Lipizzaners don't need special training to do those magnificent leaps, artistic gaits and balletlike stands on their hind legs.
Those feats come naturally to them.
Judith Tarr, owner of Dancing Horse Farm in Vail, sees it all the time.
"Sometimes my horse corrals look like popcorn poppers — round white things going boingy all over the place," Tarr said of her six Lipizzaners.
What the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions World Tour will do Friday and Saturday is present well-coifed horses and their riders in 19th-century military costumes in a choreographed show set to Old European music.
Trainers for the show take those natural abilities in Lipizzaners and hone them for high-level dressage, producer Gary Lashinsky said.
Dressage is a style of riding that makes it appear a horse is going through specific paces without cues from its rider. It focuses on the purity of specific gaits and movements.
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All of the show's Lipizzaners come from the Austrian stud farm that furnishes horses to the premier Lipizzaner training facility, the Spanish Riding School of Vienna.
"All of the horses that we select are basically a specific size and have the same cadence and movement," Lashinsky said by phone from his Orlando, Fla., home.
That uniformity creates a smoothly flowing look in the arena, he said.
After four to six years of dressage training at the show's Florida complex, the horse is ready to perform.
Horses will demonstrate many maneuvers, including the capriole, which is a leap and a kick in the air; the courbette, a jump from a standing position on the hind legs; and the levade, in which the horse balances on its hind legs as it leans forward 45 degrees.
Horses and riders also will perform military drills and "dances" to music.
The show demonstrates the epitome of dressage and beyond, said Diane Seaberry, a member of the Tucson Dressage Club.
"They are just wonderful to watch," she said. "And what they do is gorgeous."
● The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions World Tour
• When: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Tucson Arena, 260 S. Church Ave.
• Tickets: $28.50, $23.50 and $20.50. A $2 discount is available at the two lower prices for those 60 or older and 12 or younger. Tickets are available at the Tucson Convention Center box office and from Ticketmaster, www.ticketmaster.com or 321-1000. Additional fees may apply.
