Place: Spanish Riding School Morning Practice

Location: Michaelerplatz, Spanish Riding School

Cost: 6€

I met Amanda in Hietzing and we went to the Spanish Riding School together.  There we were able to get tickets to see the famous Lipizzaner horses morning training.  We met a few other girls there and Amanda graciously spotted me the cash for the ticket (since I had left my wallet at home, yikes!). We got good seats on the main level and were able to watch two hours of beautiful horse training. I don’t particularly love horses but I found it interesting and entertaining. They are beautiful horses, they start out black when they are born and then turn white over time. It was interesting to see the horses in the in-between stages. The older ones are all white and look so silky. The degree of whiteness definitely coincided with the ability of the horse to follow their trainer. The little black ones are definitely babies and new at this whole training thing.  They practiced doing the most beautiful trots and walks. They went fast and slow, alternating leading hoof, walked in a diagonal while facing straight forward, so like having to cross over their feet. They did one where they would shake their hoof out to the side after picking it up. It looked kinda silly.  They could pivot in a circle on their back legs and a few even did a jump up onto just their hind legs. They were like straight vertical! I don’t know how the riders were still hanging on.  Needless to say the horses are very well trained. It would have been neat to see them all in formation, doing these tricks together, but I guess they just save that for the evening Performance shows.  I still enjoyed seeing one of the most famous sights in Vienna!

 (Technically I wasn't suppose to take pictures in here so thats why these are kinda bad... )

We invited some kids from the group back to our house to eat pizza and watch a scary Halloween movie. It was really fun!