Natural Horsemanship
Since 2005, our herd of 100 Lusitanos has roamed freely across the 1,500 acres that make up La Donaira. This was the beginning of our journey with horses and the foundation of our philosophy: natural horsemanship.
Our mares are carefully selected from renowned bloodlines, including those from Casa Cadaval, Guilherme Borba, Sociedade das Silveiras, and Bessa Solar Pinhas. They live freely in groups among ancient trees, where our foals are born and remain with their mothers until they are around three years old. During this time, they roam the undulating mountains, learning, playing, and developing naturally within the herd.
Horsemanship is the art of communicating with the horses in their language by mastering our movements, thoughts and emotions to build a partnership with a horse based on deep trust rather than force.
Whilst most westerners talk about “breaking” a horse to describe the process of training it for work with humans, Native Americans described the same process as “gentling” it: reflecting a world of difference between an attitude aimed at creating naturally responsive, rather than merely submissive, equestrian partners. In the same spirit, our natural horsemanship team headed by Seamus, adopts a gentle approach for developing a working relationship with these naturally gentle creatures from day one.
By understanding the horses’ instincts and ways of communicating, we train them without causing stress or fear to teach trust and respect for all future training and interactions. The horses are happy and responsive as a result.