Interview with Dr. Filipe Figueiredo (Graciosa)
The director and founder shares is view of the past, the present and future of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art.
DP – What are your reflections on the 30 years of existence of the PSEA?
DG – One of the School’s great successes was the role it had in the trial of the Alter Real horses, selecting stallions and having an influence on the breeding politics. That caused a very positive evolution on stud farm products.
The high level of inbreeding of the Alter stud horses would translate in some physical debilitation, a lack of structure, articulation and muscle capacity for the horses to handle the work that was asked of them. These debilitations translated in their temperament, which even gave a bad reputation to the Alter horses, that in reality doesn’t correspond to the truth.
In Portugal, with the exception of the stud farms of Palha Blanco and Coudelaria Nacional, all stud farms have a high percentage of Alter blood. Some of them try to part from that reality, but even in the more recent stud farms, if we go back three generations we will find Alter blood.
The School has been having an enormous influence nationally and internationally, having conquered the public that enjoys the more traditional equitation, like it is depicted in Manoel Carlos de Andrade’s book. To that equitation has been added other exercises like the one tempi flying changes, an exercise developed by Baucher which reached Portuguese equitation through Master Nuno Oliveira . He meshed the old school with the more modern methods. It is an equitation that is highly adapted to the Portuguese horse.
One of the more serious challenges of the academic equitation is the type of horse that it’s used on. A good example is the horses of the School of Saumur, which because of their characteristics aren’t naturally suitable for that type of equitation.
It is with satisfaction that I highlight the contacts made with other academies, mainly the Vienna School, where three of the PSEA riders studied, myself included (1983), and with the Saumur School, an exchange which is now on its third edition.
The collaboration between PSEA and the Saumur School has been intense. They were the first schools to present together on the Printemps dês Écuyers, a presentation that we will repeat in May.
Currently the relations between the four schools are great. In the case of the Royal Equestrian Art Andalucian School, I and its Director have been working together since the beginning. A great majority of their main riders were Dr. Guilherme Borba’s (PSEA ex-Director) and my students and many of the horses used on its foundation were Lusitanos trained in Portugal.
The Gala that took place on the 25th anniversary of the PSEA, in the Atlantic Pavilion in Lisbon, Portugal, was a huge success. Recently, the Four Equestrian Art Schools Gala that took place in Bercy, Paris, didn’t have an empty seat for three straight nights. There was an ecstatic atmosphere with the audience surrendering to the beauty of equestrian art. It was an impressive moment in terms of equitation and of sharing of different cultures. We showed the world that we are a school that is up to the standard of its siblings, even though there isn’t any competition between them.
DP – Now that your long term goal of making a presentation with the four schools together has been achieved, what are your current ambitions for the school?
FG – At this moment the economical crisis is hitting us too. Some of our scheduled shows have already been cancelled. But I’m hoping to prepare some bigger events for this year still like the one by the time of the Lusitano Horse International Festival in June, were we will perform together with the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art.
We also are still hoping to move to the new facilities. After what we had to get through in these 30 years, our definitive move to the current Cavalry 7 Fort, near Belém is now scheduled. The project is at an advanced stage and is being supported by the Lisbon City Hall. It will have a beautiful indoor school and it will be quite good. Its inauguration is scheduled for 2010, to coincide with the Republic centenary festivities.
The area of Belém, in Lisbon, is a noble zone, visited by many tourists. It benefits from having the Tagus River nearby and being surrounded by several monuments. This will allow the school to increase its visibility, as well as the number of visitors and audience.
The Alter horses are getting better and better, we have the will to work, and this move will give us the conditions.
In a near future we expect that the PSEA will strengthen its academic functions, assuming a teaching position as the base for the Equitation National School in the discipline of Traditional Portuguese Equitation, recently incorporated in the Portuguese Federation, and whose levels will be similar to the ones existing in the school.
Currently the PSEA is linked to some equitation and handling schools through several protocols, mainly the Alter do Chão and Abrantes Professional Rural Development School, Coimbra Agrarian School and D. Dinis Agrarian School.
The riders formed by the PSEA will have access to a professional qualification, equivalent to the categories currently existing in Portugal (ex: monitor helper, monitor, instructor, etc) and also internationally, though there have been some problems with the professional certification of some of the riders that go there to train.
Queluz, April 2nd, 2009
