Spanish Riding School Vienna: performance, Morning Exercise or guided tour

The short answer

The three visits answer three different wishes. A performance is a choreographed programme; according to the Spanish Riding School's FAQ, it presents the highlights of the High School of Classical Horsemanship, including the "Schools above the ground". The Morning Exercise is the public part of the horses' and riders' daily training, accompanied by classical music, and the same FAQ says it is not a fixed programme.[1] A guided tour shows the buildings and stables rather than riding: the tour page lists the Winter Riding School, the Summer Riding School and the stables in the Stallburg.[4]

If the leaps are what you want to see, note that the Morning Exercise ticket page says the famous school jumps are rarely shown there, to keep the stallions' training schedule balanced.[3]

Who runs it

The school is its own institution, not part of the museums around it in the Hofburg. Its imprint names the operator as Spanische Hofreitschule – Lipizzanergestüt Piber, a company under public law, at Michaelerplatz 1 in Vienna.[8] How that entity came about, and how it differs from the Schönbrunn Group and the KHM-Museumsverband, is set out in who runs Austria's imperial palaces and collections.

The school describes itself as the oldest riding school in the world and the only institution where the High School of Classical Horsemanship in the Renaissance tradition has been practised unchanged for 460 years.[6] Those are the school's own claims; XTOUR repeats them as such.

The performance

Performances take place in the baroque Winter Riding School at Hofburg Palace, which the school's home page says was built under Charles VI.[9] The performance page lists the School Quadrille, the Schools on and above the ground and work on the Long Rein, set to classical Viennese music, with horses from young stallions to fully trained school stallions.[2]

There is more than one length. The performance page gives Performance I and II as about 70 minutes, a short performance as about 45 minutes and a gala performance as about 90 minutes. Its date list sells seats in several categories and standing room.[2]

The Morning Exercise

The Morning Exercise ticket page describes it as an authentic insight into the training of riders and Lipizzaners in the Winter Riding School, from the careful schooling of the young stallions, often still dark, to the refinement of exercises with the fully trained ones. What is shown depends, the page says, on each horse's level of training and its condition on the day.[3] The FAQ makes the same point more simply: you will see different exercises each day.[1]

It is sold, the page says, online and according to availability at the cash desk of the Spanish Riding School, Michaelerplatz 1.[3] XTOUR's reading is that the Morning Exercise suits someone curious about how the horses are trained, and a performance suits someone who wants the finished figures and the jumps; the school's own pages describe the difference but do not rank them.

Guided tours

The standard guided tour, the school's page says, goes behind the scenes to the Winter Riding School, the Summer Riding School with one of the world's largest oval horse walkers, and the stables in the Stallburg.[4] The tickets page lists it in German, English and Spanish, plus an Architectural Tour up to the attic floors of the Winter Riding School and a history tour called "Lipizzaner Legends", both for visitors aged 12 and over.[5] The FAQ says guided tours are accessible to all visitors, except the architectural tours, which are only for visitors who are physically fit and steady on their feet.[1]

How tickets are sold

The school sells its own tickets. According to the Spanish Riding School's FAQ, an e-ticket bought on its website does not need to be exchanged, while tickets bought through external providers such as GetYourGuide, Musement or Tiqets must be collected at the ticket desk in the Visitor Center. The FAQ also says reservations cannot be made with the Vienna Pass and online booking with it is not possible.[1]

There is no Hofburg combination. The FAQ says the school offers no combined tickets with other attractions in the Hofburg and that there is no single ticket for all of the Hofburg.[1] The Hofburg guide sets out who sells the other visits there.

For performances and the Morning Exercise, the FAQ lists three possible entrances, at the Michaelerkuppel, Reitschulgasse and Josefsplatz, and says the one to use is printed on the ticket; guided tours meet in the Visitor Center foyer at Michaelerplatz 1.[1]

House rules the school states

• Children: the performance page says children aged 3 to 6 are admitted free on an adult's lap, 6 to 12 at a reduced rate, and under 3 not at all.[2] The guided-tour page gives the reduced rate for ages 6 to 18.[4]
• Seating and mobility: the school says it is in a listed building with no elevator, that the royal box and the first and second galleries are reached only by stairs, and that wheelchair places are limited and confirmed only in writing.[2][1]
• The hall: the FAQ says the riding hall cannot be heated or cooled, so the temperature inside is close to the temperature outside, and there is no cloakroom or luggage storage.[1]
• The horses: visitors may not pet, feed or touch them.[1]

On photography the school's own pages do not agree. The performance, Morning Exercise and guided-tour pages each say the use of cameras and recording equipment is strictly forbidden; the FAQ describes a general ban but makes an exception on guided tours, where the guide says when and where photography is permitted.[1][4][3][2]

History and the UNESCO listing

The school dates its beginnings to a document of 20 September 1565 that mentions a riding arena by the castle, and says the foundation stone of the Stallburg stables was laid the same year.[7] Its name, the school says, comes from the Spanish horses Ferdinand I brought to the Viennese court, and the Winter Riding School was built between 1729 and 1735 to designs by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, completed by his son.[6] The court stud was founded at Lipica, now in Slovenia, in 1580, and the horses were called "Spanish Karsters" until 1780, when the name Lipizzaners came in. On 9 September 2008 the school accepted two women for rider training for the first time.[7]

How long the stallions have lived in the Stallburg is told differently by its neighbours. The school's guided-tour page says more than 450 years; the Schönbrunn Group's history of the Hofburg says since the eighteenth century.[12][4]

UNESCO inscribed "Classical horsemanship and the High School of the Spanish Riding School Vienna" on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015. The inscription describes the whole practice of breeding, keeping, training and riding Lipizzaners, including grooms, saddlers, blacksmiths, hatters, tailors and shoemakers, not only the riding.[10] The school's history timeline also records a recognition as national cultural heritage, in a German-language entry under 2010 and again, in English, under 2016.[7] A separate multinational element, Lipizzan horse breeding traditions, appears on UNESCO's Austria page, which gives its year as 2021 in one place and 2022 in another;[11] the school's history page dates its inclusion on the Representative List to 1 December 2022.[7] Austria's other UNESCO listings, and how they differ from the national inventory, are in Austria's intangible heritage.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR publishes no prices, performance dates, starting times, or availability: the school's date lists change and show sold-out categories. It gives no guidance on which seats see best, how long before a performance to arrive, or how to reach Michaelerplatz. The Lipizzaner Stud Piber in Styria is a separate visit and is not described here. XTOUR does not sell tickets to the school.

The Vienna destination page places the school among the city's other sights.