Miss Friedel Luciana Paster, Dressage Rider, RBB&B Circus, 1951

1951. Very good +. Gelatin silver print, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (241 x 190 mm) from the Roland Butler Collection, Press Agent, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1930s-1960s) Roland Butler Collection hand stamp on verso.
[On the website of the Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center (The World's Source for American Circus History), the woman in this photograph is identified as her circus colleague Cilly Feindt (Photograph CWi 3182). Friedel Luciana Paster's obituary in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Tuesday, July 23, 2002 page 6B, entitled "Horse Trainer was a star of Royal Lipizzan Show," provided several biographical detail: "Friedel's entire life revolved around her beloved horses," said former circus performer and friend Rebecca Nock Brodeur of Bradenton.
"She trained at the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna and was in her first horse show when she was 12. She later trained her three stallions and toured in shows all over the world with her parents, Otto and Luciana," Brodeur said.
"Friedel said American audiences were the greatest in the world, and it was a pleasure to perform for them because they were so appreciative," Brodeur said. "The happiest moments in her life were when she was performing."
Paster was born Sept. 8, 1927, in Austria where her parents performed with the Vienna Spanish Riding School. In the 1950s John Ringling North brought the family to the United States to join his circus.
In a 1981 interview with the Herald-Tribune, Paster said she never considered marriage because she was married to her work with the white stallions.
"I was breathing and living Lipizzans," she said.
She described how the horses learn a perfect walk, precise trot and even canter.
"They must not be a slave carrying his rider, but a dancer gliding beneath him," she said.