Ernst Lindenbauer

 “Up to the nineteenth century, there was an exclusive atmosphere about the haute ecole and the Spanische Hofreitschule in Vienna, and the Court had provided many outstanding horsemen to follow in the footsteps of the early masters. This exclusiveness was later modified to admit any aspirant whose aptitude promised to uphold traditions of the past. There were many candidates, though few enough were chosen to become instructors and fulfill what was often the ambition of a lifetime

During the early 1890’s there was one small boy, in particular, who thought of nothing else and who eventually succeeded in becoming one of the best known first instructors. His name was Ernst Lindenbauer, and this is his story as he told it.    
Before he was ten years old he would have given anything to join the Imperial School, but could find no one who would even consider engaging him as a stable boy. He was much too small to reach a Lipizzaner’s neck, let alone groom its silky coat. So for a long time he had to resign himself to pursuing his lessons. If they taught him nothing about horses, at least they made him feel each end of term would bring him nearer the goal he had set himself, and with each year that passed he would grow stronger and fitter for the job. There were holidays too, when he would steal into the stables, if only to be near the horses, to touch their velvet muzzles or enjoy the stable atmosphere and its delicious odour.  He lived just around the corner from the School. Sometimes he would go to the Prater and watch the riders trotting up and down the track. He would watch them eagerly in order to pick up anything he could about how to sit in the saddle and to hold the reins, as he had heard people say that you could see at a glance from the seat of a rider whether he had the art at his command.  At other times he stopped at the rank of fiakers, studying their harness.

One day, when he thought he had learned enough, he decided to make himself a little cab. His parents owned a pair of goats, and he thought he could train them to take him round the city. With any luck, he thought, someone might notice how well behaved they were under his control...and so it happened. He collected a few vegetable boxes and a long pole. In no time he was the owner of a handsome carriage and pair, brilliantly harnessed, spotlessly groomed. So much so, that they attracted the attention of the Archduke Francis Salvatore, one of the Emperor Franz Joseph I’s sons-in-law, who stopped him to examine his work of art and asked if he would not rather be with horses? Some were in Vienna, others in the country at Ischl, where the Emperor had his shooting-box and summer residence. The boy was so thrilled, he could find no word to express his appreciation, as millions of thoughts flashed through his mind all at once. Was his dream really coming true? Would his parents agree?  Anyway, he was to call on the Archduke, to try out one of his ponies. No, he was not afraid, but so excited he could hardly sleep that night.

Before he knew where he was, a little dark brown colt was taking him round the field adjoining the Imperial stableyard, and to his joy it had a wonderful mouth, obeying every one of the boy’s moves at the slightest indication. This was next day, and after that he was allowed to return as often as he wished, to get more practice, until he was fifteen and could leave school. In the meantime, every penny was saved, and he often skipped his meals and went really hungry, only to get back to the horses. One Sunday afternoon, the Archduke came to watch him, when it was decided that he should join the ‘Campagne School’, for beginners.
    
But that meant five o’clock at work each morning to learn everything from scratch. Soon he had to exercise a number of horses per day, and keep them in good condition. Three months later he was roped in to do serious work on the long rein, and in the saddle, joining several other boys of the cavalry club for longer rides. At the age of sixteen he saw his mounts winning prizes in dressage competitions. But his first big day was yet to come. Prince Liechtenstein, who was Master of the Horse to the Imperial Court and chief of the Spanische Hofreitschule, had been approached to accept him as an apprentice, and then came an unforgettable half-hour on one of the white stallions.
   

A new training period was in sight. Ernst was to receive a uniform and undergo his military education to begin with. During the summer holidays, the Archdukes family took him to Ischl where he taught the Imperial grandchildren to ride. Those were the happiest days of his young life and he became a great favorite at the Court. He had been an outstanding member of the Spanische Hofreitschule for some time, when he rose to the position of first instructor in 1926. Two years later he came to London with his team of men and horses, to give one of their usual displays of haute ecole, under the leadership of Count Rudolph van der Straten. Of this occasion, and of the one that followed in 1936, Lindenbauer spoke with the greatest pride of the honor he enjoyed in being presented to their Majesties, King George V, King George VI, and Queen Mary, particularly as Queen Mary delighted him by remembering having met himduring her visit to Vienna, some twenty years earlier. He also told of his devotion to the Duke of Windsor, who, as he said, came no fewer than twenty times to see the Lipizzaners at the Schule in Vienna, when he was Prince of Wales.

Lindenbauer was an Imperial servant of the old school and a master of the art of horsemanship, whose inborn love of the horse earned him a special place among the most remarkable and skilled riders in the annals of the Spanische Hofreitschule. His favorite Lipizzaner was Conversano Bonavista, on which he is pictured performing a Pirouette.”

From “The Spanish Riding School”, by Mathilde Windisch-Graetz