A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless the horse happens to be a Lipizzaner. In which case you're talking about an exceptional animal known for beauty, intelligence and superb agility. A breed apart, the créme de la créme of Lipizzaners hail from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, where stallions are trained in a centuries-old method of classical riding known as haute école. The school's steeds once served as entertainment for the Austrian emperor's royal court, and they still perform. Now even commoners can see their act, either by visiting the riding school or catching them on the road.

The current U.S. tour makes a post-Thanksgiving stopover at the Wachovia Spectrum and Gary Lashinsky, the show's producer, affirms that it's the real deal: "This is the same as you would see in Vienna."

Thirty white Lipizzaners participate in pageantry known as equestrian ballet. Moves include the pirouette (jumping with hind legs in a small circle), courbette (hopping forward while raised up high on hind legs) and quadrille (several horses dancing in unison in step to classical music). Everything is tightly choreographed and the maneuvers are done to exacting standards. "These horses are trained to perfection," raves Lashinsky. "It's like the Bolshoi Ballet for horses."

Such perfection does not come easy: It takes more than six years to train a stallion and eight years to educate a rider before they're performance-ready. A horse is trained and ridden by the same person for its entire lifetime. The idea is to create an innate bond between man and beast. Herwig Radnetter, a rider since 1976, explains, "You have to understand the horse and the horse has to understand you. So you can get it do what you want. Each horse is different."

Radnetter joined the Riding School at age 15 and he's still passionate about Lipizzaners and all that comes with being a member of the esteemed SRS corps. He enjoys wearing the 19th-century-style uniform, which features tailcoat, buckskin riding pants, Wellington boots and bicorne hat. "We wear this uniform even when we train, when no one is watching," he says. "This is what we do. If you're at the Spanish Riding School you commit yourself to the tradition."

That tradition trickles down to details, like the riding crop. "We ride with birch whips," says Radnetter. "We could easily go to a riding equipment shop and buy a plastic whip and it would last a lot longer. But no, we go out in the winter and cut young birch strips and that's what we ride with. … We do this in 2005 because it's part of our history."

Ten riders in all participate in the performance, which breaks the art of classical riding into several segments. The first section provides a step-by-step explanation of the basics of the technique to clue everyone in to what they'll see throughout the program. And if some wonder why make all that effort to teach an animal to pirouette, Radnetter says that's missing the point. "Even though a lot of people probably think riding is not important in our life … this is part of European culture and preserving culture is very important for our society. So that's what we're working at."

Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Fri., Nov. 25, 8 p.m., Sat. Nov. 26, 2:30 p.m., $30-$150, Wachovia Center, 3601 S. Broad St., 215-336-2000.