The Criollo

The Criollo (in Spanish), or Crioulo (in Portuguese), is the native horse of Argentina (1918), Uruguay (1923), Brazil (1932) and Paraguay. It may have the best endurance of any horse breed in the world next to the Arabian. In fact, due to the criollo’s low basal metabolism, it may be a better long-distance horse than the Arabian in prolonged races over a week in duration with no supplemental feed. The breed is most popular in its home country, and is known for its hardiness and stamina. The breed dates back to a 1535 shipment of 100 Pure Bred Spanish - Andalusian stallions coming from Cadiz, Spain, to the Rio de la Plata imported by Buenos Aires founder, Pedro de Mendoza.

In 1540, Indian hostility forced the Spaniards to abandon Buenos Aires and between 12 and 45 surviving horses were set loose. When Buenos Aires was resettled in 1580, it is estimated that the feral horse population numbered around 12,000. Since it largely reproduced in the wild, the criollo developed into an extremely hardy horse that was able to survive the extreme heat and cold, subsist with little water, and live off the dry grasses of the area. Settlers later came and started capturing horses for riding and for use as pack animals. The Native Americans had already been doing that for many years.

The criollo is a hardy horse with a brawny and strong body. They have short, strong legs with good bone, resistant joints, low-set hocks, and sound, hard feet. The long-muzzled head is medium- to large-sized and has a straight or slightly convex profile with wide-set eyes. The croup is sloping and the haunches well-muscled, the back short with a strong loin. They have sloping, strong shoulders with muscular necks. The body is deep with a broad chest and well-sprung ribs.

The criollo is tractable, intelligent, willing, and sensible. Criollo horses average 14.3 hands high. The maximum height for stallions and geldings is 15 hands high and the minimum height is 14 hands high. The maximum and minimum heights for mares are 2 cm less (approximately one inch). The line-backed dun is the most popular color, but the breed may also come in bay, brown, black, chestnut, grulla, buckskin, palomino, blue or strawberry roan, gray and overo colors.

The breed is famous for their endurance capabilities and ability to live in harsh conditions, as their homeland has both extreme heat and cold weather. They are frugal eaters, thriving on little grass. They have good resistance to disease and are long-lived.

One example of the breed's fantastic endurance was the ride made by the Swiss-born Argentine rider Professor Aimé Félix Tschiffely (1894-1954) in 1925-28. Tschiffely took two criollo’s, 16-year-old Mancha and 15-year-old Gato, on a 13,350 mile (21,500 km) trek from Buenos Aires to Washington D.C., crossing snow-capped mountains, the world's driest desert, the thickest tropical jungles and riding in all types of weather. Alternating the riding and packing between the two horses, the trio took three years to finish the trip. Although Prof. Tschiffely went through many hardships on the trip including a bout of malaria, the horses did wonderfully in the wide array of extreme topographies and climates. Gato lived to be 36, Mancha lived to be 40, living out the last years of their lives as celebrities in La estancia El Cardal (El Cardal Ranch), the breeding establishment of the man most credited for developing of the criollo breed, Dr. Emilio Solanet.
In 1987, Jorge Saenz Rosas, owner of the Argentine Estancia Cristiano Muerto, offered his criollo Sufridor to the American Louis Bruhnke and the Russian/French Vladimir Fissenko for a horseback ride from the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego to the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Deadhorse, Alaska. After traveling for five and a half years, the ride was accomplished in the summer of 1993. Having made the entire journey, the Criollo Sufridor is likely the horse that has traveled the furthest in a single direction. The ride was chronicled in the book "Sufridor," written by Louis Bruhnke.

Question:Saddle for Conversano Santa

Dear Horses and Dressage community, I’am new here and owner of a nearly 5 years old Lipizzaner gelding named Conversano Santa. Santa is not very big (1,53 cm) and has a really short rounded back. I’am on search for a dressage saddle and consulted a saddler for advice. He put some saddles on him to make a choice and found only 2 saddles from his 350 saddles in store, which could come into question. I took a seat in the saddles on a saddle tree and we decided in favour of a Schumacher Saddle.

The saddler made some modifications on it, decreasing the pad on the shoulder to keep the shoulder free for the movements, widen the tree and give the girth another position.

