Andalusians/Lusitanos in Dressage?

[Silly Filly]

Question is in the title really but i just wanted to know if there are many Andalusians/Lusitano's doing top level dressage?

[Lgd]

Not a huge number in the UK and none at GP at the moment. Amy Stovolds horse Pharoan will probably be there in the next 1- 2 years.

Quite a few of the Spanish and Portuguese team ride PREs/PRLs. best known is probably Invasor who was very highly placed in International competition. He has just retired but his rider is out on another PRE.

[coss]

i hadn't seen any around but my instructor bought one recently with the hope he'd be really good (PRL cross hanovarian) but he's been confirmed as a shiverer:( she has a loan horse though that could have made it to grand prix had it not been for the use of draw reins and trying to teach canter on the spot :( (pure Lusitano)

[JOJOBA]

Lots in Classical Dressage I would have thought?

xxx

[janet hakeney]

Question is in the title really but i just wanted to know if there are many Andalusians/Lusitano's doing top level dressage?

Yes there are. Not many in this country though. The Spanish Olympic team who won medals had one full Spanish horse and one full Lusitano horse on the team.

There are a lot in Europe competing very successfully....Germany and Netherlands as well as the obvious Spain and Portugal. Portugal now have a sponsored development programme for their young Lusitano horses and they are starting to make an impact on the FEI circuit in Europe.

Here is a link to some film of a couple of the Portuguese guys....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCvh819GrmI

There are some interesting films featuring Lusitano dressage horses in training from the dressage seminar at Golega last year at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx2RsRYej3c

Check out all the other associated films linked to this one for loads of Lusitano dressage horses.

[leviskipperette]

there an andalusian stud at the barn at my school, his name is oliver. hes a stunner and does all upper level tricks. hes fun to watch.

[allthegearnoidea]

Forgive me if i am wrong, but i was under the impression that they dont do well over here in dressage for a couple of reasons.
1,The judges prefer the big moving warmbloods
2,The spanish horses are predisposed to dishing which is classed as a quality in Spain ( the spanish men like the horses to throw their legs out), but not in British dressage.So they are being bred now -too not dish as much.
I remember reading this on a classical riding site

[laura jeanne]

We saw the Florida Lipizzaners last night and they had an Andalusian in the show!

From their web site: http://www.lipizzaner.com/lipizzaner_frameset.asp

[coss]

Forgive me if i am wrong, but i was under the impression that they dont do well over here in dressage for a couple of reasons.
1,The judges prefer the big moving warmbloods
2,The spanish horses are predisposed to dishing which is classed as a quality in Spain ( the spanish men like the horses to throw their legs out), but not in British dressage.So they are being bred now -too not dish as much.
I remember reading this on a classical riding site

they don't do well at low level over hear because they tend to be a lot more collected just because of their build. they aren't going to work well long and low (prelim type stuff) simply because of their conformation.
lusitanos are a portugese breed and don't dish nearly as much as the andaluscian (from what i've seen) so that isn't such a big problem.
the big problem is getting them to stretch out. they have very comfortable paces and aren't quite as flash like the warmbloods (unless you get them to really open up ;))

[pineapple]

i have an andalusian that i want to do dreassge on, probally not to GP though!!

i think i might struggle basically because he is built to collect, when turned out i see him piaffe etc but i rarely see him strech his trot, canter etc. he always wants to dol ittle steps.

also he is only about 15hh so i really think he will not impress as much as the big 18hh warmbloods that seem to be the only horses compting these days.

[Bay Mare]

There aren't many but I'd like to see more (I'd like to see more of all other breeds). They're more than capable of working correctly at the higher levels but they're not genetically predisposed to having the extravagent movement of the WBs so can be overlooked.

My old RI, Tina Layton, is riding a PSL, Quejada (?sp), at the moment. She has competed GP dressage (on WBs) so it will be interesting to see how she gets on :D