BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Ottomar Herrmann, the patriarch of the family that brought their dancing Lipizzan stallions to Vermont for 13 summers, has died at 75.

Herrmann died of a heart attack Monday in Bourne, Mass., about 45 minutes after the end of a performance, said his daughter, Gabriella Herrmann.

“He gasped three times, and then he was gone,” Gabriella Herrmann told the Burlington Free Press by phone from North Adams, Mass. “He finished the last show.”

Herrmann was born in Slovakia in 1929. He began showing “The Original Royal Lipizzan Stallions of Austria” shortly after he arrived in the United States in the early 1960s.

The horses performed centuries-old maneuvers first honed on battlefields. The aerial jumps, kicks and strikes that Herrmann had his stallions perform in the ring were meant to be lethal, not lovely.

In 1992, Herrmann and his stallions spent their first summer in North Hero performing as well as taking the occasional swim in Lake Champlain. Herrmann said the smaller, more rural nature of the North Hero performance arena was perfect.

“For an artist, the money is not important,” Herrmann said in 1999. “The money is only important to support the art.

“So long as I can feed my horses, pay my taxes and pay my credit cards, that’s all I want.”

Herrmann is survived by his daughter, Gabriella Herrmann; son, Guido Herrmann; and granddaughter, Rebecca McCullogh. His wife, Lydia, predeceased him.

The Herrmanns will complete their fall performances and return to their Myakka City, Fla., ranch where a memorial service will be held in October.

Gabriella Herrmann has said the stallions will return to North Hero’s Knight Point State Park for performances in 2005.

“He wants it to go on,” Gabriella Herrmann said. “There’s no question about that.”