Slovenia has 28 miles of shoreline along the Adriatic Sea, tucked in-between Croatia and Italy. There's been an intermingling of national origins around the Adriatic Sea over the past few centuries: Slavs, Croatians, Italians, Serbs, Austrians, and Germans.
Vicki and I visited the Lipica Stud Farm mid-September 2018 (only seven miles from Trieste, Italy near the Adriatic Sea). The farm entrance road is beautiful. It's a working farm as well as a tourist destination.
Guided tours of this huge 740-acre farm complex are offered in a handful of languages. In fact, 72 percent of Slovenians are tri-lingual.
Back in the 1500s, a bishop of Trieste, Italy (see arrow in above map) abandoned a summer home near the little village of Lipica, Slovenia. The Habsburg Dynasty which ruled most of Europe for 650 years needed a stud farm for their prized horses from Spain, and they wanted a soil and climate similar to Spain's climate. So they chose the bishop's abandoned summer home in Lipica in 1580 and restored it, now known as the Lipica Stud Farm. Because of its history, it's officially one of Slovenia's "cultural monuments of outstanding importance." Below is their oldest stallion barn, the Velbanca. Fancy and formal, eh?
And a chapel on the grounds . . .
The Lipizzan has black skin and is born with black hair.
Most Lipizzans are grayish with black skin, dark eyes, and as they grow older, they acquire a white hair coat. The coat becomes lighter each year, as the graying to white process takes place between 6 and 10 years of age. There were hundreds of tourists here, and we could all pet most of the horses which is amazing.
Even more amazing, this farm probably hires three dozen full-time horse handlers. With frequent human interaction, being haltered and led around, these horses are "socialized" (unlike some horses in Texas which are merely "pasture ornaments"). They're also pastured in huge pastures; Vicki and I walked along a dirt road and admired the beautiful hilly green pastures and an old ice pit that was a "refrigerator" in the old days.
Grooming, washing, farrier visits, vet visits, breeding visits, there's a lot of work to be done and horse handlers are busy workers. We frequently passed a group of four horses being led by one handler. They all seemed acclimated to walking by hundreds of tourists.
This young stallion (below) however WAS a handful! Not because of bad manners, but because he was so full of himself! He was high-stepping, neighing loudly like "Hey everybody, look at me!" and the handler had to keep a good grip on that rope.
Stallions don't breed naturally with mares, they're taken to this special place where the "act" is stimulated on a barrel-type contraption with the help of horse handlers . . . all the mares are artificially inseminated. Eliminates the need for a vet if a stallion gets too rambunctious.
We paid for entrance tickets when we arrived to tour all the facilities, and surprise, surprise, that day was "Lipica Day" according to the cashier. I asked "What is Lipica Day?" She said it's an annual special day of parades, a band, performers and much more. The four-hour show was free with our entrance ticket! Wow, what a bonus!
It was the best horse show in the world (in my opinion) which included a large band and high school gymnasts. We saw a dressage show which is very traditional classical riding in Europe.
We saw chariot races; those folks on the back of the chariot are weight control to keep the cart from flipping over at the turns. They lean into the turns just like sailors racing catamarans on one hull. Seeing movies about chariot races doesn't even come close to the real thing 30 feet in front of your eyes! And the audience was really getting into it!
The best of the show was a horse whisperer who trailered all his horses to Lipica for this special day.
His name is Vincent Liberator. In above photo, notice how none of these horses have a halter? Sometimes there's a "hey you!" squabble (third horse from the left, above) but Vincent has all these horses wrapped around his little finger.
It's incredible! He doesn't reward his horses with treats like most horsey folks, he just talks to them softly and pets them. See (below photo) how they all have their ears pointed toward him? There's almost 1,000 people in the audience (huge outdoor arena) and the only thing they care about is him!
He runs with them . . . like a member of their herd.
He makes them all lay down like dogs! OK everybody, on the count of three . . . click here for a YouTube clip of this guy's amazing control of his horses.
The horse farm brought about 20 of its own mares to the arena and let them run in a big circle. No problems! They apparently did this a lot . . . none of the horse ranchers I know in Texas can run their herd of horses on demand and calmly snap that rope on each halter and lead them away.
For a promotional video about Lipica Day, click here. You'll see how big this annual day really is, and how much fun it is for anyone from age 1 to 101. Good old fashioned fun!
Coming up, Croatia! Did you know that Croatia has over 1,000 islands on the Adriatic Sea? Just when I'm thinking Slovenia is a pretty cool country . . . I haven't been to Croatia yet.
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