South African Lipizzaners

About 1890, the family stud farm at Terezovac (now in Croatia), a part of the Jankovics-Bésán estate, was split up because of an inheritance issue.

After the resolution of yet another dispute over the Slavonian property of the Jankovics-Bésáns in the late 1920s, the horse breeding operation then moved to Öreglak in Hungary.

In 1944, the owner of the stud, Count Jankovics-Bésán, was forced to flee Hungary due to the advance of the Red Army.

He first went to Sünching, Germany, where his parents' stud farm was located, and then he fled with his horses to Dorset, England, arriving at Christmas 1946 at the property of Lord Digby.

After two years as an assistant manager of the Polish National Stud in Bogusławice, he finished cavalry school and went into the army.

The relationship between Janković-Bésán's horses and the training talents of Iwanowski began in 1951, when the two men met at the Royal Agricultural Show in Pietermaritzburg.

About 1972, the Irvins went to Vienna and imported the stallion Maestoso Palmira to add new blood to the herd in order to prevent inbreeding.

In the mid-1950s, George Iwanowski met Colonel Hans Handler, who at the time was second in command at the Spanish Riding School.

Handler began to travel to South Africa once a year to help Iwanowski with the planning, the choreography and the training for the performance.