LIpizzaner Horses

Tonight I watched a show on Nature, a show on PBS http://www.pbs.org/, called "The Legendary White Stallions."  The blurb for this was "The history of the Lipizzaner stallion is chronicled. Included: their little-known rescue by the U.S. Army in 1945."  For some history about this horse, click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipizzaner.

I must not have been paying close attention, because I did not hear the part about the rescue by the U.S. Army in 1945.  And, I take exception to the blurb, and suspect that many of my generation, who were raised on Disney films, will too.  I immediately remembered the title of the Disney movie, "The Miracle of the White Stallions" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057312/ that we watched when we were little.  I am not sure how accurate the movie was (I think the Disney studio has improved its accuracy, and does not take as much artistic license as it used to) but it was a good story.

I remember seeing the Lipizzaners when I was in college in the early 1970's.  The leader of the troupe made a "love your country, be good patriots" speech at the end for which most of the students expressed their displeasure.  You have to remember that it was not fashionable to be a patriot or good citizen during that time. I was saddened by that.  This man was grateful to the United States for the continuation of this horse breed, and he was just expressing that, and that we should appreciate our country.  Well, I am grateful that I got to see the horses and riders perform.  It was awesome!