When one thinks of dressage training in Europe
countries such as Germany and Holland automatically spring to mind. Rarely, if ever,
does one seriously consider Portugal. And this is an immense loss to the horse world
because Portugal, with its strong tradition of classical horsemanship and court riding,
today has a depth and breadth of horsemanship that would leave many people agape.
With the exception of Vienna, Portugal is probably the only country where the concept
of court riding has been upheld from its sixteenth century origins; where young men are
brought up to consider and pursue equitation as an art form. Anyone fortunate enough to
have seen the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art will bear this out.
Maybe it s because Portugal is not a player on the world dressage scene. Maybe it s
because the country s indigenous horse, the Lusitano, is not a
fashionable dressage horses. Maybe it s because people wrongly view
Portugal in a similar manner to neighbouring Spain and notions of bullfighting and
harshness arise. Or maybe it s because those that have discovered Portugal are so
overwhelmed by what they have uncovered that they hold the secret to themselves
wanting to shout it from the rooftops yet dreading the day when the world at large
finds out.
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| Jorge teaching despite the bitter English weather! |
The average British rider would be amazed to see a typical, Saturday morning, riding
lesson in Portugal stallions working in a line, shoulder-in, traver, renver, half-pass,
piaffe being undertaken, side-by-side, by the students. Movements considered as advanced
in England are bread and butter over there. Emphasis is on correctness and suppleness with
the horses rounded, forward going and in front of the leg. Compare that to an average
lesson in the UK where you can be worn into the ground trying to cajole your mount to
canter to the rear of the ride!
But the good news is that training in Portugal can be for everyone and it is
possible to be taught by the best men such as Jorge Pereira, a former rider of the
Portuguese School now training horses for competitive dressage, Francisco Bessa de
Carvalho, senior rider with the Portuguese School, Bento Castelhano, leading exponent
of traditional Portuguese equitation and leading rider at the 1998 Lisbon show. Men
whose life's work is based on classical principles yet who remain aware of what is required
in competitive dressage. And the message that comes through from them time after time
after time is "the basics must be correct".
Jorge Pereira
Jorge has a significant following in England where he comes over three to four times a
year to give clinics. I first met him in 1994 during a trip to the annual horse fair at
Golega when a party of us were invited to the home of Snr. Henrique Abecassis, a friend
of our host and a breeder of Lusitanos. Jorge at that time was Henrique s trainer.
What struck me immediately, apart from his good English, was his ready smile and relaxed
manner despite being descended upon by upwards of 15 strangers. My second impression was
the way he related to the stallions and they to him: the mutual respect was obvious.
Lastly, and as the afternoon wore on, I became aware of the unspoken yet innate pride
this man had in his horses and his work.
For our benefit Jorge worked a number of Henrique s horses and the chatter died to the
point where you could have heard a pin drop. There was a quality and stillness that one
usually associates with Kottas or Klimke and he appeared motionless except for his face
which was constantly smiling. Hands and legs seemed not to move yet the horses was supple,
rounded, happy. Hardly surprising as Jorge, I later discovered, is himself a former rider
of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art.
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| Jorge demonstrates Piaffe on a young stallion. |
His last ride of the morning was an eight-y.o.stallion. After completing his work
(which included half-pass, piaffe, passage and tempi changes) he offered the horse to
members of our party to ride. It was at this point that his diplomacy came to the fore
for not once did he show his bemusement or disbelief despite being presented with various
degrees of the English hunting seat and overuse of hands and legs time and time again.
Instead he worked tirelessly on people he never thought to see again to improve them
sufficiently enough to get something from their time with this Lusitano horse.
A year or so later Jorge moved to his own training centre and he welcomes dedicated
riders to Portugal to train with him. It is now three years that I have been co-ordinating
his diary and helping people to go and in that time my respect for Jorge and his ability
as a trainer has increased twenty-fold. My great pleasure is in hearing time and time
again " .why don't we have facilities like that over here?" and "I learnt more in five
days than I ve learnt in the last 5 years" Then I know that Portugal s magic spell has
been cast yet again.
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