How the Habsburgs’ favourite horse conquered American hearts
WITH their German and Austrian ancestry, midwesterners lovingly cultivate many traditions brought from their Heimat. In autumn gallons of beer and brats are consumed at Oktoberfests, to the sound of polka bands. Christkindl markets follow in December. But perhaps the most rarefied and labour-intensive import from Mitteleuropa to the Midwest was the care of 20 Lipizzans that Tempel Smith, a steel magnate, brought from Austria to Illinois 60 years ago. Known outside America as Lipizzaners, they are Europe’s oldest and finest horse breed.
Smith and his wife Esther fell in love with the horses after seeing them perform at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. They soon built the largest privately owned herd of Lipizzans (peaking at almost 500 horses in the 1980s) and the only farm in America where Lipizzans breed, train and perform. “Tempel is very important for us, because we have few private breeders in Austria,” says Max Dobretsberger, who runs Piber, the state-owned stud...