Rubi progeny at Young Dressage Horses Project by APSL

Rubi Projeny shines at APSL's Young Dressage Horses Project

In 2018, the Lusitano Portuguese Association (APSL) and the Portuguese Equestrian Federation (FEP) joined efforts and launched a new project, with the objective to support the development of competitive dressage binomials of Lusitano horses and riders, bringing further public awareness to the breed’s potential for this discipline. The project, entitled Young Lusitano Horses in Dressage, selected in January a group of Lusitanos that will enter a training program under the orientation of the Portuguese Olympic riders Daniel Pinto and Miguel Ralão Duarte, with the technical advice of Kyra Kirklund.

To qualify for this project, horses had to be between the ages of 4 and 7 years in 2018 and will were submitted to a selection process that comprised 4 evaluations:

1) morphological assessment by accredited judges of the breed (10%);

2) dressage test adapted to their age, scored by accredited FEP judges – P1 for 4 year olds; E1 for 5 year olds; M1 for 6 year olds and M1 for 7 year olds (25%).

3) free ridden test (30%);

4) evaluation by Daniel Pinto and Miguel Ralão Duarte, who rode some of the horses that tested higher in the first 3 evaluations to judge their reaction to the rider's aids.

A total of 38 animals were registered for testing, which happened on the 26 th and 27 th of January 2018. The selected teams will have bi-monthly training sessions with Daniel Pinto and Miguel Ralão Duarte, alternating every two months between trainers in two separate periods – one between February and May and another between July and November. Between 31 st of May and 2 nd of June, on the occasion of the International Lusitano Horse-show in Cascais, the teams will be brought to a joint session with the International rider Kyra Kirklund.

Rubi’s progeny was in highlight at this event with 3 horses being selected to the next phase of the project: Iraque PFC (Rubi AR X Aguarela by Regalo PFC) with Luciana Inacio, Iberico CL by Rubi AR’s son Beirão AR with Angelique Hofman & Jeronimo MVL (Rubi AR X Queixosa by Xaquiro CI) with Annie Morris were all qualified for the APSL Young Horses Dressage Project with super scores. Rubi AR – merit elite stallion with proved results! Congratulations to all owners, breeders and riders.