Entrevista a DUTCH HORSE MAGAZINE - REVISTA - Setembro 2015

 "THE 12 QUESTIONS TO THE BREEDER:" 

( publicado  na Dutch Horse Magazine Revista em Setembro 2015)

1: Can you tell us something about your stud farm?

The ACM Stud that celebrates this year the 20 th anniversary is located on a family property named COUTO dos PARDINHOS, this state is located on the International Natural Tagus River Park at 25 Kilometers from the Idanha–a-Nova village just near the border with Spain.

The COUTO dos PARDINHOS is a property with natural conditions for breeding stock, to which this family is dedicated for more than 7 generations, we continue this family tradition raising Lusitano horses.

2: Which preference do you have where the bloodlines of your mares are concerned?

We started with mares from the National Stud, typical, and very  rustic representative  of the old blood lines, than on a second phase, and  just to our days we start to use  the daughters of  a very typical stallion  named TIXAQUIR   (Xaquiro blood line from the Quina Stud), churching the homogeneity of the heard. We cannot forget that the mares have important genetical role on the maintenance of the breed

3: How do you select the stallions you breed with?

So far we have used Stallions approved as  merit studhorses by the  Portuguese breeders  association (A.P.S.L.)  that achieved results on competition ( morphological  or  dressage)  and also results achieved with their descendants .

We started to use sons of DANUBIO (from Veiga Stud).On a second phase and a very important one we used as stallion the horse TIXAQUIR a son of XAQUIRO (from Quina stud) a merit studhorse and nowadays we are using as stallion ALADINO D’ATELA son of SOBERANO III a recommended studhorse and a grandson of HOSTIL (both from Borba Stud) HOSTIL is also a merit studhorse. SOBERANO III with  the Olympic Portuguese rider Carlos Pinto won  last weekend the Grand Prix Special in the CDI 3* of Biarritz

And on 2014 we used for the first time a horse of our Stud as stallion DESTINO dos PARDINHOS also a son of TIXAQUIR and it is with expectation that we are waiting to see accomplishment of this foals.

4: What are the focal points in your breeding philosophy?

The most important, for us, is to maintain the characteristics of the Lusitano breed, we can’t forget that we are responsible for an old genetic patrimony, so the most important is not to ruin it and to transmit it to the next generations of breeders.  Secondly it is important for us to keep the willingness, the suppleness and the generosity so typical and that makes the difference of the Lusitano breed.

5: Do your horses excel in a specific field/discipline?

The most important for us is the veracity of the Lusitano Horse so since they are functional they can be used on several disciplines but the ACM horses so far have distinguished on Dressage (in Portugal and abroad for instance on Canada we have a ACM horse ZIMBRO competing at grand prix level), and work equitation ( a ACM horse – Dartagnan  is starting   its activity on the Swedish  Work Equitation team). But for us it is also important a  “discipline “ that I use to call – pleasure equitation or the weekend riders - that means the non-professional riders , the persons for whom a  Lusitano Horse is a  life  time dream  and  they are,  no doubt the larger part of our market. This “unknown riders” are no doubt the embassadeurs of our breed.

The horses for professionals, the horses that compete at high level the high competition athletes serve to improve and feed that dream but they are only a small percentage.

6: What have you managed to achieve with your breeding products in the past decade?

Our horses have achieved great results on morphological competitions for instance on the “Festival International do Cavalo Lusitano - Cascais”   and at “Ponte de Lima Horse fair” where our stallion DESTINO obtained last year a second place and silver medal.

DESTINO  also obtained   on the past 3 years good results on dressage competition being finalist (with 2 third places and one fourth place) on the Taça de  Portugal de Dressage . And also we must remember the excellent dressage career of ZIMBRO during the last years on Canada.

7: What specific goals do you hope to accomplish in the coming decade?

We know that create a stud is not a one generation task so we are already preparing  the new generation ( our daughters)   to continue this dream  and so we  expect to consolidate  the homogeneity  and the  functionality  of our horses , improving the competitions  results we have achieved so far, and  that will allow to  open new markets for the ACM  horses.

8: In your opinion, what does ‘the perfect’ Lusitano horse look like?

The perfect Lusitano horse for us only exists in our mind and that is the target to achieve to produce a perfect one, a difficult target to achieve no doubt a typical Baroque horse with dimension and modern gaits that will allow him to compete at the same level with the other breeds especially on dressage.

 As our master and friend Luis Valença says “the Lusitano Horse is a living work of art” so, for us the important task is not to follow the tendencies and spoil it.

9: What are your expectations and concerns regarding the breeding of Lusitano horses in the future?

The explosion of a new generation of breeders (where we are included) changed completely the panorama of the Lusitano breed, new ideas and new technics of breeding using all the knowledge’s regarding to the genetic and the feed can transforme the breeding of Lusitano horses on a more professional task.

10: How do you think the breed will evolve in the future?

I’m sure that the Lusitano breed will be recognized and admired not as a horse from the past but a modern one, regaining his place and achieving a competition level   that will allow him to compete side by side with the other modern European breeds.

 

11: Would you like to give the Dutch breeders 

of Lusitano horses some advice?

I  think that the Dutch breeders don’t need  any advice  they are doing a fantastic work and the results are appearing, the only thing I can say is that  they must continue changing experiences with the other Lusitano breeders  and certainly  we have  a  lot of things to learn with each other’s.

12: Is there anything else you want to share with the Dutch fans of Lusitano horses?

Yes, breed the Lusitano Horses with your heart   breed them as they belong to family  and you will see that your Lusitano  horses will do everything to please you .

Alfredo Batista Coelho once wrote:

“Breeding a Lusitano Horse is like entering into the magic world of intuition where the breeder, driven by passion creates a horse that is the image of his dreams “.