Lipizzan

The Lipizzan, or Lipizzaner, is a European breed of riding horse developed in the Habsburg Empire in the sixteenth century, a muscular, powerful, slow-maturing and long-lived horse usually gray in coat. The breed takes its name from the village of Lipica, now in Slovenia, site of one of its earliest stud farms, which remains active today. It is closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, where Lipizzans demonstrate the haute ecole movements of classical dressage, and eight foundation stallions foaled in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are recognized as the classic bloodstock to which all modern Lipizzans trace. Lipizzan horse breeding traditions are recognized by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.