gen. Patton was already involved in the Spanish Riding School's destiny.

Nine days before, Patton had given approval to one of his commanders, Col. Charles Hancock Reed of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group (Mechanized), to execute an operation to rescue from the German Army more than 1,000 horses that included the Fiber breeding mares.

The story of the dramatic rescue began on April 25,1945, when Capt. Ferdinand P. Sperl, who was attached as an interrogator to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group, received information that a German intelligence unit that lacked transportation to Berlin was bivouacked in an area on the Czechoslovakian border. After negotiating with the German commander, Capt. Sperl led an "attack" early on April 26, and after a prearranged exchange of harmless gun fire, the Germans surrendered.

Later that day Col. Reed and the German general in charge of the intelligence unit had breakfast together. The two men found that they had a mutual interest in horses. The general showed Reed some beautiful photographs of Lipizzaners and Arabs that had recently been taken at the German Remount Depot at Hostau, Czechoslovakia.

R eed was told that a large number of valuable horses taken in territories under German control had been moved to Hostau, where there were ample stables, paddocks and enLclosures. Reed also learned that several hundred Allied prisoners of war were held there. Both agreed that the prisoners and horses must not fall into the hands of the approaching Russian army.

Like Gen. Patton, Col. Reed was a former cavalry officer, who had excelled in all aspects of equestrian sport. A graduate of West Point in 1922, Reed had served with the 8th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the 2nd Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kan. He was also a member of the Army Horse Show Team 1930-31 and an instructor at the Cavalry School.

After assuming command in 1942 of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, later organized as the 2nd Cavalry Group, Reed led the unit throughout World War II. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his skillful command of the group and personal courage while under attack by German tanks at the battle for Luneville.

After his breakfast with the German general, Col. Reed acted quickly. He sent a prisoner by bicycle to Hostau to arrange for a German officer to come through the American lines that night to arrange terms for surrender. Reed also sent a radio message through XII Corps to Third Army Headquarters requesting permission from Gen. Patton for a military operation to rescue the prisoners of war and the horses.Patton's reply was relayed to Reed: "Get them. Make it fast! You will have a new mission."

That night at about 8:00 P.M. Capt. Rudolph Lessing, German staff veterinarian at Hostau, arrived at one of Reed's border posts to arrange the surrender. He was riding a Lipizzaner and leading another. The German officer was taken to Col. Reed's headquarters, where the men had cocktails and dinner.

It was agreed that as an act of good faith, an American officer would ride back with Lessing and arrange the surrender of Hostau. Lessing warned Reed that between the American lines and Hostau there were elements of an SS Division that would fight. Reed was not concerned.

Capt. Thomas M. Stewart of the 42nd Squadron, a fine horseman from Tennessee and the son of a U.S. senator, volunteered to ride back with Lessing. The men were taken by jeep to the border post, climbed atop the Lipizzaners and rode off to Hostau.

After some harrowing experiences behind German lines, Stewart returned by motorcycle sidecar on the night of April 27. He reported that the German commanding officer, Lt. Col. Hubert Rudofsky, and his staff at Hostau, with the exception of a Czech-born lieutenant colonel, agreed to surrender when American forces arrived. Stewart told Reed that the Germans preferred to turn the horses over to the Americans rather than to the approaching Russians.

Col. Reed went ahead and gave the order to a small force he had already assembled to proceed with the mission to capture Hostau. Named Task Force Reed, the unit consisted of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group's 42nd Cavalry Squadron, which included a platoon of tanks and assault guns. Maj. Robert P. Andrews, with Capt. Stewart as his assistant, commanded the task force.

At daybreak on April 28,1945, American forces opened a firefight on the front line. After capturing two towns along the way, the task force broke through to Hostau. Col. Reed wrote that when his men reached Hostau, it "appeared as a fiesta rather than a battle. Townspeople and Allied prisoners lined the streets-the German soldiers presented arms-the German flag went down-ours went up, and after placing outposts, the officers, intelligence personnel and as many soldiers as could be spared went to look at the wonderful array of captured horses."

For Col. Reed and the men of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group, it was a special moment.

The unit's origins went back to May 1836 when President Andrew Jackson signed a bill forming their forebears-the second Regiment of Dragoons. Over the next hundred years, the soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment fought on horseback in the second Seminole War, the War with Mexico, the Civil War, on Frontier Service and in Indian Campaigns, in the War with Spain, the Philippine Insurrection, on Mexican Border Service and in World War I. It was only in recent times that the men and officers of that famed cavalry regiment traded their beloved horses for armored tanks.

With remnants of the former 2nd Cavalry Regiment at Hostau, Col. Reed recalled proudly: "Horses captured consisted of about 300 Lipizzaners, the Fiber breeding herd plus the Royal Lipizzaner stud from Yugoslavia-well mixed together. Over 100 of the best Arabs in Europe, about 200 thoroughbred and trotting bred horses collected from all of Europe-finally about 600 Cossack breeding horses."

The Headquarters 2nd Cavalry Group combat log for April 28, 1945, showed the 42nd Squadron also captured 416 prisoners and released 150 Allied prisoners of war. The next morning, a part of the task force rejoined the 2nd Cavalry Group. Capt. Stewart and one platoon of tanks were left to control Hostau and to protect its valuable horses.

Fearing an attack by the SS troops in the area, Stewart organized a defense force using some of the released Polish prisoners and Hostau's German troops and their anti-communist Cossack allies, who wanted to maintain the horse farm. The SS troops attacked Hostau late on April 30, 1945. A five-hour battle took place, which resulted in Stewart's forces defeating the attackers and capturing 100 prisoners; one soldier of the 42nd Squadron was killed and another wounded.