Now after several number of uses on the lunge and mounting on him I’am not really happy with this decision. The saddle slips to Santa’s shoulder and in case of mounting the saddle slips too, even the girt is tighten. On top, a physiotherapist for horses had a look at the saddle yesterday and confirmed my impression that this saddle is quite too long for him. But this saddle is one of the shortest we’ve found and a pony saddle is too small.

Now I ask for your experiences regarding the right saddle for Lipizzaner. It would be very helpful for me, if members of this community could give me some hints which saddle is in use on their own Lipizzaner horse (label/model). My saddler told me, that he is in the position to order a special saddle from the producer on demand.

Many thanks for your help in advance and feel free to enjoy Conversano Santa’s photos on my site. And I apologize for my english....

Petra

Blue Hors Matinee

The sensational dressage mare Blue Hors Matinee has been put down due to a broken leg, according to a statement on the Blue Hors Stud website:

　

"Today started like any other for Blue Hors Matinee when she was turned out to enjoy some freedom with her field buddy gelding Blue Hors Cavan. Unfortunately, it was the last day of life for Matinee.

A passer-by noticed that something was seriously wrong with the white mare in the pen and immediately alerted staff.

There was no doubt that Matinees' right front leg was broken at the knee and the vet found immediately that there was absolutely nothing to do to save her life, says director Esben Møller.

13-year-old Blue Hors Matinee by Blue Hors Silver Moon x Matador, bred by Inger B. Katballe, was just about to foal and hopefully make a career in breeding. The mare's sporting career has not been long, but it was very sucessful.

With rider Andreas Helgstrand the mare had an illustrious career and achieved in record time to become one of the world's most celebrated dressage horses.

At the World Cup WEG 2006 the pair won the championship first Grand Prix at the huge stadium in Aachen. In the Grand Prix Special they won the bronze in the Grand Prix Kur they won the silver medal. Their Kur quickly became the most watched dressage video on the internet and the portal YouTube has been viewed nearly ten million times!

It is with great sadness that Blue Hors today have had to say goodbye to their wonderful mare, and she was undoubtedly a horse that will touch people and dressage enthusiasts the world over."

 

The WEG2006 Freestyle Dressage Final performance of ANDREAS HELGSTRAND on BLUE HORS MATINEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw

الخمسه Al Khamsa

"Al Khamsa" is an Arabic term that is applied to specific Bedouin bloodlines of the Arabian horse. It roughly translates to "the five."

The legend of Al Khamsa refers to the five favorite horses of the prophet Muhammad. According to this folklore, Mohammed denied his mares water for three days as a test of endurance and stamina. He then released the mares to run to an oasis and quench their thirst. As a test of loyalty, the mares were called back by the sound of the battle horn before reaching the water. Of the hundreds of mares charging forward, only five stopped and returned to Mohammed. These became known as "the five". 

Each of these brave and loyal mares was given a strain name -

Kehilan, Seglawi, Abeyan, Hamdani and Hadban 

- and was carefully bred, creating the foundation of the Arabian Horse's Bedouin bloodlines. Arabian horses that can trace all of their bloodlines to these Bedouin strains are collectively known as "Al Khamsa Arabians".

Another version says the legend of Al Khamsa refers to the five horses of the Syrian historian "Mohamed El Kalabi" book entitled "Origins of Horses". According to this folklore, in year 3000 BC the famous "Maareb" dam located in Yemen was damaged and all Arabian horses ran away and disappeared in the Arabian desert. few years later a discovery group from Yemen was sent to find horses in the Arabian desert "Najd". The search group was formed of 5 men and they spent one month in the Arabian desert looking for the horses. finally they saw 5 of them coming to small well to drink water. When the horses saw the men they ran away. So the search group made a plan to capture the horses. The plan was to make a small piece of wall around the well. The wall gradually started to surround the well until there was only one block left to close the well. When horses went in to drink water, the search group closed the hole and captured them. On their way back to Yemen, the search group ran out of food and they started starving so they decided to slaughter one horse and eat it. To decide which horse to kill they suggested to make a race and the loser will be used for food for the search team. They made the race and one horse lost, but the owner of this horse did not accept the result of the race and asked to re do the race. So they made the race again, but this time another horse lost. Again the owner did not like to the result and asked to re do the race. They made the race for the 3rd time and a different horse lost... so they kept making the races until they found a deer and hunted it and they were saved as well as the 5 horses. The 5 horses were named as follows: 

Kehailan: In Arabic language it means the eye with black circle around it. This type of horses has black circle around their eyes.

