#3 – They are grey, not white As many may know, the Lipizzan is gray, not white. What many don’t know is that they are born dark and gradually lighten with age, not achieving the “white” coat for which they are known until around 6-10 years of age.

Lipizzaners are born black, brown or mousy grey. Their coat changes, however, every time they moult. The darker hues gradually give way to lighter tones via many shades of grey. It is only at the age of between seven and ten years that most horses finally display the beautiful white coat of the Schimmel (grey horse).

Miracle of the White Stallions (film) True story of how Colonel Alois Podhajsky, director of Vienna’s world famous Spanish Riding School, saves the school and its beautiful Lipizzan white horses during World War II. Directed by Arthur Hiller. …

Born as bay, chestnut or black foals, the vast majority of Lipizzaner horses are grey. A gene mutation is responsible for the loss of color pigments in their coats and causes what we see as white coloring in their growing age.

A “grey horse is born black, brown, or chestnut, but the greying process starts very early in life — during its first year. These horses are normally completely white by six to eight years of age but the skin remains pigmented. This process resembles greying in humans, but it is ultrafast in horses.

Major parts of the movie were shot at the Hermesvilla palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten of Vienna, a former hunting area for the Habsburg nobility….

The rescue of the Lipizzans by the United States Army, made famous by the Disney movie Miracle of the White Stallions, occurred in two parts: The Third United States Army, under the command of General George S. Patton, was near St. Martins in the spring of 1945 and learned that the Lipizzan stallions were in the area.

In contrast to gray horses which are born with pigmented skin they keep for life and pigmented hair that lightens to white with age, truly white horses are born with white hair and mostly pink, unpigmented skin.

They were later bred with the Karst horses, Neapolitan horses, and other Spanish horses. There are six horses considered as foundation lines to the Lipizzaner horses of today. They are: Maestoso: This foundation sire was a grey horse born in 1819 from a Neapolitan sire and a Spanish dam.

However, gray is a dominant gene. Gray was the color preferred by the royal family, so the color was emphasized in breeding practices. Thus, in a small breed population when the color was deliberately selected as a desirable feature, it came to be the color of the overwhelming majority of Lipizzan horses.

Until the 18th century, Lipizzans had other coat colors, including dun, bay, chestnut, black, piebald, and skewbald. However, gray is a dominant gene. Gray was the color preferred by the royal family, so the color was emphasized in breeding practices.

The Lipizzaner Foal was introduced in 2017 as part of Breyer’s Premier Collection. It was sculpted by Brigitte Eberl and is Breyer mold #749. A symbol means that I don’t yet have a picture of that model.