Posted: June 11, 2009

As most of you know, we had an open house to view the Lusitanos on May 30th.  They arrived the night before at 5 pm.  The next morning we had a few hours to give them a quick makeover for their debut on Canadian soil.  Theses horses have done more touring than most people.  The flight from Brazil to Florida is about 10 hours. Once they arrived they spent about a month in Florida, then we hauled them to Oklahoma and boarded them at a facility for two months before we moved them to Tom & Shelly Ryans McBride Ranch in McBride BC.  Tom & Shelly loaded up a horsetrailer full and brought them to The Horse Ranch for the Open House.

Glenn riding one of the mares, Vida do Vouga

In total, we purchased two mares and four stallions.  Two of the stallions will become geldings shortly, but we can't decide which two!  They are all stallion material, but we don't need four of them.  Everyone asks:

"Why Lusitanos?" 

The short answer is I love riding and these horses make riding even more fun and exciting.  The long story is I was invited to tour some Lusitano Ranches in Brazil and do a colt starting demo for some of the breeders in November of 2007.  While I was there I rode many of the best Lusitanos at some of the best ranches in Brazil.  In one or two rides and I knew I had to have some.  They are beautiful to watch and it is an amazing feeling to be on one.  I've never rode anything that has so much lateral movement or canter so effortlessly on the spot if you would like. 

"What are you going to do with them?"

 was the next question.  The short answer is whatever I want!  They can do absolutely anything and learn with lightning speed.  They are for sale, and we want to raise some purebred Lusitanos and cross some of my quarter horse mares.  They are extremely athletic horses that carry themselves with ease.  Therefore, they can be enjoyed by people that want to do trail riding, to dressage, to ranch work.  The stallions are going to be used for for breeding my mares and outside mares.  I will be adding one or two for my personal saddle horses and you might even see some in a demonstration.  Dixie also loves riding them and will be adding one to her list of horses (she is very sweet on Apache). We will also be selling the colts and fillies that are born next spring.  If you have a mare you would like to breed ,or if you are interested in one of the two Lusitano babies that will be born next spring, give us a call.  We also hope to have a couple of Lusitano Quarter Horse crosses known as"Aztecas" for sale as well.

It is only June and it seems like a whole summer of things has gone by, but in reality it has just begun.  We've had lots of wonderful students hungry for knowledge already come through the first three camps, and the fourth one is just about to start.  It has been very enjoyable again this year to watch the three month students playing and developing themselves and their horses.  Most days, at about 5:30 am ,they are out there in the calm of the morning doing some online, then riding and processing what they learned the day before.  The try and effort is a joy to watch.