Seqlawi: In Arabic language it means refining. These type of horses refines the ground with their hooves. 

Maanagi: In Arabic language it means long neck. This horse had a long neck.

Abbeyan: The name is derived from "Abaa" meaning a mantle. While racing, the owner of the horse had a mantle around him and it fall off, these type of horses left their tails up while running, so the "Abaa" mantle got stuck with the horse's tail until the end of the race, and the search group decided to call it "Abeeyan" or "Obbeyan" meaning the horse who left his tail up while running strong enough to hold a mantle all the way with such high speed. 

Showaimah: In Arabic language it means birthmark. This horse type had a long white birthmark on his head starts between the eyes all the way to the nose. So this type was called "Showaimah".

Later on new horse types were introduced but in origin they all go back to the above 5 types. The new Arabic horse types are: - "Hamdani" because who kept this type was during the "Hamdani" ruling of Aleppo, although they were "Kehailan". - "Hedban" meaning black, also generated from Kehailan with very dark black. Actually the Arabs had four colours for their horses: Hedban (Black), Blue (Gray), Brown and Red.

Young stallions arrived in Vienna

Yesterday afternoon (January 21, 2010) eight young Lipizzaner stallions of the year 2006 arrived from the Austrian national stud Piber in Vienna. 

According to the tradition they were brought in by the stud manager of Piber, Dr. Max Dobretsberger, and handed over to the leader of the SRS, Mr. Ernst Bachinger and stablemaster Mr. Johann Hamminger.

It concerns:

Maestoso Rustica-15
Maestoso Alea II-28
Maestoso Theodorosta I-29,   sire: Maestoso Bellamira (1982)

Conversano Bellamira II-16
Conversano Rubina-17
Conversano Bradamanta-27,   sire: Conversano Mantua (1978)

Favory Bonavia-23
Favory Trompeta-25,   sire: Favory Superba  (1990)

Interesting to mention is, that 2 of them were already born in February 2006. The "youngest" among them is born in June 2006. This proves [for those outthere who always may have believed, that it was a fairytale ;-)  ]  that indeed the Spanish Ridingschool in Vienna is starting to break their horses not earlier than with the age of  3,5 - 4 years !!

Please let us be aware of this ancient experience of this century old institution , and follow this example! Do not start too young with your horse !

See a small video:

http://www.kleinezeitung.at/nachrichten/chronik/2275529/hofreitschule-acht-neuen-lipizzanerhengsten.story    
or
http://www.upc.at/upclive/news/videonews/?entryId=5820323

Articles:
http://wien.orf.at/stories/417666/   and
http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/wien/534450/index.do?from=gl.home_panorama

New arrivals in Piber

Some lovely photos of two new arrivals in Piber. 

An article in German from the Kleine Zeitung about the first foals of the new season.

I see on the SRS website that eight new (four-legged) pupils for the Riding School are due to arrive in Vienna on Thursday.  That should be interesting for all concerned!

Questions about the SRS from an American author

Dear Horses and Dressage community,

I've been in touch with Andreas Hausberger, and he was kind enough to invite me to join this group and to pose questions related to research for a book I'm writing. I am so honored to be in communication with this distinguished, knowledgeable community, and I thank you in advance for any time you might be able to spare for my questions.

I am writing a children's book (for ages 10-14) about the experiences of a Lipizzaner stallion at Piber in the 1930s and at the SRS during World War II. It's told from the point of view of the horse, whom I've named Favory Mercurio. He's rather homely, a bit too tall, but shows promise for the Courbette. He's a philosophical horse, and I've had lots of fun writing about how he feels about his training, his handlers, and life in general. (I've characterized him as the Hans Castorp of horses.) I have done quite a bit of research about the school, Lipizzaners, Piber, the war, etc., have read several of Alois Podhajsky's books, and have had some questions answered by the Media Office of the SRS, but of course with a book like this, there are always more questions and more details to flesh out. Some things I'm going to have to make up--it is a novel after all--but where it's possible to be historically accurate, I'd like to be. And because some of the things that are important to my horse aren't necessarily of first importance to a human, it can be tricky finding all the answers. 

So here are the first of my questions -- and I can't thank Mr. Hausberger enough for allowing me to post them here, and to thank you all for your thoughts and ideas. The book that I'm writing is the fourth in a series published by Macmillan, the Breyer Horse Portrait Collection. My first book, "A Horse of Her Own," was also published in Germany as "Ein Herz, Eine Seele" by Arena Verlag, and you may visit my website, www.anniewedekind.com, for more information about my work.

