athletes who love to work and who are incredibly sound. They are versatile: my past stallion Novilheiro was first a Grand Prix dressage horse, then an event horse and finally an international show jumper in England under the ex- pert hand of John Whitaker. He won at Spruce Meadows, Hickstead, Toronto and the Grand Prix of Berlin (indoors), to name a few. Some of his sons were showjumpers, one made the Portuguese dressage team, some did FEI driv- ing and others ended up at stud in several countries. His full brother Opus was a star of bullfighting in Spain (a very demanding sport in which he faced over 500 bulls before retiring at stud) and some of their cousins won the World 4-In-Hand Combined Driving Championship in 1996 for Belgium. Novilheiro and Opus both lived to be 30 while pasture breeding in their retirement, producing many look-alike offspring. For centuries, Lusitanos were used for high school, war
(the toughest test), bullfighting and exported as improv- ers of other breeds, before becoming sport horses in the last twenty years. There is a reason for their successes in very different fields: Lusitano breeders have adhered for centuries to a breed standard incorporating the biome- chanical requirements of the ideal riding horse. These common-sense, time-proven guidelines ensure sound- ness and versatility, which are necessary qualities for all breeds. Lusitano breeders have focused on the quality of the back as the centerpiece of a riding horse’s biome- chanics (straight, horizontal and of medium size). They insist on an ‘uphill’ build (withers clearly higher than the top of the croup). Both characteristics are helpful to self- carriage. They concentrated their gene pool around pre- ferred qualities and eliminated the poor specimens from the studbook. Most importantly, they preferred stallions easy and pleasant to ride and proven in a variety of fields and then worked on line breeding (repeating those stal- lions a few times in the pedigree) in order to create homo- zygous traits that are the building blocks of a successful pedigree. It is fascinating to see how sport horse breeds are
now all aiming at the same conformation, quite differ- ent from the rectangular [longer] model of years ago. These examples of better conformation and movement are also due to the increased use of mares and stallions in open sport classes, which was a rarity fifty years ago. (In France, for example, all stallions were selected exclu- sively in stallion shows and never went in open class- es.) When we read a pedigree full of horses who have competed at the highest level, we know their offspring have a good chance to be talented and spectacular. Form (modern conformation) follows function (medal
“Lusitano breeders have focused on the quality of the back as the centerpiece of a riding horse’s biomechanics (straight, horizontal and of medium size).”
John Whitaker on JP’s Lusitano Novilheiro (Firme x Guerrita), jumping at the Wembley International show in 1982.
Young JP teaches eight-year-old Novilheiro passage in this rare photo taken in 1979 at Somerford Park, Cheshire, U.K.
Warmbloods Today 69
Baroque Farms USA
Jennie Axelson
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