A lot of important horse breeding countries in Central and Eastern

Europe were part of the former Austrian-Hungarian monarchy.

Famous Arabian, thoroughbred and warmblood horse studs have

influenced the breeding of noble horses. Some autochthonous

Austrian breeds have their roots in these countries - the Old

Austrian Warmblood, Shagya Arabian and Huzulen Horse.

A special institution from those times is the Spanish Riding School in

Vienna and the Federal Stud in Piber, Styria. Lipitsan horses are

specially suited for classical equitation because of their power,

calmness, intelligence and nobleness.  

Also the heavy horse was very important

because of their excellent

draught power. With technisation and

mechanisation the good times

of horse breeding ended.

Around 1980 the Austrian horse breeding

reached the bottom (1980: 40.400

horses). Nowadays the number of horses

is increasing. Riding and driving is more

popular than ever, there are also now

fields of using the horse, like horse

therapy. Today there is a population of more than 85.000 horses in

Austria.

In the conservation programme the rare

horse breeds are listes as

endangered. Therefore the breeders have

the possibility to include

their special interests next to maintain the

genetic diversity.