Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School, Vienna

 One of my favourite books as a teenager was Mary Stewart's "Airs above the ground"as part of the story features the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. For some reason these horses stayed in my mind as an adult. I used to ride horses, but just simple riding, nothing such as jumping or dressage. 

My first visit to Vienna was in 1983, but somehow I missed seeing the stables of the Spanish Riding School. So when I was back in Vienna in October 2021, I was really happy to get to the stables.

Normally the horses do shows in many countries, but of course that all stopped with the covid pandemic. We were told that they really missed the crowds and having an audience. 

We were lucky as whilst we were there, a few of the horses were led out -

The Lipizzaner horses are born grey or black and the coat gradually lightens over the years, they become white after 6 - 10 years, although it is not a pure white. Only the stallions are used in Vienna’s Spanish Riding School. Read more on the history of the stallions.

In 2016 I went to the SSE arena at Wembley in London to see the 450th anniversary tour of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. 

After visiting Vienna in 2021, I had another encounter with the Lipizzaner horses in Hungary. I was on a tour to the Lovascentrum horse centre, which is an hour's drive on the M5 southeast of Budapest. It is on the Puszta – the Great Hungarian Plain.

The blue-robe-clad Csikos (mounted horse-herdsman) perform a horse show. Note the long whip.

Firstly we watched a group of horses galloping around the enclosure. You can see the different colours indicating the different ages - 

Then we saw different carriages -

 

A man demonstrated his skill standing on two horses whilst the group galloped around -

A horse lying down whilst the handler cracks the long whip around the horse -

It was quite amazing to see a horse sitting like this -

Even the albino mule was able to sit -

Hungarian grey cattle 

We then went for a carriage ride. After that, we visited the stables -

We then saw more cattle, donkeys and mules and other animals -

It was fascinating to see the Lipizzaners in a different setting.

***

UPDATE

In Dec I went to a show at the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, Jerez, Spain. This was another amazing chance to see the horses perform their dances etc.

The famous Lipizzaners are now bred especially for the Riding School at the Piber Stud Vienna. These Spanish horses are best suited to the equestrian arts. The Lipizzaners can come from other stock apart from the Andalusian.

Giant walking puppet in SE London

When I read that a giant puppet would be walking through some London suburbs, I went to have a look. I didn't go to support the cause, I went because I have never seen a giant walking puppet in real life. 

On 22 October 2021, the giant puppet of a Syrian child refugee was welcomed to Deptford. In a project called The Walk, Little Amal has travelled through much of Europe after setting off from the Turkish-Syrian border in July and will finish in Manchester. The 5,000-mile journey symbolises “millions of displaced children”.

The puppet is 3.5-metre tall and is operated by three people, one standing on a pair of stilts inside its body and two others beside moving its arms. It represents a 9 year old girl.

Quite a crowd turned out to welcome her, including the mayor, deputy mayor and speaker from Lewisham Council. Many people there are in favour of more refugees coming into the borough. The puppet’s long trek is intended to be a walk for all the children, many unaccompanied and separated from their families, who are forced to undertake extraordinary journeys under life-threatening conditions. “Little Amal will walk so that we don’t forget them”, organisers say.

I was more curious just to see the puppet in action, though it was difficult with so many people. This was my first glimpse of her. Several people had placards, which said "The Walk. Lewisham Council welcomes Amal. 

Here you can see the control for one arm and in the next photo both arms -

The puppet was made by War Horse creators Handspring Puppet Company from a moulded cane body with carbon fibre head, arms and legs.

A BBC news item from 11 Aug "Little Amal: The giant puppet walking 5000 miles from Turkey to the UK". 

More about her route can be seen here , and a map 

And her visit to the Royal Opera House in London.