On RFDTV this week is a show called Brazillian Ag so you may not think to watch it but it is a really extensive report on the Lusitano horses in brazil. and fascinating! For one thing, no one says so but very obviously they are trained like show paso finos, when brought out on a lead line to show "brio" (translate--- act like a maniac fiend from hell) because otherwise how would you explain a worldclass dressage level horse cowkicking and head snaking just being led on a leadline. anyway. But they are gorgeous,. And the conformation is a concave head, (hope I am getting this right, a muley head haha ooh that would make them mad!) and a certain sorta weird cresty type neck. Short and stocky.
So they had a few brazillian breeders talking and saying how breeders are now going for a more refined taller build, a different neck and a "prettier head" and in the last ten years the lusitano horse is so changed as to be just unreal, "un recognizable from the ancient breed" one man said. then they interviewed this snotty hoity toity woman viisiting there as a buyer and she says this: "In the last ten years (interestingly the same time horizon the other guy says marked the change in the breed from good to bad) the breeders here have been doing wonderful work, producing more elegant refined INTERNATIONAL type horses, one horse I know for a fact is OLYMPIC LEVEL material, and it is just so wonderful the way they have used their breeding plans to create a better, more international type horse". she said "international type horse" like 3 or 4 times. and i was thinking what she is is MONEY, and SHE is the reason horses of any breed are ruining the breed. I wish I could a been there and threw a tomato at her! if she wants international types why doesnt she go to europe and buy one of a breed already ruined instead of participating in the ruination of another spainish breed?? Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
