On September 29, October 3 and 6, 2024, ESSA member and Germany’s oldest state stud farm, the Marbach Main and State Stud, hosted a horse festival for the whole family. A total of 21,100 visitors came to Marbach over the three days to experience horses as a cultural asset. The Marbach State Stud invited the Slovenian State Stud Lipica to the stallion parade as a guest country.
The number of visitors and the public’s response to the varied show program give reason for an all-round positive assessment by the State Stable Manager and President of the ESSA, Dr. Astrid von Velsen-Zerweck, who thanked the Slovenian guests: “I would also like to express my special thanks to all our guests from Slovenia. Without them, this year’s stallion parades would not have been what they were!”
The riders from the Lipica State Stud represented this year’s guest country, Slovenia, and showed impressive performances of the highest level of difficulty with their “white pearls”, the well-trained Lipizzaners. Other program highlights included the large Marbach quadrille with 20 horses – the Lipizzaners also took part here -, the Hungarian post, the famous free-running Silver Herd of Weil-Marbach Arabian mares and the fast-paced “Jump and Drive”.