A STALLION BUYING TRIP TO PORTUGAL

By Anthony Fox

Some years ago, Catherine Spode bought the Lusitano filly Garrida, whom I had bred from my mare Brigitte. She has been riding and training Garrida in classical equitation in France under the guidance of the trainer Jacques Papin, a pupil of the famous Nuno Oliveira.

Then recently Catherine decided that she would like to buy another Lusitano to train and ride. If this were to be a stallion then she could put Garrida in foal to him as well. She asked me for my help in introducing her to various of the breeders in Portugal and in advising on a suitable pedigree to match Garrida’s.

I consequently agreed to go out to Portugal with her on a buying trip. After all, it would give me an excellent excuse to see even more Lusitanos as well as to call on breeders that I have known for years and to spend a holiday in Portugal.

We flew from Heathrow and despite the crowded Friday evening flight found TAP, the Portuguese national airline, as courteous as ever. We arrived in Lisbon late in the evening and as we had had a meal on the plane, we went straight to our rooms. The next morning we left the hotel early and without breakfast to catch the first train to Coimbra, a high-speed express leaving at 06.30. The reason for this? The Lusitano Stallion Grading at the Escola Superior de Agraria – a division of the University. Coimbra is Portugal’s oldest University and one of the oldest in the world.

The particular importance of this event was that it was the first Grading since the adoption of new Stud-Book regulations. These changes are to lower the pass mark for acceptance of breeding stock into the Stud Book to 50%, followed by continuing re-assessment of graded horses throughout their breeding lives, according to the quality of their progeny. Therefore many Lusitano breeders came from all over Portugal, just to watch the new regulations in operation. I was thus able to introduce Catherine to many of the breeders as well as to members of the Grading Panel.

As we were talking to people after the grading we received a kind invitation from Joao Ralao, the secretary of the A.P.S.L. (the Portuguese breeders’ association) to have lunch with him. Afterwards he offered to drive us back to Cascais to see the final selection of Portugal’s horseball team of which Joao is coach. This team uses exclusively Lusitano horses and Catherine quickly became an enthusiast! Horseball, which is rather like basketball on horseback, was developed in France and has rapidly become popular in Portugal, too. It has now spread to the rest of Europe and to the Americas. In all of these countries it is played by adults: only in Britain is it relegated to a children’s game, in the Pony Club!

The amazing ability of the Lusitano Horse to gallop, spin on a sixpence, or stop instantly and then gallop on – all inside a confined arena – makes it the ideal horse for horseball. This is why the French national horsesball team uses mostly Lusitanos, and why the world championship always seems to alternate between France – who invented the game, and Portugal – who supply the horses!

After a long day, with much to think about, a short train ride took us back to dinner in Lisbon.

The next morning, Sunday, I had arranged at Catherine’s request, a visit to Dr. Guilherme Borba, pupil of Nuno Oliveira. Dr. Borba is the founder and trainer of the Escola Portuguesa de Arte Equestre and he was also of great assistance to Don Alvaro Domecq in training the Jerez School of Equitation. The Escola Portuguesa de Arte Equestre is Portugal’s national riding academy rather as the Spanish riding School of Vienna is to Austria. It differs from both this and the Jerez School in that the Portuguese riders are all unpaid except for expenses, and perform in their own free time. The horses all come from the State owned Alter Real stud which, as the word Real implies, used to be the Royal stud. These horses are all bays, which used to be the predominant colour of the Iberian or Andalusian Horse until less than a hundred years ago. The Escola gives regular public displays of classical equitation every Thursday at their base, the Palace of Queluz, just outside Lisbon, at which the riders wear traditional 18th century dress.

Dr. Borba is almost a legend in Portugal and it was truly amazing and educational to see this gentleman ride; even more so as he rode three stallions of his own breeding.

