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Nouveau Baroque Horse: Bringing Old World Romance to Modern Dressage
By Kip Mistral
Reprinted courtesy of Equine Journal Magazine
If man is at his best when consciously using his skill and imagination to birth a creation that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit, he outdid himself in the 17th –18 th century Baroque era in European art and design. The word Baroque (from Middle French barroque and Portuguese barroc) refers to an irregularly shaped pearl and, interestingly, was employed to suggest the variety of characteristics—from dramatic to bizarre to overdecorated—that comprised this style of artistic expression typified by use of complex forms and dramatic ornamentation.
Fortunately for us today, that insatiable Old World appetite for extravagant, flamboyant beauty lives on in four horse breeds which were all developing into their own art forms throughout the Baroque time period: the Andalusian of Spain, Lusitano of Portugal, Lipizzan of Austria, and Friesian of Holland. These noble horses of flowing tresses, majestic carriage, proud sweet spirit and the ancient soul of the war horse are now commonly referred to as “Baroque.” The practice is appropriate enough, because while they share an Iberian heritage, the four breeds display the wide variety of characteristics of their namesake, the gleaming, richly sensual and always unique baroque pearl.
To drink in the beauty of these horses is to drink in a potent elixir distilled from their histories, stories fascinating and romantic that illuminate the significance of their value. And not least they stand as testament to the artistic passion of humans who not only created lines of special horses but dedicated generations of caretakers, always holding the future in mind, to nurture and preserve them through the ages and for the ages. Today, in the field of dressage, where ultimate obedience is required of a horse but the look and feel of restrained fire is valued, it is little wonder that modern riders are turning with rapidly growing interest to the Baroque horses whose qualities, as those of fine vintage, have only mellowed with time and the enduring devotion of their guardians. |
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The Odyssey of the Iberian…
Our tale begins on the Iberian Peninsula in the countries of Spain and Portugal. Sylvia Loch, world-renowned dressage trainer, author and expert on Iberian horses as evidenced in her seminal work The Royal Horse of Europe, states “These horses were bred for centuries to be used in hand-to-hand combat, with their riders using cutlasses, spears, swords and later, pistols. They were bred for total reliability and taking care of their rider. No king or battle leader would dream of riding on anything other than an Iberian charger in the l6th or l7th centuries. Fighting was still mainly hand-to-hand at that time and the more malleable and flexible the horse, the safer the rider.” In Spain, history was made in 1567 when King Philip II issued a royal decree commanding that a new, special horse be created for him at the Royal Stable of Cordoba. Juan Carlos Altamirano explains in his fascinating book The History and Origin of the Spanish Horse “the reason given to justify the project was to attend to the public interest by improving the quality and the number of horses that were bred in the different regions of Spain, which would be done through crosses with horses of the new breed.” But in reality, the objective was to ensure the maximum safety of the King who wanted spirited but kind mounts. Thirty years into this project of creating the new horse that came to be known as “the Andalusian,” Altamirano notes that the King was assured by the project manager, Diego Lopez de Haro “The good nature of the breed is the most magnificent possession your Majesty has anywhere in the world.” Everyone raved. The oft-quoted 17th century horseman and author Duke of Newcastle wrote of his experience with them “You must know that of all horses in the World, of what Nation soever they be, Spanish Horses are the Wisest; far the wisest and strangely Wise, beyond any Man’s Imagination.” In Spain and Portugal, the former war horse was adapted to the sport of bullfighting. Sylvia Loch tells us, “The same genetics bred into the Iberian war horses were reinforced by the demands of bullfighting on horseback. Here the horse has to exercise the same natural movements—that by now are encoded into their genetics—to carry the rider to and around and away from the bull as necessary. So this courageous horse was continually bred for these characteristics—to still take care of his rider—when other breeds of horses were no longer sensitized in this way.” Riding skill was always the mark of a nobleman, and across Europe an equestrian art form was adapted from battle maneuvers and perfected to display not only the beauty of the horses dedicated to the temple of high equitation, but the riding skill of nobility in a court entertainment setting. By the turn of the 17th century, the Andalusian horse was considered so special that the King didn’t cross them outside their breed in Spain after all but did allow them to be exported and gave them as gifts. Baroque breeding programs coveted the Iberian horses so prized for their dramatic beauty, intelligence, gentle and patient disposition, and trainability. Now Spanish and Portuguese horses graced the courts of Europe and were considered the crown jewels in their stables.
Meanwhile, in Baroque Austria…
In the late16th century the Imperial family of Austria began efforts to found a royal Austrian stud for breeding Spanish horses. Lipizza was selected and in 1580 the stud began importing Spanish horses for this purpose. Sylvia Loch states that the Spanish line was kept pure for many years until Arab and Neopolitan (Italian) blood was infused. Other sources maintain that the Spanish horses were crossed with the local Karst horses. Over time the Imperial Austrian Stud produced its own breed which became known as the Lipizzan. The breeding program at Lipizza and subsequently Piber, together with the glorious Winter Riding School inaugurated in 1735 (now known as the Spanish Riding School) collectively formed an elegant venue, in the words of Austria’s Charles VI, “for teaching and practice of the young of the nobility and also for the training of the horse in the art of riding and in battle.”
The Lipizzans have endured dramatic and harrowing periods of history where they and their traditions were critically threatened, yet were rescued each time by humans passionately devoted to their survival. During the politically volatile18th and 19th centuries and in each of the World Wars, the horses had to be evacuated to safety (during WWII the American Army performed this service in a famous maneuver under General George Patton). Yet always the horses returned, and today after 400 years the stud at Piber and the Spanish Riding School are still administered using the strict instructions set forth in the 16th century. The Lipizzan of today is as he has been for centuries: quiet and diligent in temperament and in work, studious if it could be said, without the flash perhaps of the pure Iberian horse but nevertheless all the beauty…a pure white horse of unparalleled fortitude, strength and athleticism. And in Baroque Holland… At about the same time--the late 16th and early 17th centuries--that the Iberian horse was being refined and the Lipizzan is birthed in Austria, the heavy Dutch war horse of draft blood was being crossed with Spanish hotblood during Spain’s occupation of Holland. This lighter Friesian horse may have been ridden to some extent when, as Sylvia Loch comments in The Royal Horse of Europe, “Although little is recorded, the nobility of the Netherlands enjoyed a brief period of High School riding in the seventeenth century possibly inspired by the Antwerp school of the exiled Duke of Newcastle.” The introduction of the Spanish blood had refined the Friesian head and given them an upright neck and high knee action. This beautiful black horse that boasts the particularly luxuriant mane and tail of the Spanish horse, whose trademark feathered legs also reflects its coldblood heritage, was mainly put to driving. Friesian horses became very popular as short-distance trotters and stylish carriage horses. It is interesting to note that in the early 17th century Friesian horses were exported to New Amsterdam (known in the future as New York City) but the pure breed was lost in crossbreeding and disappeared from America. In 17th and 18th century Holland, the Rococo-style “sjees” carriage was created as a driving culture actually evolved around this showy horse. It is further interesting to note that in Victorian England hundreds of Friesians were employed in the funeral business in London alone, known as “Belgium Blacks” as they were imported into London through Antwerp in Belgium.
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