If wishes were horses, then parents of horse-crazy girls would be driving to Hershey or Harrisburg this weekend.

Two major attractions, the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, will draw thousands of equine enthusiasts to central Pennsylvania this weekend. Both events are considered "equestrian entertainment," a category of attractions that, over the past 20 years, has leapt from a multimillion-dollar niche business to a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States.

What will you get for the price of admission? Here's a brief preview of both events:

• You don't have to be a horse-crazy adolescent girl to be awed by this image: an ivory steed flying across an arena, mane and tail fanning out behind like feathers. It's a sight that struck fear into soldiers, from ancient Greece through the fall of the Hapsburgs. What was once an art of war has evolved into art for royalty and the bourgeois alike, thanks to Vienna's famed Spanish Riding School.

Austrian archdukes began importing Iberian war horses in the late 1500s and bred them at the royal stud in Lipizza. For centuries, Vienna's riding masters have visited the stud and selected the most frolicsome black colts, who will mature into the school's spirited white stallions.

Various crises have beleaguered the school and stud over the years, most famously the Nazi occupation, as dramatized in Disney's 1963 film "Flight of the White Stallions." During the 1980s, an outbreak of equine herpes heavily afflicted Europe's Lipizzaners. According to the Lipizzan Association of North America, populations are now nearly equal on both sides of the Atlantic, with 1,500 horses living in the United States and Canada.

About 50 of those North American Lipizzaners are owned by White Stallions Productions, the touring company that will perform tonight at Giant Center in Hershey. It's the first time in three years the tour has stopped in Chocolate Town, and producer Gary Lashinsky is glad to be back. Audiences will see a new 90-minute performance, with fresh choreography set to Viennese waltzes by Strauss and Mozart.

In groups of two, four and eight, the Lipizzaners will dance across the arena demonstrating the moves and steps of classical dressage, an equestrian sport best described as ballet on horseback. It's an impressive sight, but thrill-seekers will be waiting for the Airs Above the Ground, a series of four flying leaps the most athletic of Lippizanners are trained to perform.

"The capriole is the most exciting of the air movements," Lashinsky said. "That's when the horse literally jumps into the air and kicks out with his hind legs. We show that both in saddle and in-hand."

The tour riders, including one Olympian, hail from eight countries, and although Lashinsky breeds Lipizzaners at his Florida farm, most of the stallions on the tour are imported from Austria.

The bloodlines of every Lipizzaner horse can be traced back to one of six foundational stallions: Conversano, Favory, Maestoso, Neopolitano, Pluto and Sigvaly. Each Austrian-born stallion bears a brand that corresponds to his bloodline. The male horses are named by combining the names of both parents. For example, the oldest stallion on the tour is 21-year-old Conversano Bella Donna, who will perform a solo Grand Prix demonstration, the highest dressage level in the world.

• It's Grand Prix jumping, rather than Grand Prix dressage, that draws fans to the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, held each fall at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. Each evening through Oct. 21, top riders will guide their horses over fences up to 7 feet tall, pursuing $340,000 in prize money.

Nearly 1,200 horses and ponies are registered to compete in the 2006 show. Most competitions are not nearly as intense as the Grand Prix jumping. For example, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" host Carson Kressley is scheduled to ride his high-stepping American saddlebred horses in saddleseat competition, where looks count just as much as athleticism.

This year's guest exhibitions include terrier races, sheepherding, the Valley Forge Military Band and Stacey Westfall, the "Queen of Freestyle Reining." Westfall will spin her horse in circles without the aid of a bridle. Past guest exhibitors include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride and the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Outside the arena, spectators will find an equestrian shopping mall, an arcade of 50 vendors selling everything from riding boots to glitter hoof polish.

A complete schedule for the horse show is posted at www.panational.org. Highlights include:

Tonight: National Team Jumping Championship.

Saturday: Kids Day — Pony classes and free pony rides.

Sunday: Pessoa National Medal Finals.

Monday: Hunt Night — Terrier races and horn-blowing championships.

Tuesday: Local Night.

Wednesday: "Gambler's Choice" show jumping.

Thursday: Draft horses, American saddlebreds, hackneys and the "Pennsylvania Big Jump."

Oct. 20: Open Speed Jumper Finals.

Oct. 21: $65,000 Budweiser Grand Prix de Penn National.


Pennsylvania National Horse Show, through Oct. 21, equestrian competitions, attractions, shopping and more, Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center, Harrisburg, call 770-0222 for times, prices and more information.

Lipizzaner Stallions, today, 7:30 p.m., Giant Center, Hershey, $20.50-$29.50, 534-3911. blog comments powered by Disqus