Clinic Tours in Reverse

At Borba's, Lisbon..

It used to be that dressage competitors like my hubbie Paul and myself, spent many dollars traversing the pond to visit Europe to elevate our dressage knowledge by working with big name trainers and to buy big moving horses to bring home.

Trips to the Iberian Peninsula are common for us...and we love them!

Everything now is seemingly in reverse. European riders are commonly seen here in the U.S.A. taking lessons with our team riders and buying our horses.
Meantime we are conducting clinics abroad as well as here at home. In the past few years Paul and I have been pleased to give clinics in Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland and Switzerland. Our sometimes twice or three times a year sojourns over the Atlantic in addition to our U.S. schedule, keep us very busy indeed, and we never know quite what to expect on our arrival in foreign climes.

Repeat bookings are always appreciated by any clinician, as it tells us we have done a good job and that the participants and host have enjoyed the experience. Occasionally we may not be keen to repeat a visit to a location, usually due to issues with either the venue or the soundness of horses presented. That is a rare occurrence however, and if the host is efficient at organizing the event and there is keen interest to have us return, it usually happens. 

When traveling from venue to venue, it is always great to have the opportunity to explore the countryside and to occasionally manage to find time to stop in and visit with dressage colleagues, take a few lessons and add to our education in the saddle. Trends in types of horses being produced and sold, chatting with other horse breeders and time spent over the dinner table meeting friends and family of big and small name riders and trainers is always fun.

We're always up for an adventure and love training riders from other countries.

The world truly has become a smaller place in terms of the dressage market. While in all our 30+ years of breeding Iberian and Warmblood horses we only ever exported a few horses from the U.S.A., (to Germany, England and one to Japan!), we have bred horses abroad and imported them to our farm for sale and been much involved in increasing the available equine gene pool of fine horses for dressage aficionados here. 

On a recent clinic tour to England and Scotland, we stopped at several different breeders in search of young horses for import and were pleased to say we have been seeing horses just as good and better on our clinic travels here in the U.S. that have been home-produced. 

Clinic in the Lake District, UK keeps us rolling around the countryside in different mountains to home.

Price wise there is still a wide difference, as the European market is so well-versed in metrics and keeping tabs on the progeny that their market produces.

It still amazes me that American competitors will pay much more for a similar horse across the pond than here. The added risks and costs of transport not withstanding, the "purchase parties" that I used to take on trips abroad would still today follow their own guiding principle that something foreign is better and worth more money.

Importing Iberian horses to the different climate and diet in this country can be happily undertaken, but the horses do take some time to adjust to the huge changes in both factors. Prices abroad can be extremely high, and just as ever before the best horses are usually retained and protected from sale for export.

Paul riding the late Rico, Lusitano extroadinaire, at Borba's invitation in Lisbon.

So as a clinician that regularly works with, rides and still occasionally purchases and searches horses abroad for clients as well as in the U.S.A., I would urge both serious ami riders and professionals alike to consider the U.S. homebred horses in a more serious light before hopping a plane to cross the ocean. The market in the U.S.A. has evolved, the training here has also improved and there are plenty of lovely horses here on our soil.