Coudelaria Salgado e Filhos
HISTORY
The Lusitano horse, is the oldest saddle horse in the world. It has been ridden for more than 5000 years and has now, at the 21st century, reconquered its 2000 year old splendour when Greeks and Romans recognized it as the best saddle horse in Antiquity. The Lusitano Purebred is a “hot blooded” horse of the Arab and English Purebred type. It is the result of a selection process which has taken thousands of years and which ensures a greater degree of “empahty” with top quality riders than any other modern breed. Selected over the centuries as a hunting and combat horse, this is a versatile breed, whose docility, agility and courage allow it today to compete in all modalities of modern equestrian sports, facing the best experts. The Lusitano Purebred is in demand as a sport and leisure mount and as a studhorse on account of its rare qualities of character and genetic antiquity. Its rarity derives from a very small breeding stock of around 5000 broodmares. In Portugal, the cadle of the breed, there are no more than around 2500 mares of foal-bearing age. The total in Brazil is 1200, France has 600 and remainder are split up among Mexico, England, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Canada and USA. The Lusitano Breed is currently growing, particularly in Europe, in which the progression in terms of quantity and quality has been remarkable. There have been improvements in the general quality and everything suggests that new lines will be established within the breed, contributing towards its progress and ensuring its genetic variability. The Lusitano Purebred in the 21st century continues to be the perfect choice for equestrian art and bullfighting. In addition to being the most pleasurable mount, it will continue to amaze us on account of its natural aptitude for Obstacle Jumping, Dressage, Working Equitation, and Carriage Driving, two disciplines in which won the Title of World Champion. The official institutionalisation of the Lusitano Breed Studbook, in 1967, represented a decisive step forward by conditioning the admission of studhorses, giving rise to a general and painstaking selection process.
TYPE - Middleweight (weight around 500 kgs.) "Medium lined"; sub-convex profile (with rounded outlines); a silhouette that can be fitted into a square).
HEIGHT - Medium; at the age of six years, the average height, measured at the withers is 1.55m (nearest conversion 15.1hh) for females and 1.60m (15.3hh) for males. COAT - The most appreciated and esteemed are all shades of grey and bay.
TEMPERAMENT - Noble, generous and ardent, but always gentle and able to support duress.
MOVEMENTS - Agile, elevated forward, smooth and having a great facility to carry the rider in comfort. APTITUDE - A natural ability for concentration, with a great disposition for High School work; courage and enthusiasm for the gineta exercises (combat, hunting, bullfighting, work with cattle etc.).
HEAD - Well proportioned, of medium length, narrow and dry, with the lower jaw not too pronounced and the cheek inclined to be long. Slightly sub-convex profile with slightly curved forehead (in advance of the eyebrows' bones); the eyes, tending to an elliptical form, are big, alive, expressive and confident. Fine, narrow and expressive ears of medium length.
NECK - Of medium length, with fine hair line, deep in the base, well inserted between the shoulders, rising up arched from the withers without convexity, ending at a narrow and fine junction with the head.
WITHERS - Long and well defined, with a smooth transition from the back to the neck, always higher than the croup. On adult stallions is sometimes covered with fat but always prominent from the shoulders. CHEST - Of medium size, deep and muscular.
RIBCAGE - Well developed, long and deep, slightly arched ribs obliquely inserted into the spinal column giving rise to short and full flank.
SHOULDERS - Long, slanting and well muscled.
BACK - Well placed, tending towards the horizontal and making a smooth connection between the withers and the loins.
LOINS - Short, wide, slightly convex, well connected with the back and croup with which they form a continuous line.
CROUP - Strong and rounded, well-balanced, slightly slanting. The length and width of identical dimensions; harmonious convex profile with the point of the hip unobtrusive, giving the croup a cross section of elliptical shape. Tail with long, silky and abundant hair gently emerging from the convex line of the croup's profile.
LEGS - The forelegs are well muscled and harmoniously inclined. Upper arm straight and muscular. Knees are thick and dry. The cannons tend to be long, dry and with well-pronounced tendons. The fetlocks are dry, relatively big and with very little hair. The pasterns are relatively long and sloping. The hooves are of good constitution, well formed and proportioned without being too open; the line of the coronet is not very evident.