With Germany's unconditional surrender a week later, the war in Europe ended. On the day hostilities ceased, the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group was on the general line extending about 10 miles southeast of Pilsen-Horsice-Zinkovy-Nepomuk in Czechoslovakia. Their new mission was to prevent the Russian army from penetrating American-held territory.

On or about May 9, 1945, Col. Reed received a message from Third Army Headquarters that Gen. Patton had been in contact with Col. Podhajsky, head of the Spanish Riding School. Reed was informed that Podhajsky was at St. Martin in Austria with the Lipizzaner stallions. The message went on to tell Reed that Podhajsky would be flown up to his headquarters at Zinkovy as soon as practical to check the breeding mares and to have them join the stallions in Austria.

Meanwhile, Reed had reason to want to move the horses.

"A day or so after the German surrender, it became evident to me that the Czech and Russian Communists were showing a great interest in the captured horses," recalled Reed. "In fact, they made several stealthy visits to Hostau, apparently to connive with the Czech-born lieutenant colonel, who was second in command when we arrived."

Col. Reed informed Gen. Patton's headquarters of his concerns and recommended that the entire herd of horses be transferred to Schwarzenberg, a safer base some 30 miles away in Bavaria, where the Russians would not be tempted to seize the animals. Patton's headquarters authorized the movement of the horses and "issued orders giving the horse movement priority on all needed roads during the time necessary."

At dawn on May 12,1945, the movement of horses began from Hostau to Schwarzenberg. With few trucks available, the animals were moved in small herds, each preceded by an American vehicle. Germans, Russian Cossacks and a few American cavalrymen served as outriders and guides.

The young colts stayed with their dams, and the mares heavy in foal, were moved in trucks. German, Polish and Russian women and children, with few possessions and little food, accompanied the procession in trucks and horsedrawn carriages. Late that night the strange convoy of soldiers, civilians and horses reached Schwarzenberg safely.

On or around May 14, 1945, Col. Podhajsky flew into Zinkovy on an American plane, where he spent the night and dined with Col. Reed and his staff. Plans were made for the breeding herd to be returned to Col. Podhajsky at St. Martin's as soon as practical. The next day Reed and Podhajsky drove to Schwarzenberg, where the Riding School's director pointed out the horses of the Fiber herd. Podhajsky was very pleased with their condition.

Col. Reed arranged for two convoys on May 18 and 25, 1945, to return the Fiber herd to Podhajsky at St. Martin in Austria, a distance that required the Lipizzaners to be transported by trucks that were refitted as best they could to carry horses. The trip was difficult and a few mares were injured; two suffered broken legs and were destroyed. Two hundred and fifteen Lipizzaners arrived at St. Martin. The arrival of the breeding mares ensured the future of the Austrian Lipizzaner stallions and the 200-year-old tradition of the Spanish Riding School.

"The remaining horses," recalled Reed, "were later transferred to the large and most suitable German horse breeding establishment of a remount depot in Hessia. This included the Arabians, racing horses, the Yugoslavian Lipizzaners and a number of the Cossack horses. Since all were war booty of the American Army, the best of these and other captured animals were later shipped to the United States for use by the U.S. Remount Service."

In appreciation of Gen. Patton's personal involvement on behalf of the Spanish Riding School, the Austrians presented him with a white stallion named Pluto XX and several mares, which he sent back to the United States.

Seven months after the Lipizzaner stallions and the Fiber herd were reunited in Austria, on December 21, 1945, Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany after an automobile accident. Col. Reed of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Group commanded the guard of honor at Patton's funeral.

Of the many famous photographs of Patton taken before his death, there was one of him in Salzburg, Austria, on a white horse. It showed Patton in uniform and helmet proudly astride a magnificent Lipizzaner stallion named Favory Africa. The Lipizzaner had been chosen by Adolf Hitler as a present for Japan's Emperor Hirohito, a gift that Patton had made sure was never delivered.

Hi I just wanted to share!

I just love to watch and learn from this remarkable Horseman Klaus Hempfling.

Does anyone else know him?

Dancing With Horses: The Art Of Body Language

Hempfling, K.F.

For master trainer Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling, work with horses is comparable to dancing. The primary obligation of riding, he explains is to maintain the horses powerful and elegant movement under saddle. Improper training compromises the horses naturally joyful steps with confusing commands; a horse moves with extraordinary grace only if the request is effectively communicated. In this demonstration, Hempfling teaches us the language of horses. Advising that even the slightest movement conveys powerful information. Hempfling shows how to use body language to communicate. He demonstrates his methods one wild Pyrenees stallions that are, within minutes, transformed into tame, willing partners - nevertheless retaining all their spirit. As Hempfling insists, when the trainer uses languae the horse can understand, the horses movement will always be beautiful, from the first lesson.

DVD 50

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Coming Together: Use Body Language To Establish Leadership, Friendship And Trust

By Hempfling, K.F.

DVD 50 min

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What Horses Reveal: From First Meeting To Friend For Life

Hempfling, K.F.

Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling took the international horse world by storm with his acclaimed book and companion video Dancing With Horses. Now, he returns with another illuminating look at his groundbreaking theories. In What Horses Reveal, Hempfling explains his unique system for recognizing horses personalities: every horse no matter what breed or type, fits into one of his 26 clearly defined character groups. Each of these character groups has a corresponding training methodology – a carefully considered process of learning that best serves that type of horses habitual behaviors, inclinations, and pet peeves. Hempfling also emphasizes the importance of understanding the intricacies of body language: both the horses and your own. He explains that mental and physical self-control are imperative when working with horses – one misplaced or misunderstood feeling, glance, posture, attitude or movement can make the difference between success and failure in your relationship.

Hard Back 206 pgs.

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