Leaping Lipizzaners are back

What’s bred and white and jumps all over?

The Lipizzaner Stallions, those acrobatic, white-coated horses from royal Austrian lineage, will make a return trip to the Spokane Arena on Saturday and Sunday.

First, they stop off tonight in Pullman for a performance at Beasley Coliseum.

The stallions’ history can be traced to the 1500s, when Austria’s Hapsburg monarchy developed their nimble, trademark moves for use in battle.

At the end of World War II, with Vienna under attack by Allied bombers, the endangered horses were rescued under the orders of Gen. George S. Patton. That was the basis for the 1963 Disney film “The Miracle of the White Stallions.”

Today, most Lipizzaners are housed at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, where they entertain visitors with their intricately choreographed moves.

Since 1970, some of them also have been touring the world, performing such signature routines as “Airs Above the Ground,” consisting of leaps and maneuvers once used by riders to confuse enemy combatants.

They start out, by the way, as horses of a different color; born black, they acquire their white coats gradually over a six- to 10-year period.