By DEBORAH DANIELS

PDT Staff Writer

A rare opportunity to see a performance by Herrmann’s Royal Lippizzan Stallions is coming to Franklin Furnace. Visitors will see the white horses perform the rare and beautiful “Airs Above the Ground,” just as it was performed in the 1963 Walt Disney movie “Miracle of the White Stallions.”

Herrmann’s Royal Lipizzan Stallions will perform June 19 and 20 at the Ohio Horse Park, an academic division of Ohio University Southern founded in 1995 and located off U.S. 52 near Franklin Furnace. The park is a center of learning for Ohio University students and the general public.

Kelly Hall, interim director of the horse park, said the show will take place indoors, with bleacher seating and a capacity for about 300.

“They travel all over the United States and this is one of their stops this year,” she said.

Founded in the 16th century for the exclusive use of the Hapsburg Royal Family of Austria, the Royal Lipizzans are unquestionably the rarest, most aristocratic breed of horses in the world, according to the official Web site, and only a few hundred have ever existed at any one time. It was also noted on the Web site that it is nearly a miracle the bloodline isn’t extinct, “having barely been saved by Gen. George Patton from the Russian advance during World War II.” Patton was assisted by Cols. Ottomar Herrmann Sr. and Jr., who “smuggled the horses out from behind enemy lines, riding at night and hiding by day.” The celebrated Lipizzans’ escape was recounted in “Miracle of the White Stallions.”

Two subsequent generations of Herrmanns maintain a 200-acre ranch in Florida to ensure the continuation of the extraordinary breed.

“The show is very entertaining,” Hall said, “but a little more casual than some of their shows, such as how it was depicted in the Disney movie. That was very formal,” she said.

DEBORAH DANIELS can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 234.