Federal Stud Piber

Piber Lipizzaner Stud
State level	Federation
position	Companies owned by the Republic of Austria
legal form	Public Law Society ( Spanish Riding School - Lipizzaner Stud Piber)
At sight	Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism - Section II Agriculture and Rural Development
founding	1798
Headquarters	Piber ( Styria )
management	Max Dobretsberger
Website	Federal Stud Piber

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 50 ″  N , 15 ° 6 ′ 1 ″  E

Federal Stud Piber​

Austria

The Lipizzaner stud Piber (until 2017 Federal Stud Piber ) is a stud in the village of Piber in the municipality of Köflach , in the west of the state of Styria in Austria .

In the Lipizzaner stud, Lipizzaners are mainly bred for the Spanish Riding School in Vienna . In 2016, the knowledge about the Lipizzaner breeding was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage in Austria by UNESCO .

history

At Piber Castle , which was formerly a monastery of the St. Lambrecht Monastery , a stud for breeding military horses was established in 1798 . From 1867 it is subordinated to the Kk  Ministry of Agriculture. At the beginning of the First World War , in 1915, the Lipizzaner breed, which until then had been at the Lipizza Stud in the Krain (Lipica in today's Slovenia), was first moved to Laxenburg and then moved here in 1920.

During the Second World War the horses were moved to Hostau, today's Hostouň , in the Czech Republic . After the war ended, there was a risk that the breeding horses would fall into Soviet hands, as Hostau was between the American and Soviet fronts. That is why the stud veterinarian at the time convinced the American General George S. Patton that he could push back the Soviets by fighting and bring the horses to safety in Upper Austria first and not fall into Soviet hands as spoils of war. It was not until 1952 that some of the horses returned to Piber, which was then in the British occupation zone.

In 2001 the Spanish Riding School and the Lipizzaner Stud Piber were spun off and the Spanish Riding School-Federal Stud Piber GöR was founded. The owner is still the federal government, the company is subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture .

The stud, together with Piber Castle, which is a listed building, is now increasingly being marketed for tourism . You can watch the training sessions with the horses in the riding arena, as can some of the stables. Due to the good acoustics, cultural events are also held in the courtyard itself. In 2003 the Styrian State Exhibition took place here under the title Horse Myth .

A carriage museum with exhibits from the time when Lipizzaner breeding was founded is also connected.

In March 2016 the Austrian UNESCO Commission included the tradition maintained at the stud as knowledge about the Lipizzaner breeding in the directory of the national intangible cultural heritage in Austria , in the sections social practices, rituals and festivals as well as knowledge and practices in dealing with nature, which takes into account both zootechnical and culture-relevant concerns. The purpose of this designation is binding protection as a living cultural tradition. Thus, after the Spanish Riding School itself, the Federal Stud is also designated by UNESCO, but at the same time its independent cultural maintenance is represented.

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  Piber Castle, facade

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  patio

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  Exhibits in the Carriage Museum

stud

The stud brandies of the Austro-Hungarian state studs, Piber at the top right

The Lipizzaner stud is the only one in the world where mares from all 17 classic mare families are represented. There have been stud books since the foundation of the Lipizzaner breed, long before the foundation in Piber, which are still kept by hand today, in addition to EDP records.

The stud not only includes the necessary stables, but also extensive pastures and alpine pastures. Every year a place for the horses cattle drive of up to 25 km from the pastures to walk with the traditional horse blessing in Maria Lankowitz instead. There are four more farms in the area. The brood mares and foals as well as the stallions are located on the estate. The selected stallions come to Vienna at the age of four, while the others are also sold. After a few years in Vienna, the stallions come back to Piber for breeding purposes. Even if they are too old for riding in the riding school, they come back to their pension .

In order to avoid inbreeding , breeding animals are repeatedly exchanged with other Lipizzaner studs, such as in Slovenia ( Lipica , the parent stud), Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania.

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  Lipizzaner mares with their foals

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  Retired old Lipizzaner

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  Young stallions on the Brandkogel mountain pasture

See also

• State horse breeding institutions

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Lipizzaner in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
2. ^ Austrian folk dance movement. Austrian Commission for UNESCO: List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria. immaterielleskulturerbe.unesco.at (accessed March 31, 2016).

Web links

Commons : Bundesgestüt Piber  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Web presence of the Piber stud