( HOLIDAYS )
AN OXFORDSHIRE GIRL ABROAD FEIRA DA GOLEGA
kissed Durante on the nose ‘promise I won’t meet another horse’ I said, as I gave him a goodbye carrot and then off I went to start this years travel to Portugal hoping I could keep my promise……
I
Lisbon comes into view, it looks like an array of jewels as we fly above it, always a sense of excitement and anticipation of the next adventure and it never disappoints we are off to Golega once again, that extraordinary Portuguese horse fair that is a cross between Olympia and the Wild West, the most beautiful of venues, packed full of wonderful horses and wonderful characters, always a good combination in my book. This time we are gathering in numbers, last year we were three and this year six, that’s how well I’ve sold it to people, am I going to regret it? Is this a secret I should have kept to myself? Oh, no, this should be on every riders bucket list and I am thrilled to be accompanied by five friends who are going to share this adventure with me. We touch down on the now familiar runway at Lisbon and our journey began to the Feira da Golega, capital of the Lusitano horse, a horse fair that originally started in the 18th century and where all the top breeders of Portugal gather together to show off their horses: the atmosphere is one of a huge horse party that lasts for a whole week.
After we had jammed four suitcases into a rental car that really didn’t want to accommodate them, we headed off to Tomar, driving through the night across the Portuguese countryside where we deposited Karen and Su with Karen’s brother who lives there permanently lucky thing. The weather forecast was not boding well for our stay but we woke up to glorious sunshine on the Wednesday morning and headed off to Antonio Pedro Costa’s Equestrian Centre, Equiliberdade, in the village of Azinjaga, which is just outside Golega to choose our horses for the evenings ride at Golega proper.
After coffee and numerous cakes at the local cafe we were introduced to all the horses at Pedro’s very lovely yard which is set in the grounds of an ex Monastery where the accommodation for the equine holidays is. We then chose our equine partners in crime for the evening ahead, my leaning was towards Carra Linda, an extremely beautiful grey Lusitano stallion and I proceeded to introduce myself to him in the very peaceful substantial indoor school under the watchful eyes of both Pedro and Kristienn, We were also given a choice of tack and I opted for Portuguese, well, when in when in Rome etc, its extraordinarily comfortable to be sitting in a saddle which was designed for working equitation and bull fighting, very secure and kept me there, but if you want English tack they have that too.
I watched Su impressively piaffing round the arena beautifully on Xerife, the prancing school master and Karen looking very at home on Pedro’s own grey Lusitano Uivo,
whom I had the pleasure of meeting last year. Celia was cantering twenty metre circles on Derby so when a hack was suggested we all leapt at it. Myself and Carra Linda had bonded and I was already flying him home to England in my head…… the massive unfaithfulness to our own horses at home was blatant, and I’m just glad they weren't on Facebook to witness the mass of hearts that were flying between each horse and rider.
We set off on our gorgeous
horses, to clatter off to the nature reserve down the road, well, everyone else clat- tered but I kind of thudded as Carra Linda is barefoot, the lack of clattery sound did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. I thought, as we passed though the village, how many times would you see a group of seven stallions out on a jolly? All superbly behaved and virtually saying ‘After you …’. As we negotiated the abundant almost tropical, hanging fauna and flora on the path leading down to the nature reserve, I just shut my eyes and clutched my go pro as Carra Linda took me through calmly and methodically, I could feel myself falling in love once again……. I am a serial trollop when it comes to horses.
Written by Jo Monck
We had a fabulous ride around the Paul do Boquilobo nature reserve which is seriously beautiful, it is by the river Tejo whose banks are made up of sand so to all intents and purposes you feel like you are riding by the sea, Carra Linda stood back and took in the scenery, then pawed the water…. for one moment I thought I was going to be that person whose horse rolls, gets tagged on Facebook and goes viral whilst staggering around looking for her horse whilst wringing out her soaking socks and other sodden bits of clothing …… luckily he was far too much of a gentleman and remembered I was up there and we set off into the sunset with his six mates. It was definitely then that I wished I had my camera with me, the sight of seven Lusitano stallions making their way across a sandy plain into a hazy orange and pink sunset would have been the stuff that posters are made of, just beautiful and quite surreal.
We had a few hours before we made our way into Golega for the evening ride also with Antonio Pedro Costa and Kristien Noblesse. This time I dressed in a traditional Portuguese outfit that I accidentally ho hum, bought last year after that fatal glass of Abafado…. Su and Karen had already been on a thorough exploration of the festival on horse back as we were late and had found all the best bars, negotiated the streets, you can tell that they are endurance riders, and had done several circuits of the Manga, the ring that surrounds the main arena, the area that all the horses are shown off in, we had a bit of catching up to do!
Once again we rode the streets of Golega which is
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
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