Royal Lipizzan Stallion Ranch Faces Foreclosure

MYAKKA CITY | A southwest Florida landmark, the ranch where a group of the world-famous Lipizzan stallions are trained, could be in jeopardy as a bank moves to foreclose on part of the property.

Whitney National Bank filed a foreclosure suit Friday against the Herrmann family, operators of The Original Herrmanns' Royal Lipizzan Stallions of Austria ranch. The bank says in court documents that the family has failed to make payments on more than $1 million in loans.

The foreclosure has been filed on two pieces of land: a 131-acre swath and a 40-acre parcel at the ranch in Myakka City.

The family offered the parcels as collateral on a $1 million loan in 2005 from 1st National Bank & Trust.

The loan was passed to Whitney after it took over 1st National Bank & Trust, court records indicate.

Even before the foreclosure, the stallion training operation on Singletary Road has been struggling because of rising prices for fuel, grain and sawdust used in stalls.

The burden has led the Herrmann family to question whether they can keep running the ranch passed down from family patriarch Col. Ottomar Herrmann Jr., who died in 2004.

The colonel left his estate to daughter Gabriella "Gabby" Herrmann and other family members.

The lawsuit names Herrmann, her daughter, Rebecca McCullough, and the Ottomar Herrmann estate as defendants.

"I'm still kind of in shock with everything because I'm not sure what's going on," said Carmen Herrmann Stiles, a cousin of Gabby Herrmann. Stiles is a Lipizzan trainer and performer.

[ Patrina A. Bostic writes for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. ]