What if the Spanish Riding School Disappeared?

[slc2]

The Spanish Riding School seems to be in a lot of trouble. Financial woes are plaguing both Piper and the School.

How do you feel about the School? Does it have a direct value to the riding community in other countries? Is it worth preserving? How can people who enjoy the school continuing to exist help it?

I saw on one website the new manager thought the riders got too high a bonus on tours and was planning to not have any foreign tours, and to double the number of performances in Vienna.

The bonus for the riders to travel did seem high, but when I tried to calculate it out, they were getting paid about what someone would for a riding lesson. Since many now have training businesses in the afternoon, they do lose business if they travel, yet tours seem to be the one thing that best publicizes the school. How can these problems be resolved?

[sm]

I'm sure the travel costs are completely out of control, between hauling the vans and everything else. Plus their home turf has so much character and charm, and keeping the horses home more often must be healthier for them.

I hope they find ways to boost attendance with the extra shows. I know they have the Spanish Riding School Kollektion product line out at Dover, don't know how sucessfull it is. But it's that type of thinking/marketing that will help them out in the long run.

Just need more successful marketing efforts straight from their headquarters...

[angel]

The Spanish Riding School, and similar demonstrations of which there are only a few, are the last bastions of good dressage riding. Everywhere else around you, there has been a constant erosion of principles. The great division between what is taught and shown in the Spanish Riding School and between what is shown and pinned in the dressage ring will cause the Spanish Riding School to be lost. I am sorry to see this happen, but the reality is that it is already lost.:(

[egontoast]

Maybe you could start an on line auction for them, slick. Sell off all your medals , worn out pIkeurs and tattered shadbellies for a good cause.:)

[RonaldGroen]

SRS at Vienna will never disappear. But you probably have fly over to the beautifull city of Vienna to watch their shows.

[merrygoround]

One can only hope that bringing in a financial maestro will be a good move. The reason some colleges and universities do well financially is the talent of their aminisrtative staffs. The professors, teach. They do not attempt both.

Let the classical educated riders and breeders do what they do best. Breed and Teach!

And Eggie!!!!! I too bypass most of "those" posts, but I cannot but envy the time and facility, with which she posts.. When DOES she have time to ride????????? :)

[RonaldGroen]

The Spanish Riding School, and similar demonstrations of which there are only a few, are the last bastions of good dressage riding. Everywhere else around you, there has been a constant erosion of principles. The great division between what is taught and shown in the Spanish Riding School and between what is shown and pinned in the dressage ring will cause the Spanish Riding School to be lost. I am sorry to see this happen, but the reality is that it is already lost.:(

The SRS get the most income by filling the gaps at dressage shows.:yes:

[egontoast]

The SRS get the most income by filling the gaps at dressage shows.:yes: Jan. 26, 2008 04:12 PM







THat makes no sense since they don't show (right? )

Would you like to explain what you mean by that?

[Equibrit]

Duh!! Displays.

[~Freedom~]

Maybe you could start an on line auction for them, slick. Sell off all your medals , worn out pIkeurs and tattered shadbellies for a good cause.:)


Maybe SLC can house them at her new barn, assuming of course they are willing to work under all the arena rules.

[egontoast]

Duh!! Displays.


Duh, yourself. In the boonies we don't have the SRS exposing I mean displaying themselves all over the noon break.

[dutchmike]

I personally think there is a good chance it might dissapear. I don't hope so but nowadays who cares about stuff like the SRS now if it was soccer then money would be no problem:(

[Thomas_1]

If it closes, then we'll be short of something to do every October ;)

I'd like to ask the OP her opinions in relation to the questions posed?

[J Swan]

If it closes, then we'll be short of something to do every October ;)



Northern Germany. A little town called Osterholz-Scharmbeck. Kohl und Pinkle washed down with copious amounts of Schinken schnapps.

Every fall/winter.

Trust me.:yes:

[ASB Stars]

and it is Piber... :winkgrin:

[Thomas_1]

Northern Germany. A little town called Osterholz-Scharmbeck. Kohl und Pinkle washed down with copious amounts of Schinken schnapps.

Every fall/winter.

Trust me.:yes: Ah but they won't have the Vienna Opera House ;)

[J Swan]

The choir meets at Gut Sandbeck. Last time I was there, you picked up your sheet music, put a pfenning in the jar, grabbed a beer, and sat down.

It was German Opera, kind of. Depending on how much beer we drank.

I guess these days you'd used a Euro.

[js]

I hope they find ways to boost attendance with the extra shows. I know they have the Spanish Riding School Kollektion product line out at Dover, don't know how sucessfull it is. But it's that type of thinking/marketing that will help them out in the long run.

