Top Brazilian breeder Interagro Lusitanos received high marks at this year’s 29th Lusitano International Horse Show. Taking home honors at the show were Interagro dressage trainer and Brazilian champion Pia Aragão astride the grey stallion Vade Mecum Interagro. The pair enjoyed a sweeping victory winning the Intermediaire I, the Intermediaire I Kur (musical freestyle), and the Prix St. Georges. Aragão and Vade Mecum Interagro topped the classes with scores ranging from 64.684% in the Prix St. Georges and 65.737% in the Intermediaire I to an impressive 67.500% in the Intermediaire I Kur.
These successes are representative of the athletic, intelligent, and even-tempered Lusitano breed, which is excelling at all levels in sport horse competitions worldwide. At this summer’s Vidauban CDI3* Grand Prix de Dressage in France, Lusitano horses captured four of the top five Grand Prix victories; in addition, half of the top 14 scorers were Lusitanos. In the United States, Olympic and World Equestrian Games Medalist Lisa Wilcox had also been successfully competing Lusitanos in the Grand Prix. Wilcox competed the late Ingred Lin’s stallions, Quemacho HI and Queba HM. At the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games Luiza Almeida, daughter of Manuel Rodrigues Tavares, owner of Rocas Do Vouga Farms competed her stallion Samba, representing the Lusitano breed among the best Grand Prix horse and rider combinations in the world.
This past season, Lusitanos and predominantly Interagro Lusitanos have been taking top honors at a number of dressage competitions on the prestigious Florida Dressage Circuit. At the most recent rated Florida dressage show, the Wellington Classic Dressage in the Tropics, rider Cheri Reiber continued this trend, winning the Fourth Level Test Three dressage class with Zerbino Interagro.
As the world’s largest producer of Lusitanos, Interagro’s 35 years of breeding horses and preserving the finest bloodlines has resulted in horses well-suited for performance as well as the modern-day FEI-level equestrian sports, especially dressage and driving. Interagro was awarded the prestigious “Best Breeder of the Year” Award by ABPSL in 2009/2010, and recently held their annual Coleção Interagro 2010 Auction in Brazil this past August.
“The auction was a great success,” said Cecilia Gonzaga, Managing Director of Interagro. “We sold all the adult horses and even though we offered almost twice as many foals this year, we saw an increase in their average prices. All six fillies were also sold and highly coveted by various breeders. After an exciting bidding war a few of them ended up with two or three. This auction was a prelude to the very prestigious Lusitano CollectionTM International Horse Auction that Interagro hosts each February in Wellington, Florida. The auction will be February 23-26, 2011 at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center.”