Opps, it was entirely my fault, missed the practice session at the Spanish Riding School as I just read the 2pm tour and not the email which said the practice was at 10am. Hopefully tomorrow´s gala performance will make up for it.
The Spanish Riding School is beautiful, although the arena is smaller than I expected. Unfortunately the horses have a virus which means that we were not able to enter the stables or touch the horses as it is contagious.
See the following link for more info http://www.srs.at/index.php?id=353
The horses are stunningly beautiful and a lot shorter than I expected. It was very interesting hearing the history of the riding school and also how the horses and riders are trained. They start training the horses at 4 years old and they usually begin performing at 12 years old and then perform until they retire at approx 25 years old when they are retired and generally live until 30 years of age, a very good age for horses. The riders are generally aged 16 when they join and non riders are preferred. Following their training they are moved up a league to student rider where they are trained by the stallions and senior riders. Next step up is senior rider when they train four stallions each and if they are lucky, eventually graduate to the chief rider, these are the riders who perform the difficult jumps. The riders can retire and although no pension was mentioned, it appears they are well looked after.
Our guide, Lukas, was entertaining and told many interesting stories and I can´t help but wonder if he is a failed rider as he mentioned the fall out is high for trainee riders...
We also saw alot of Vienna with its classical looking old buildings and cobbled streets. Dogs everywhere - on the underground (you pay a half price fare for the dog)in shops, and all well behaved. The cathedral was amazing - almost did a tour of the catacombs, but wimped out when I saw them disapearing into the depths. Really looking forward the performance tomorrow. Anne.
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