Spanish Riding School, Dressage.com

The Spanish Riding School of Vienna
The True Miracle of the White Stallions
1939 - 1955

The True Miracle
of the White Stallions

Spanish
Riding School

The Evacuation of the Breeding Herd

By John D’Addamio

Another of the biggest deviations from reality portrayed by the Disney movie The Miracle of the White Stallions is the evacuation of the breeding herd from Hostau. The movie shows the evacuation being conducted spontaneously and immediately after the capture of Hostau. The movie also depicts the herd being returned directly to Austria and Podhajsky being flown to meet the herd at the Czech border and returning to St. Martin with the herd.

Again, we have to take Col. Reed’s statement in Handler's "The Spanish Riding School", rather than the movie, as the authentic account!¹ Additional details will be taken from Chapter 10 The Lipizzaner Stud Returns Home from Podhajsky’s autobiography².

Let’s begin with how and when the herd was evacuated from Hostau. The movie shows the U.S. Army providing a plane for Podhajsky to meet the herd at the Czech border. At the border, Colonel Reed tells Podhajsky that his brother rode a horse named Podhajsky at the Fort Riley cavalry school. It didn't happen that way.

Reed says that beginning a day or two after the German surrender on May 7, Czech and Russian Communists were showing a lot of interest in the horses. He reports that the communists were talking to a Czech-born Lt. Col who had been second in command at Hostau.

Reed informed Patton of the Communist activities and recommended moving the entire herd to safer quarters in Schwarzenberg, Bavaria so that the Communists would not claim the horses. He says that Third Army Headquarters quickly approved his recommendation and gave the operation priority on use of the roads. Reed states the evacuation took place beginning at dawn on May 12 (2 weeks after the capture) and was completed by that night. Reed says he had only a few trucks so the mares that were in foal or had foals by their sides were transported by truck. The others were driven in small herds accompanied by 2 American vehicles, outriders, and guides. Personnel, possessions, and food for humans and horses were moved in horse drawn wagons. ³

A few days later (on or about May 14, 1945), Podhajsky was flown to Reed’s headquarters at Schloß Skoda in Zinkovy to inspect the horses. At dinner that evening, Reed told Podhajsky about the horse named for Podhajsky at Fort Riley. [Ft. Riley, Kansas was the US Army Cavalry Training Center]. Reed and Podhajsky established cordial relations. Reed told Podhajsky that he had moved the horses from Hostau to Schwarzenberg and that he would take Podhajsky there on the following day.⁴ Podhajsky provides details about the evacuation to Schwarzenberg that show it did not go entirely smoothly. He reports that some of the outriders were German officers who considered themselves horsemen. Against the advice of the staff, they chose to use unbroken two and three year olds. These young horses spooked, dropped their riders and started a riot among the herd. Eventually, 13 two and three year old stallions bolted and were lost. He also reports that the column was stopped and was told not to proceed until ownership of the herd was established. The officer in charge replied that he was going to follow his orders even if he had to crush resistance with his tanks. The column resumed movement and had no further trouble.⁵

The return of the horses to Austria began on May 18^th (nearly 3 weeks after the capture of Hostau). The movie shows them being returned to St. Martin. In reality, Podhajsky had converted hangars at a former German airfield near Reichersberg to stabling. That is where the horses were initially taken. Podhajsky reports that the 40 trucks used to move the first shipment of horses were driven by German prisoners of war and arrived near midnight; another detail of German involvement in the rescue that the movie ignores! Since the airfield’s flood lights had been destroyed before the occupation, they had to unload the horses using only by the light provided by the headlights of the trucks! Two mares were injured during the transfer and had to be put down. The second shipment was made to Reichersberg on May 25^th without incident. Podhajsky’s primary complaint was that none the feed, tack, blankets and veterinary equipment that had been taken from Hostau to Schwarzenberg with the horses was sent to him with the Lipizzaner. The postwar period was a time of great shortages throughout Europe and replacing them was going to be difficult.

Podhajsky also complained that 14 Lipizzaners from Piber had been retained at Schwarzenberg under Patton’s orders. They and the Arab breeding herd from Hostau were retained as war booty and were shipped to the United States.⁶He also found that the Germans, at the instigation of Dr. Gustav Rau, had sold nearly half of Piber's Lipizzaners into private hands during the war. There was no hope of recovering these animals.⁷

Next time: Where is Hostau anyway?

Footnotes:

1. Handler, pages 28 - 30

2. Podhajsky, "My Dancing White Horses", pages 127 – 144

3. Handler, page 30

4. Podhajsky, pages 127 – 128

5. Podhajsky, page 129

6. Podhajsky, pages 131 -132

7. Podhajsky, pages 135 - 136

Bibliography

Handler, Hans, 1913 - 1974
1. "Die Spanische Hofreitschule zu Wien", Vienna, Verlag Fritz Molden, 1972
  1. "The Spanish Riding School". English translation by Russell Stockman ,New York,McGraw-Hill, 1972
Podhajsky, Alois, 1898-1973
1. "Ein Leben Für Die Lipizzaner", München, Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1960, 413p.
  1. "My Dancing White Horses", English Translation by Frances Hogarth-Gaute, London, Harrap, 1964, 287p.
  2. "My Dancing White Horses", New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1965, 302p

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