Life at the stud farm: full of love, careful and close to nature

Our Lipizzaners have a really good time at the stud - after all, each and every one of them has a responsible task to fulfil. Our careful mothers raise their sweet foals. In the stable next to them, the representative mares just got back from their training and now relax with fresh water and finest oats. Not far from them, a stallion has just returned from his exciting assignment - not to mention the mother mares in joyful anticipation of their offspring.

But they all have one thing in common: they all receive only the best possible care and attention that a horse could wish for. In addition to the best and most finely selected feed, they all get a 24/7 caring through our 70 caring grooms. As a special bonus, all our beloved horses get oversized boxes and run out on the lushest pastures and alpine meadows of beautiful Western Styria.

A Lipizzaner´s life long

From birth to retirement, the Lipizzaner Stud Piber is home for the Lipizzaner mares. The stallions return to the place of their birth again and again in the course of their careers until they finally enter their well-deserved retirement and spend it at Piber.

After birth, the foals stay with their mothers for the first few months and grow up in a broodmare herd together with other foals. After the foals have been shaved off at the age of six to eight months, they are moved in a foal herd to an outside yard, where they spend another six months. At the age of one year, the fillies and colts are finally separated by sex and spend the rest of the years in the alpine pastures in summer and in a nearby outdoor farm in winter. 

After their childhood and youth at the mother's stud and on the alpine pastures, all Lipizzaners, regardless of gender, are sent for selection. A special commission assesses the character, behaviour and physical build of these so-called raw horses. All those that pass the selection start their training - the Lipizzaner mares in Piber, the Lipizzaner stallions in the Heldenberg training centre near Vienna. Horses that have not been selected are released for sale. 

After six to eight years of training the Lipizzaner stallions are finally ready: they are stars and may perform in what is probably the most beautiful riding hall in the world. In the winter riding arena of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, they show the skills they have learned over the years and delight the international audience. The mares complete a two-year training course after their selection and have to pass an examination under the saddle and in carriage driving in order to be used as breeding horses or for representational purposes. 

While the stallions are allowed to spend their everyday life at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and at the Heldenberg training centre near Vienna, the Lipizzaner breeding and representation mares enjoy their everyday life at their mother's stud in Piber. At the age of 25 to 30, both Lipizzaner mares and Lipizzaner stallions enter their well-deserved retirement at the Lipizzaner Stud Piber - in a specially designated retirement stable - and spend their twilight years in beautiful western Styria. 

Tip

Want to see more? Visit us on a guided tour of the stud and experience the world-famous white horses up close! Our secret: the Lipizzaners are even happy to be stroked in the inner courtyard!