--How would one get from Piber to Vienna in the 1930s? Train--or truck and trailer (if transporting a horse)?

--I am trying to get a better sense of what daily life is like for a new stallion starting training at the SRS. I have read a lot about the training itself, but I need details about his living situation. Do the new stallions live in the same barns with the older stallions? Do they interact with the older stallions? Do they have "free time" in paddocks together? I know in the 1930s the horses were actually ridden out in the country as well -- were there other opportunities for the horses to relax and mingle, before they started spending part of the summers in the Lainz zoo? (I don't think that happened until the late 30s, early 40s.)

--In my story, Chief Rider Polak trains my horse in the beginning, and then he is assigned to a younger rider. I would love to see a good picture of Polak if anyone has one! From the not-very-clear picture I've seen, it looks like he had a big nose. True? I am characterizing him (based on Podhajsky's description) as a calm, brilliant, patient man. A true teacher. Is that fair? Anything else I should know about Chief Rider Polak? He's one of the heroes of my book, and helps bring out the best in my horse.

--Col. Podhajsky is another hero, but a more volatile character. Based on his books, I'm depicting him as a bit more flamboyant, a bit more dramatic, a bit more arrogant, but still a brilliant rider and leader and protector of the School and the horses. Would you say this is fair? Any remarks at all about his personality would be very helpful. I love his books, but he definitely had an ego, no?

--Does anyone know who the director of Piber was in the mid-1930s? Or anything else about him? 

I think that is all for now, but if it's OK, I'd love to be able to pose more questions as I go back over my narrative and identify the gaps. I'm about halfway done with the book now.

With gratitude, and best wishes,

Annie Wedekind

Television broadcast: Piber in the snow

Two days ago, January 12th 2010, the Austrian national television ORF broadcasted a 6 minutes item about the Federal Stud of Piber !

You will see Dr. Max Dobretsberger, presenting his young stallions and the brood mares in the snow. And he shows the original studbooks of the imperial stud in Lippiza, lying in the safe of the stud.

Enjoy:
http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/1003023-Winterzeit/episodes/1153877-Winterzeit
(select SAT-Reportage)

{Added picture: Conversano Sessana & Dr.Max Dobretsberger
 Copyright: Gabriele Boiselle/Edition Boiselle & Bundesgestüt Piber/Austria}

Breeding and Inbreeding

In another topic, roanart said

203 - CONVERSANO IV SOJA and my mare has this same C. Soja back 4 generations. They're too closely related for breeding, no?

I totally agree with Atjan’s comments in that topic. Geneticists and animal scientists use a computation called the inbreeding coefficient to estimate how closely related two parents are and how much inbreeding would be present in their offspring. The calculated number estimates what percentage of the offspring’s genes are doubled up due to inbreeding. So, the smaller the number, the less inbreeding exists.

All horse breeds are inbred to some extent. For the Thoroughbred, where breeders intentionally avoid inbreeding as if it were the plague, the inbreeding coefficient is still about 8%. For breeds like the Lipizzaner which have a small number of stallion and mare lines and a history of close breeding, the average would be somewhat higher, perhaps somewhere around15%.

The inbreeding coefficient is based on common names appearing in both the stallion and mare's pedigrees. It decreases by 1/2 for each generation back in the pedigree that the common name appears. So, having C. Soja 4 generations back in the pedigrees of a stallion and mare would increase the inbreeding coefficient of their foal by about 0.2%.

Dr. Oulehla, the former Director of the SRS and Bundesgestut Piber, lectured in the U.S.in 1995 and 2001. In those lectures, he said that he used a three generation rule of thumb: if the stallion and mare had no common parents or grandparents, the foal resulting from the cross would be acceptable in terms of inbreeding. This rule of thumb means that the stallion and mare may have common great grandparents. In the cases where they have exactly one common great grandparent, it would increase the inbreeding coefficient by about 1.5%.