Just need more successful marketing efforts straight from their headquarters...

I was under the impression that at home shows and training sessions were sold out well in advance, for shows it was like a year out, is that not the case any more? What happens to all the riders that complete training there? Are they going out and training, passing that knowledge to others? I'd love it if they would offer special week packages to watch a show and watch all training sessions and have an open question/answer/demonstrations session. Maybe they should get more into the breeding, training and selling to the public. It would be a historical loss if the SRS shut its doors forever.

[slc2]

I had thought that they could sell out as many at home shows as they could do. People who aren't particularly interested in dressage go so there is a huge potential audience, i think it is a 'thing to do' in Vienna.

There has at times been pressure in the past to do more shows - some riders are supposed to have said in the 80s when there were many more shows that the horses were getting used too much and they did not like the effect on the horses.

There always seems to be a long waiting list for performance and schooling session tickets. I've heard people even say they didn't even try to get tickets when they went, 'because they're always sold out'.

I don' t think the farm at Piper is big enough to produce a lot of babies. They have sold them on their web site for quite some time, but very few people seem to know how to get to the website. The prices at least last time i looked were very reasonable, but the farm is a lot further away than the sale barns in Holland and Germany.

For a long time there have been articles saying many of the riders have training businesses and they ride at the SRS in the morning and then go to their businesses the rest of the day. At some point that started to be allowed, according to some because otherwise they couldn't keep the riders. They could get their training and then leave and be assured of a very good living for many years.

I don't know if books like Charles Harris' give any percentage to the SRS...probably not. But I would think that people would absolutely love such a book which has all his notes from 3 yrs at the school. It's fascinating to read and see how much of dressage is still taught exactly that way.

I broke all the notes in the book down by category and the vast majority of notes were on......position and the aids.

[sm]

another thing to consider is in the old days the only way to get the word around was to physically do these world wide tours. I remember traveling 4 hours (one way) to see them.

Today there's 24/7 horse tv on the internet, cable horse channels... many other types of opportunities. It would be great to highlight their training and a few of their star horses. Where they were foaled, early trainng days, and then fast forward to the high school stuff.

Add the kid rider who barely made it into the school having a special bond with the horse and they both become the best in the world, Holy Jeez, it's a disney movie!!! Just need to work out all the language translations, it'll be a blockbuster all over EU and NA. But, as Star Wars will tell you, the real money is made in the merchandising of toys, tee shirts, don't forget Burger King kids meals trinkets. It could be tons of income for the SRS...

And Breyer will have to come out with their model of the star... can't leave out Breyer.

[slc2]

I can't really imagine anyone in the past management wanting to really commercialize it or put out lipizanner toys in a big way. They seem to have always not been very public in a lot of ways.

[RonaldGroen]

What if the Spanish Riding School Disappeared?


We'll send you the French Riding School or the Russian Riding School or the Kentucky Fried Chicken Riding School, with a good marketing plan you can sell everything to the US of A.

[slc2]

You always seem terribly disappointed in the world, RG.

[dutchmike]

We'll send you the French Riding School or the Russian Riding School or the Kentucky Fried Chicken Riding School, with a good marketing plan you can sell everything to the US of A.




You sound like a person that got denied entry into the USA:lol:. I guess your marketing was not good enough:D

[Dalfan]

with a good marketing plan you can sell everything to the US of A.

Tis true. This is where the money's at. :)

You do sound just a tad envious, RG, of the great U.S. of A.

[Zen and Horses]

Once upon a time (on this board, or perhaps that OTHER one) it was suggested for the SRS to allow subscriptions to a real time video link of the daily goings on at the school. Daily training at the SRS !! Surely there would be interest in that.

[Sabine]

Tis true. This is where the money's at. :)

You do sound just a tad envious, RG, of the great U.S. of A.

I think there might be something else going on....there was a 21 yr old corporal that died in Afghanistan in a military holdup. He has the same name and he was part of the troups that were dispatched when the whole mess started with Iraq and some european nations sent troops as well. He was dutch. Me thinks RG does not like the USA. If you google at google.de you can read it. It's sad.

[claire]

I think there might be something else going on....there was a 21 yr old corporal that died in Afghanistan in a military holdup. He has the same name and he was part of the troups that were dispatched when the whole mess started with Iraq and some european nations sent troops as well. He was dutch. Me thinks RG does not like the USA. If you google at google.de you can read it. It's sad.

