Lipizzaner Horse

In 1580 the Archduke Charles II established a stud farm in Lipizza breeding the local Karst horses with a selection of superior horses from all over the world including Spanish Andalusians, Barbs and Berbers, starting over 400 years of selective breeding. The Karst horses were white in colour, small, slow to mature, and extremely tough and passed their high stepping gate on to the modern Lipizzaner. During the Napoleonic Wars in the late 1700's the horses were moved three times. For a while Napoleon gained possession of the Lipizzaners and bred his Arabian stallion Vesir to them. The Kladruby horse helped to develop the Maestoso and the Favoryhe lines from1792 to 1815. From 1807 to 1856 the Arabian stallions Siglavy, Tadmor, Gazlan, Saydan, Samson, Hadudi, and Ben Azet were used to develop the breed further giving more lightness and refinement.