Just horsing around
Tempel Farms resumes summer performances
Because of the pandemic, it’s been 18 months since the public has been able to visit the stallion stables at Tempel Farms near Wadsworth to see the Lipizzan horses up close.
The stables are open again and the summer shows are back. On select Saturdays and Sundays beginning June 20, the audience can watch the traditional spotlight show featuring performances to classical music by the horses.
On select Wednesdays, beginning June 23, the audience can view demonstrations on how horses learn to dance, narrated by program director Esther Buonanno. After the shows, which run through Sept. 5, participants can meet the horses and their trainers.
“People love coming into the stables,” said Buonanno, granddaughter of the Tempel
Lipizzan founders. “There are these living sculptures at each stall. You get a real sense of the size and the personality of the horses. It’s a full, all-senses experience,” she said, adding the public also can talk with the trainers.
The summer spotlight show features the farm’s highly trained horses. They perform the most advanced dances with their trainers.
These include the long rein, the airs above the ground and the quadrille.
“Folks have been coming for years to see these performances,” Buonanno said. One of their favorite segments is when the mares and their foals are brought out at the beginning, she said. “We have four foals this year between two and five months old.” Another highlight is stallion Maestoso Batrina, a bay-colored Lipizzan — they are usually white as adults — will show his skill at jumping on his hind legs.
“He is absolutely spectacular,” Buonanno said. He’ll be at all the spotlight performances and some of the Wednesday events.
Buonanno is also proud of Tempel Farms’ only female trainer and rider, Nadalyn Firenz, who will perform at all shows. She began as a 19-year-old working to get lessons.
“She went through our training program, was promoted to a rider, then to assistant trainer and just last week, she was promoted to full trainer,” Buonanno
said. “She is our only woman trainer. She has a particular gift for the airs above the ground,” in which the trainer walks alongside the horse during the performance.
Buonanno got the idea to create a new summer show on Wednesdays called How Lipizzan Stallions Learn to Dance. They tried the show in front of a small, spaced-out audience outdoors in winter. “We found that a lot of people, particularly families, were looking to go somewhere safe, and to get a live experience,” she said. People enjoyed the show, so it’s now part of the summer season.
At the beginning, the babies enter the arena. “You get to see them running and playing,” Buonanno said.
Then a young stallion early in his training is brought in. “I point out to the public things to look for, how the horse balances, what kind of rhythm they see, the basic aids of the rider.” Then the intermediate
horses come in and Buonanno points out how each horse carries itself, how the muscles are growing, and how it learned to cross its legs over.
“Then we get to the most advanced horse,” Buonanno said. “Those are the horses that show where sport meets art. The partnership between rider and horse becomes its own expression. It becomes almost a psychic connection in some ways, she said.
Buonanno’s grandparents, Tempel and Esther Smith, started the Lipizzans breeding program and classical dressage along with education and entertainment in 1958. The Lipizzan breed is now considered an endangered domestic animal with fewer than 8,500 worldwide.
The horses start training at 4 years old, and begin performing when they are 8 years or older. “I’ve got two horses this year that people will see in performances that
are 22 years old,” Buonanno said.
“They are at the absolute top of their game. This breed is really built to last. If you train them right and care for them right, they are very happy to work. You can’t make a 1,200-pound animal do anything. It has to be something they’re willing to do.”
Ticket prices purchased in advance are $35 for adults and $25 for children between ages 4-14. A $5 fee is added when tickets are purchased on the day of the event. Complimentary wine is served on Saturday shows.
VIP tickets, which includes wine and charcuterie and special seating, are $80. By June 8, VIP tickets were sold out for the first three shows.