Would I get one? Sure? The last time around, though, I didn’t. The cost of a real sport type is so out of this world right now, that I couldn’t afford one. My guess is that a really correct dressage Lusitano, able to be fluid, collect, extend and work over his back at any level of dressage, costs about 30%-40% more than a comparable warmblood.
‘the original dressage horse’
Depends on who you ask. If you ask some Andy/Lusitano breeders they will say that (and that warmbloods are stupid elephants and you don’t want one), but actually if you study a little bit, you might find out something else. That both breeds’ founders were originally developed as multi-purpose horses.
Is that just propaganda from breeders who want to market their horses to cutters, reiners, jumpers, dressagies and pleasure riders? Could be. That’s the other side’s argument. :lol:
But of course, ‘dressage’ has also changed, with its emphasis on transitions and ‘athleticism’ (being able to extend and collect the stride almost immediately) may actually be a very, very different critter from the dressage of 400-200 years ago.
Collection is still required, but transitions and fluidity have become a major requirement too. This changes the ballgame.
A great many Andalusians and Lusitanos DO have ‘sewing machine gaits’.
Some of them, that’s the only way they can move. There are individuals that have very ‘poor gaits for dressage’, tight, restricted, up and downy trot strides, short, jerky lateral walks, and lateral, restricted choppy canter strides.
But there are also a great many individuals who have been trained incorrectly - rushed into collection (‘because they are the original dressage horse, they can piaffe at 3 without any fundamentals being established (or muscles being built!)’).
They COULD move far better, but are rushed into very incorrect upper level work by ignorant owners, who believe the myth that some breeds do not need basics in dressage. There is a whole population of trainers who cater to them, and reinforce their beliefs, and teach them to work their horses with dropped backs, hocks behind them at mincing extremely sideways positions and the horse’s necks pulled in and telescoped, and convince eager, ignorant people that that’s ‘classical’. Then we have many others just watching videos on youtube and training their horses to piaffe and passage with no previous developmental work at all, no basics, no muscle training, and no supervision.
Oldbag, can you really blame the horse breed for ‘unsuitability’ when they are trained this way?
Like most glamorous ‘fad’ breeds (Friesian is another one), there are a great many very unsuitable, inferior animals being sold simply because they are pretty and many beginners have no idea what to look for in a dressage horse (and believe that OTHER myth, that ‘the other horses just win because the judges are so unfair’).
There are people out there selling Andalusians and Lusitanos who have a very practical, sensible view of their animals and who understand dressage and have experience in it.
And there are a great many MORE people selling very average individuals who are not particularly suitable for dressage, and are beating their chests about how perfect their horses are and how bad other breeds (chiefly warmbloods) suck.
Group 1 is rare. Group 2 is very common in the Lusitano and Andalusian world, and Marengo, they are shooting themselves in the foot and driving people away, but so are the inflated prices.