About 15 years ago, I wrote an article on inbreeding and for the USLR magazine. Here’s a summary of what I tried to say in the article:

1. The amount of inbreeding in a proposed mating can be evaluated by looking at the pedigrees and statistically estimating the percentage of genes that would be duplicated by inbreeding.
2. The farther back in the pedigrees of a stallion and mare you see duplicated names, the less important they are:
1. Names duplicated in the first two or three generations have a big influence.
2. Duplicated names that appear only in the fourth generation or farther back are pretty meaningless as they contribute at most 0.2% to the inbreeding coefficient.
3. Names that appear in the first two or three generations of one parent's pedigree and are duplicated in the fourth generation (or farther back) in the other parent's pedigree have a modest influence (1.5% or less). For example, if the stallion's sire appears in the 4th generation of the mare's pedigree, that would produce 1.5% inbreeding. If the stallion's sire appears in the mare's 5th generation, that's about 0.75%. Similarly, if the stallion's granddaddy appears in the mare's 4th generation, that's also 0.75%.
3. To avoid doing arithmetic for each mating you consider, evaluate the match as follows:
1. You can ignore repeated names in either pedigree if you do not see the same name in the other pedigree. For example, if the stallion has two crosses to Maestoso Santuzza but the mare has none, ignore it. In such a case, you would have an inbred parent but the foal would not be inbred. It's what breeders call an outcross.
2. Any name that appears in the first two generations of the stallion's pedigree should not appear anywhere in the first two generations of the mare's pedigree
3. If the pedigrees pass that test, the inbreeding coefficient for the resulting foal will be no more than 3% from the first 3 generations and perhaps less. To get as high as 3%, one of the stallion's parents would have to a great grandparent of the mare or the other way around (one of the mare’s parents is a great grand parent of the stallion).
4. If you extend this approach to 3 generations (i.e. No name that appears in the first 3 generations of the stallion's pedigree appears in the first 3 generations of the mare's pedigree), the foal's 4 generation inbreeding coefficient would be 1.5% or less.
5. The foal's inbreeding coefficient for 5 or 6 generations, might be a little higher if there are more duplications farther back but you can usually ignore them.

 

 

 

Courbette

Someone on Facebook (American Friends of the Spanish Riding School Group) mentioned that 12 jumps is the school's Courbette "record."  Can anyone confirm that?  It's AMAZING that a horse can be that strong and balanced!

Thanks!

Michelle :)

Ernst Hoyos

This is from an article in Horse Magazine. The article is titled "Working with Lisa Wilcox and Ernst Hoyos"  

Is what Ernst Hoyos says true about the SRS working behind the vertical?

---"Lisa is riding Raoul very deep and round, and a couple of inches behind the vertical. Which is a bit of a puzzle since we believed that the Spanish Riding School was the last enclave of the credo that behind the vertical is behind the bit and a mortal sin. Not so Ernst tells me later: "At the Spanish Riding School they have to work their horses through just like everyone else, just like we do - and then when you get into an arena to present them, then they go on the vertical. You have to work behind the vertical, and you do it in the Spanish School."---

 

SRS performance of the 4th of July 1946 in Wels (Austria)

On the 4th of July 1946 performed the Spanish Ridingschool especially in honor of the U.S. Army.

Place of action: the ridinghall of the Dragoons in Wels (Upper-Austria). This was the residence in exile of the Spanish Ridingschool from 1945 until their return to Vienna in 1955. Wels was located in the American zone within Austria, after WW II.

Since the famous performance of the Spanish Ridingschool for General Patton in St.Martin, May 1945, the U.S. Army took over the patronage of this ancient institution for the classical art of riding.

Please find a copy of the original program and enjoy ancient names of riders and Lipizzaner stallions!

The original document is owned by my dear friend, Mr. Jacques Pieterse, former trainee with the SRS in Wels and personal friend to Col. Alois Podhajsky.

Atjan

Disney's "Miracle of the White Stallions"

I have a three questions in regards to this movie and Elaine Hutchison tells me that there are some real experts on here :)

1. At the end of the movie, when they are performing in Vienna, I could *swear* the person riding the darkest grey Lipizzaner, right behind Robert Taylor, was a woman. Her chest was rather accentuated in a few angles. I also saw another rider that appeared to be a woman as well, but it's harder to pinpoint as he or she was on a white Lip. Were there women riders in the movie?

2. In this same performance, I noted at least two riders appeared to have classical seats and could have been from the SRS. Did any of the riders appear in the movie?

3. Last question: does anyone have a list of the horses that appeared in the Patton and/or the Vienna performance? I would dearly love to see if any of my mare's ancestors were in that movie.

Thanks!
Eileen