Yes, that is very sad. But whoever is using RG's name to post all this nastiness on a Dressage BB...is pretty twisted. :no:

[dutchmike]

If that is true then it is pretty sick. However Ronald Groen is a dutchname and not german

[sm]

I can't really imagine anyone in the past management wanting to really commercialize it or put out lipizanner toys in a big way. They seem to have always not been very public in a lot of ways.

Then don't sign that particular liscensing agreement--just have the disney movie and stock the shelves with SRS Kollektion. It's a blockbuster!!

And the tourist packages would also boost their econony--yes, it's all better than walking the horse into the van onto the jet and travelling all over. "It's not every day one goes to an Imperial Palace for a horse show. But in Vienna life is on a grand scale, and the Spanish Riding School is no exception. Tourists begin to arrive in fine horse drawn carriages. The clip-clopping of horses' hooves on ancient cobblestones transports us instantly into the 18th century" http://www.equitrekking.com/travelcenter/travel_articles/behind_the_scenes_at_the_spani.php

It takes six years on average for a horse to complete its training and become a school stallion. They don't accept previous riders, and it takes about 10 years for a student to fully complete training and become a Rider. The rider and the horse remain together, forming a "life-long team". http://www.srs.at/index.php?id=323

It's got disney movie written all over it *sigh*

[Eclectic Horseman]

I think that they will do much better by staying at home and increasing the number of performances there. As I recall, the school in Vienna seems to have been closed at the times when most tourists would be traveling (summer and Xmas holidays), which I always found strange.

It is a much smaller world than it was the first time I saw the SRS tour at the Boston Garden in the 1960s. Without the tour, and the Disney movie, they would not have become so famous particularly among non-equestrians. But now the world is much smaller in so many ways, and a little thoughtful PR and marketing can have global effect.

[sm]

I Without the tour, and the Disney movie, they would not have become so famous particularly among non-equestrians...

Oh shoot, I didn't know they already had one disney movie, "Walt Disney's motion picture, The Miracle of the White Stallions, depicting the rescue of the horses by General Patton's men during World War II, did much to publicize and to create sympathy and admiration for the Lipizzaners in the United States. "
http://www.rozylowicz.com/retirement/lipizzaner/lipizzaner.html

Well, time to do a brand new take on it then, the story of a young boy and a horse...

[Lambie Boat]

for the second time, it's PIBER not PIPER. since you care so much, you should try to get it right.

[slc2]

yes, I know it's Piber. It's a typo. I'll put in a change request...LOL.

[Janet]

I think that they will do much better by staying at home and increasing the number of performances there. As I recall, the school in Vienna seems to have been closed at the times when most tourists would be traveling (summer and Xmas holidays), which I always found strange. That is because, AFAIK, there is NO turnout in Vienna. They get turned out, and used for breeding, in the summer.

Their "time off" has to fit the schedule of the breeding farm.

[egontoast]

yes, I know it's Piber. It's a typo.

Twice?

No wonder your perfumed fan mail kept coming back. :lol:

[Thomas_1]

I can't really imagine anyone in the past management wanting to really commercialize it or put out lipizanner toys in a big way. They seem to have always not been very public in a lot of ways. You've never been there then????

The shop is full to the gunnels of lipezanner toys and every one who I employ has a key ring with a cuddly grey horse and stock pins and all my grandchildren have big grey cuddly horses and the jig saws etc etc etc.

Its commercialism gone mad already and nothing cheap either.

[Thomas_1]

The horses are turned out in summer and that's at Piber. The facilities for them in Vienna are all just inside the city and hence not acceptable as permanent.

I think the strategy of staying in location and increasing performances on home territory is actually much better than travelling all over the world and with all the associated operational cost and expenditure.

After all the price of admission is ordinarily dearer in the Winter Riding School in Vienna than when they're touring in the likes of the USA and UK etc etc.

The horses are all classically produced and hence that means it takes as long as it takes and double it. The riders are absolutely trained, trained, trained and then trained some more and again that takes a long time. It seems to me that if staying "at home" and letting people come to them reduces operating costs and raises additional revenue AND reduces the strain of such as international travel on the horses then that's all a good thing.

After all the Vienna performances are always full to capacity and its virtually a dead cert they could fill yet more. Its one of the "things to do" for the majority who go and far and away most attendees have little or no serious interest in serious things equestrian.

[Eireamon]

As someone who went to Vienna and was gutted to learn that I could not see a performance I would be all for more performances.

I was a silly naive traveller (this was before the days of internet) that had no idea you had to book so far in advance to see the show.

Vienna however is a beautiful place to visit so all was not lost. :)

[Thomas_1]

You should have gone to the Schoenbrun (Summer) Palace and to the Carriage museum there. Carriage drivers heaven :)