"When you touch a Lippizaner," Frank Westerman was told as a child, "you are touching history." Westerman took it to heart, and here he explores the history of these unique pedigree horses, first bred as personal mounts for the Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Following the bloodlines of the studbook, he reconstructs the story of four generations of imperial steeds as they survive the fall of the Habsburg Empire, two world wars, and breeding experiments conducted under Hitler, Stalin, and Ceausescu. Taking the reader across Europe, from imperial stables and stud farms to the controversial gene labs of today, Westerman asks, if animal breeders are so good at genetic engineering, why do attempts to perfect the human strain always fail?