Emperor Charles VI visited the completed building accompanied by his wife Empress Elizabeth-Christine, their daughter Maria Theresa and her fiancé Franz Stefan of Lorraine on 14 September 1735. From this year on, the Spanish Court Riding School exclusively used Lipizzaner horses from the Karster stud (Lipizza) and no longer any unknown Spanish horses.
The Winter Riding School guaranteed that Charles VI could control the performance of the Lipizzaner stallions as he intended. In this way, everyday work in the new building could be carried out non-stop.
The first names of the Senior Riders (Oberbereiter) date from this period; for example, Oberbereiter Edler von Regenthal who was probably highly esteemed by Charles VI., since the latter ordered him to Lipizza with instructions to determine the state of things on location, to report back and to make suggestions for improvement. Attesting to Charles VI's achievement is his riding portrait hanging in the court loge of the hall, as well as the marble panel with the Latin inscription:
“The imperial riding school established for education and for practice of the aristocratic youth as well as to train horses for artistic riding and the war by command of Emperor Charles VI, son of erstwhile Emperor Leopold I and under custody of the court building director and master of the royal mews Count Gundaker von Althan in the year 1735.”

To this day the riders express their respect for the constructor of the hall every time they ride into the hall: they lift their bicorn hats in salutation in front of the portrait of Charles VI. After Charles’ death in 1740, Maria Theresa took over the regency. She was the first to celebrate medieval tournaments and carousels in the new Winter Riding School. She loved entertainment of that kind and participated actively in ladies’ carousels. What is more, pompous court balls and lavish masked balls were put on during that time.
The shape and form of the Spanish Court Riding School as we know it today came into existence at the beginning of the 19th century:
The Empire-uniforms of the “Schulreiter”: golden-edged bicorn hat, coffee-brown frock coat, yellow toned buckskin breeches, buckskin gloves and high leather boots.
The red and gold saddle cloths and the slender, gold-plated breastplate and crupper of the stallions.

The period of the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) provided a new impetus for the Spanish Riding School: festive carousels in front of an international audience of high and highest politicians. After the festivities of these years some peace and quiet was reinstated for the benefit of the daily routine. The Imperial Senior Riders and other riders were able to pursue their work in a more sedate atmosphere. This was all the more important since the French Revolution (around 1792) and the Napoleonic Wars and their repercussions had brought to an end nearly all institutions that were dedicated to horsemanship throughout Europe.
When Emperor Franz Joseph ascended the royal throne of Hungary on 8 June 1867 on the coronation hill near Budapest, he sat on the Lipizzaner stallion Maestoso Cerbero. The very last carousel took place on 28 April 1894, twenty years before the gun shots of Sarajevo were fired.
That work proceeded in the Spanish Court Riding School despite decades of distraction and interferences, is the achievement of the famous Senior Riders: the Weyrothers, notably Max. He was succeeded by Burgstock and Kampen, Rieder and Herr von Nadasty, Matthäus Niedermayer and Franz Gebhardt.
In the year 1898, Johann Meixner was Senior Rider; he wrote down the fundamental directives with His Excellency Holbein. Each one of them, however, continued the great tradition of passing down the oral tradition of horsemanship to their successors.