Salute stallions

When the tour of the famous Lipizzaner Stallions hit Phoenix last year, 83-year-old Vito Spadafino had the typical impressed reaction to the elegant equestrian performance.

But he wasn’t the typical audience member. Spadafino first met the white stallions 60 years ago as a young soldier in World War II.

A radio operator in a 2nd Cavalry reconnaissance unit of Gen. George Patton’s third Army, Spadafino and his platoon were assigned to care for about 150 of the famous horses that were rescued along with prisoners of war from a German stronghold in April 1945.

“I was from the Bronx, and the only horses I’d seen were pulling milk wagons and stuff in my day,” Spadafino remembers.

The few weeks he spent with the Lipizzans and their trainers gave him a rare introduction to these elite horses, first bred for war 430 years ago.

“They used to trick ride,” he says. “They’d show us how they could pick up handkerchiefs at a full gallop and stuff like that. They were beautiful, beautiful horses.”

First used by Austria’s long-reigning Hapsburg Monarchy as war horses because of their ability to jump high and maneuver precisely around the enemy to confuse him in battle, the Lipizzans went on to be the select riding breed of European nobles and eventually became performers whose skills have been honed at training institutes like the historic Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria.

The breed’s famed talent for dressage – the art of perfecting the horses natural gait and movement – is on display for the 35th year in the Lipizzaner Stallions World Tour, which will visit the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Friday and Saturday June 18 and 19. This anniversary program tells the story of the dancing white horses that have been called the perfect mix of ballet grace and military precision on four legs.

Make that 48 legs. About a dozen horses will perform in this portrayal of the Lipizzans’ legacy, one that nearly ended in the spring of 1945.

Fearing that the Lipizzaner Stallions would be destroyed by allied bombing, Col. Alois Podjahsky, head of the Spanish Riding School, moved the horses out of Vienna early that year. North of Vienna, he met elements of the U.S. Third Army.

Podjahsky and Patton had been competitors in Olympic equestrian competitions, so when Patton heard of Podjahsky’s plight and saw the Lipizzans perform, he made the horses wards of the U.S. Army until they could be safely returned to the school in Vienna.

Soon after, Col. Charles Reed and the 2nd Cavalry’s 42nd Squadron discovered that the Lipizzaner mares and foals were being held with allied prisoners of war by Germans in Hostau, Czechoslovakia. U.S. soldiers entered the city on April 28 and liberated about 400 prisoners, 150 Lipizzans and hundreds of other valuable horses.

Although Germany surrendered early in May, Russian soldiers stationed just hundreds of yards from the camp threatened to steal the Lipizzaners, so Spadafino and the 30 or so other men of his platoon were charged with defending the stables and corrals.

“We were in the American sector and on the other side of the hedges and fence was the Russian sector,” Spadafino says. “Our main objective there was to protect these horses.”

On May 12, Reed’s forces moved the horses to Germany, and by the end of May, they were back at the school in Vienna.

Spadafino returned to the United States in November 1945. His appreciation for horses has grown and he’s seen two tours of the Lipizzaner Stallions, some of which are likely the great, great-grandsons of the Lipizzans he cared for 60 years ago.

White Stallion Productions’ Gary Lashinsky says this year’s show will include narration explaining the breed’s history.

“It helps give people an understanding of why they’re so unique, why they’re so special,” he says. “It’s pretty much a salute to Gen. Patton saving the horses, too.”

For those who don’t know much about dressage, the show opens with an explanation of terms and the stunning leaps and movements incorporated in the Lipizzans’ performance, which will include a demonstration of Air Above the Ground – the battle maneuvers the first Lipizzans were trained to do in Austria more than four centuries ago.

“You don’t have to be a horse lover to enjoy this,” Lashinsky says. “No other horses can do what they do.”