Horses, beer and gothic towers

I'm going to begin by saying that I want a Lipizzaner...

The performance by the Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School was absolutely awesome and worth every cent of the very expensive ticket prices. The venue itself was almost opera-esque - gallery seating on two levels looking down on the arena, and we had the perfect seats - on the lower level, about 3 metres above the ground and right in the centre of the long side of the arena.

Bear with me while I go through the highlights for me - they probably won't make a whole lot of sense to anyone who hasn't ridden horses for half their life, but I need to record them before they disappear from my memory. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any photos of the performance, and although everyone had cameras, they all obeyed the rule so I did too. I now regret that because all we have are several photos of the empty arena, but at least they are proof that we were actually there.

The first part of the performance was a group of eight young stallions still in training and performing fairly basic dressage movements. The mere fact that there were eight young stallions in the same confined space was interesting enough in itself, as some of them were absolutely exploding with hormones and a few 'mistakes' were made. It was then that the brilliance of the riders first became apparent - despite the antics of these very strong and exciteable young horses, the riders remained calm, quiet and with the softest hands you can imagine.

After this came a group of four of the mature stallions who performed more advanced movements that easily outstripped the abilities of the top international Grand Prix dressage horses, who are usually pushed beyond their abilities too quickly and eventually break down. These horses were almost perfectly calm and well behaved, supple and fit and performed all of the movements with no restraint or stiffness. This was followed by a team of two horses that performed similar movements in mirror image of each other, including some amazing feats such as simultaneous canter pirouettes around one another.

After this came the group of horses in ground training (all the horses are taught the movements from the ground first and then in the saddle with a rider), and this was where we saw the 'airs above the ground', the movements that most people come here for. These included the levade, a controlled rear which takes an enormous amount of strength from the horse, the capriole, which involves the horse rearing, then launching himself into the air and kicking out behind so that for a moment he is suspended horizontally in the air, and another movement that I can't remember the name of, where the horse rears and then leaps forward for two or three bounds on his hind legs.

This was followed by a single horse in long reins with the handler guiding the horse from the hindquarters. This was also cool because it was very difficult to tell how the handler was cueing the horse to perform each movement.

After this they brought out the big guns - the fully mature and trained horses performing the airs above the ground with riders, who incidentally do not use stirrups at all. This was amazing in itself, as the rider is sitting on a saddle almost completely vertical, with no stirrups while the horse leaps along, and the whole time his hands remained soft in the horse's mouth. I hate to think how many times these riders have bad falls before they master this.

The finale was my favourite - eight fully trained, mature stallions performing precision drill-style dressage literally nose to tail. It wasn't the most spectacular part of the performance but to see the happy, eager look on the horses' faces, their calm disposition and the effortless ease with which they performed was an absolute pleasure. On top of this, I saw the best riding I've ever seen in my life, particularly by the leading rider, who was an old guy in his 50s with a rather large paunch, but who had the softest hands I've ever seen. His horse was the calmest and most picture-perfect dressage horse you could image. I couldn't take my eyes off him for the whole performance.

Now I've got that out of my system I'll let George give you his interpretation of the performance from a non-horse person perspective, and he can also fill you in on our activities since we've been in Prague.

Hello, 'tis me. Not once did I think of the Spanish Riding School visit as "Bec's thing" as I was sure I'd find it interesting. In fact, I even quite enjoyed the Lipizzaner museum, particularly watching amazing video of these horses leaping in the air and kicking their hind legs out behind them, in an ancient battle technique called 'the capriole.' Seeing the capriole live is what I came to be excited about, but it turns out the whole show was more amazing than I could have imagined. The sheer control of both riders and horses - not necessarily one over the other, but in general - was staggering. To see, right in front of you, a guy of your size and weight, sitting on a horse as it jumps 3 to 5 steps on its hind legs, or leaping in the air and kicking out at an invisible opponent, is simply dazzling.

The 'slow' bit that Bec really enjoyed was as enjoyable to me; if you can imagine the Holden Precision Team driving independent, strong-willed animals within an inch of death, then you've got the idea. It's not necessarily as dangerous, but Bec is not joking when she says 'nose to tail.' It was beyond perfect. These horses and riders have obviously put in so much time and practice you cannot but be impressed. I literally had hairs standing up on the back of my neck.

Anyhoo, after the riding school we decided to wind down at a few Heurigen houses. Unfortunately it was a mission to get there and back as one section of the normally superb subway line was down, necessitating no less than four changes. We made it in the end and enjoyed sturm ('new' wine that is not entirely fermented, leaving it sweet, slightly effervescent and looking like cloudy apple juice) at one Heurigen house at which we were in danger of being hit by falling chestnuts. We moved to another that had sold out of sturm (it is a rare treat, available only in September of each year, making us very lucky) but we had a wine and a pretzel and watched a Wednesday-doppelganger cat eat and wash. Finally we settled at a place which turned out to have a great buffet and plenty of sturm. We sat outside and I ate until I literally felt sick, making the five trains home quite a debacle.

The train trek to Prague the next day started in a first-class cabin shared with Kiwis (one of whom looked strikingly familiar). We got kicked out of first as our ticket from Breclav to Prague technically didn't allow it, then spent our first hours in the Czech capital trying to resolve issues such as IPods left in Vienna, extremely bad hair and unsuitable shoes. Achieving some of these, we rewarded ourselves by meeting Tom again, as well as Sarah and Matt (Bec works with Sarah) and hitting the booze in a big way. Tom, in his inimitable style, had met a lovely young Mexican lass called Jennifer in Barcelona and brought her along as well, meaning we had a great team to celebrate his 30th birthday in this most magnificent of cities.

We celebrated with a butt-kicking dinner near the famed Astronomical Clock, which of course involved pant-loads of beer, and drinks at a little bar on the way back to respective hotels (tequila slammers and Bloody Maries with double vodka were involved).

With limited memories of last night, Bec and I met Tom again late this morning and climbed the Powder Tower which gave great views over Prague and a coming rain storm. Farewelling Tom, we scoffed some dodgy local vendor food and headed off to shop for clothes on the cheap. With some success, and the rain pelting down, we ducked into the first available bar, which by coincidence was the same as we'd indulged in various spirits the night prior. And that, two and a half litres of beer later, brings us to now.

Tonight we're copping out to the tour thing and seeing traditional beer halls and the like. I personally can't wait. Until next time.

Prost!