Francisco Lobo de Vasconcellos (Junior)

On Monday morning we were met by Dona Maria Pia Lobo de Vasconcellos and taken to their stud at Evora. I had particularly chosen this stud because Garrida’s dam, Brigitte had as her own dam a mare from Casal Branco, the “home” estate of the Lobo de Vasconcellos family. Here we were shown young colts, all sons of the famous Boneco II who died only last year of serious colic. Catherine fell for Primoroso who was only for sale because the breeder had his full brother, Oceano, who is one year older. He could therefore afford to let the younger horse – and the bloodlines that he carries – leave the stud. Our hostess provided us with an excellent lunch, including wine from their own estate, following which we returned to the picadeiro, or manege, to be shown some older stallions as examples of what the young colts might grow into. Both Dona Maria Pia and her son Francisco rode, and it was clear that they had both been pupils of Nuno Oliveira. Catherine was then accorded the honour of riding one of the stallions herself, which pleased her enormously.

"Jardineiro" ridden by Nuno Palma

On Tuesday the same hostess took us to see other stallions of their breeding which are now in work at two celebrated yards – those of Luis Valenca Rodrigues and of Nuno Palma Santos. This was to give Catherine an idea of the suitability of horses from this stud for the work she wants to do: dressage and classical equitation. At this latter yard we were also fortunate to see the stallion Jardineiro who was Supreme Champion of the 1997 International Lusitano Show, bred and owned by Dom Estevam de Lancastre. He, too, is in this yard for schooling to the highest level. His half-brother, Jasmim, is owned in England by Alison Wilkie who is competing him very successfully in dressage.

The following day, Wednesday, Dr Pedro Ferraz da Costa, the breeder of Quartzo, the 1998 Supreme Champion, accompanied us to see some of his stock which he had for sale, all in training at the yard of Jorge Pereira in Coruche. These again were horses of excellent pedigree; we were particularly impressed by Moscardo, whom we had already seen being graded in Coimbra. We also had the opportunity to see a potential bullfighting stallion being demonstrated to the bullfighter, Vitor Ribeiro.

The Ervideira Stud (The sons of Luis Cabral)

On Thursday we drove our hired car to Evora to meet Dr. Luis Cabral of the celebrated Ervideira Stud to see his horses. This breeder has produced the Champion mares at the Lisbon International Lusitano Show for 5 years in a row. The three young colts that we were shown were all of the very highest quality, as we had expected. Dr. Cabral is President of the Grading Panel and explained to us that many breeders are currently seeking to produce horses of around 16 hands rather than 15 h.2 in. as has previously been the case, because most Portuguese of the present generation are taller than their forebears.

Opus 72

Without any difficulty we found a nice hotel in Evora and on Friday drove to Sta.Margarida to the stud of Dr. Luis Pidwell, who was Champion Breeder in 1996. Dr. Pidwell is also the present owner of Opus 72, the most famous bullfighting horse since the War, or even this century according to some enthusiasts. Opus was bred by the famous Manuel Veiga and sold to Alvaro Domecq in Spain. He is the full brother of the showjumping stallion Novilheiro who under John Whitaker was the highest prize-money winner of his time, and the half brother of Neptuno who was also a top bullfighting horse. Naturally, this bloodline is very much sought after among Lusitano breeders. Opus is old now (26) but still shows all the qualities of any top competition horse. He has an excellent temperament but is very quick and doesn’t miss a thing: well, you can’t afford to if you share a confined arena with a fighting bull!

Up to now, we had seen almost exclusively grey colts but Luis Pidwell’s horses for sale included two bays and a palomino. Some were grandsons of Opus and all were sons of Venturoso, another Veiga stallion who is the current stud stallion here. Once again we were very impressed by the quality of the horses we were shown. We were also much taken by the dogs of two native Portuguese breeds, the Perdigeiro and the Alentejano, of which Senhora Pidwell is a champion breeder.

Later that afternoon, after an excellent lunch with our host and hostess, we drove back to Lisbon to be ready for our flight on Saturday morning. By that time Catherine had decided on her stallion: Primoroso from the stud of Francisco Lobo de Vasconcellos. Catherine is petite and this had much to do with her choice of a horse that would make 15h 2in or at the most 15h 3in. There was also something about this horse that appealed to her and it is often said that when you have found your horse, you will know. Although every horse that we were shown was of the very best quality, Catherine knew when she had found her horse!