Der Lipizzaner im Spiegel der Wissenschaft

Hans Hadler, for many years director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, has stated that "classical horsemanship is both an art and a science". To some extent this statement is a motto for the present volume. Although it does not deal with horsemanship specifically, the volume begins with a richly illustrated chapter on the historical roots of the Lipizzaner and the various vicissitudes of their past, a description of how the studs, the stallion lineages and stud families developed, and a history of the Spanish Riding School, whereby important details concerning breeding and dressage are explained. The main part of the volume presents an overview of the scholarly work that has been done on this unique horse breed. Within the framework of a large-scale research projekt, started in 1977 and generously supported by EU and the Austrian State Ministries, the Lipizzaner population was meticulously studied by an international team of scholars. By means of studies on historical breeding, veterinary questions, morphometric characterization, studies on colour heredity, population-genetic analysis and molecular standardization, the goal was to capture the uniqueness of the Lipizzaner and depict it in a manner that is scientifically sound.