There is truly no end to the amusement and wackiness that can be found in the Collserola forest outside of Barcelona where I frequently ride my horses. I had planned to school Altivo in the dressage pista tonight, but it was too muddy, so I headed out for a hack. I heard bells coming from somewhere in the trees to our right as we walked along the path. 

The last time I heard bells in the Collserola they belonged to a herd of about 600 sheep. I was actually kind of looking forward to seeing what was attached to the bells. My imagination ran wild because I have discovered that in the Collserola, virtually ANYTHING can happen. And I do mean anything. The prospects of what was attached to the bells were virtually endless...a herd of cows, a group of kids, a group of meditating hippies, a band of bell ringers, dogs with bells, people dancing with bells, people crafting bells...oh the possibilities!!!!

Just as I though whatever the bell-ringing thing was would emerge into view on our right, a very loud, crashing, scraping metal sound scared the bejesus out of me and Altivo. He leaped (leapt in British English???) sideways as we both spotted two guys "harvesting" large metal sheets from an old abandoned property to the left of the path. I pulled him up to keep him from taking off and he produced a lovely piaffe (looks like fancy prancing on the spot for you non-horse folks, takes years of training to properly achieve). 

Hmm, turns out piaffe IS a natural movement for horses! I have never ridden piaffe before and wouldn't even know how to do it again, aside from scaring the crap of out Altivo. Probably not a good idea. He finally realized the guys weren't out to kill him, but was still a bit traumatized and transitioned into a lovely passage (looks like fancy prancing with some forward movement). We passaged  - or were we sashaying? either way we had swagger  - our way on down the path and never did get to see the bell ringing creatures...whatever they were. 

(Note: There are many more pictures below the post.) 

I had a very vague idea when we moved to Spain that I would love to bring home a Pura Raza Espanol (Spanish pure blood, A.K.A. PRE or Andalusian) horse. It was definitely more of a pipe dream than an official plan. Over the past two years I've casually surfed the web on various sites looking at horses for sale in Spain. 

Recently I decided to buy one. Life is short. Prices are low because of the poor economy. And I will likely never again have the rare opportunity to find an Andalusian horse from Andalusia in southern Spain where the breed originated. Of all the websites I visited I liked http://www.andalusianhorsedirect.com/ the best, as it had an enormous offering of horses that were each described in great detail and had accompanying pictures and videos. 

I contacted Dawn from Andalusians Direct via email and spent the next few weeks making lists of the horses I might be interested in. Initially my list was about fifteen horses long but I watched and re-watched all of the videos, and eventually whittled it down to seven that I wanted to see and possibly try out. 

Dawn is located in the U.K. and spends much of her time helping U.K. clients import Spanish horses from Spain. She works closely with a colleague Rikki-Lee from another website and business The Best Spanish Horses (http://thebestspanishhorses.eu/). Rikki is located in Malaga, Spain. Dawn and Rikki have developed a close collaboration and list many of the same horses on their sites. Rikki is available to show horses in Spain to Dawn's clients. They were both a pleasure to work with. 

Before I knew it, the time had come to fly to Malaga to look at the horses. I returned exhausted from a work trip to Turkey, came home and slept three hours, and headed back to the airport for a flight to Malaga. I had just had a horrible bout of shoulder and neck pain from a prior riding injury earlier in the week, that had required round-the-clock anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxers. I really wasn't sure I would be able to make the trip, but the pain had improved my midweek. Armed with a bottle of anti-inflammatories and therapeutic heating pads for my recovering injury, I was able to make a weekend work trip to Istanbul and the horse-hunting trip. I spent two days with Rikki looking at horses. 

The experience was fantastic beyond words. I literally kept asking myself in my head if it was really happening, or just a dream. We visited numerous private horse yards to view the horses. It was very eye-opening to see how horses are handled in Spain. I now realize much of what we each see as reality and truth about horses is only a product of the culture we come from. 

I can tell you it is a myth that Stallions are inherently dangerous. They are if they aren't raised and handled properly. But in Spain, almost all male horses are left intact and are kept safely in mixed yards. Some are even ridden by children. All of the horses I looked at were stallions and I would have felt 100% comfortable handling most of them intact (as stallions). Two horses, Odioseo and Benzu, were among the calmest horses I have ever seen and about 100 times calmer than Ebro. Most horses are kept in stalls, some of which are quite small. The horses all looked to be happy and in good health. The Spanish take great pride in their horses. They don't put up with much nonsense and expect the horses to be calm in all situations. And they are. It was really amazing to me. 

The horses fit exactly with their descriptions from the websites and were very accurately represented in terms of training and temperament. I wanted to buy them all. Of course, this was not an option (at least not yet!), and I had to pick just one. I ended up narrowing it down to two polar opposites...Herrador, a big, grey five year old stallion with personality to spare, and Benzu, a four year old stallion that is one of the calmest horses I've ever seen. Benzu may have been the safest choice, but it was love at first sight with Herrador. In the end I went with my heart rather than my head. True to his description as "cheeky" on the websites, Herrador's character made him stand out as a shining star. Benzu was really amazing and will make a great purchase for someone else. 

Due to my lack of experience handling stallions, Herrador's size and vibrant personality, my situation, and at the advice of Dawn, Rikki and Herrador's trainer, I decided to geld (castrate) him. He has recovered beautifully and will arrive in Barcelona in a few weeks. In the meantime, I've had fun shopping for all of Herrador's equipment. Ebro isn't going anywhere, he just has a buddy now. 

I would highly recommend both Dawn of Andalusians Direct and Rikki of The Best Spanish Horses. 

...or cavalls a Espanya in Catalan...Horses and riding (Hipica) appear to play a much larger role in the Catalan culture than they do in the US.  Numerous stables, called Hipica or Hipic Centres, can be found in the suburbs of Barcelona. Many of them, having been built on old estates, also have restaurants. There is one in our neighborhood within walking distance of our house. It was nice enough but very small and they only practice dressage (Means training in French. More on this for you non-horsey types in a later blog, I am too tired to explain right now!). At the moment I am rather fond of jumping. It is Ebro's favorite activity, so he will be boarded at a Hipic Centre that offers jumps and instructors who teach jumping. For you horse people who are curious, the board is only slightly higher than what one would pay here at a nice show barn. My husband and I had the opportunity one afternoon to visit a lovely dressage stable called Barcelona Horses/Can Alzina in the the town of Polinya. Here is where you non-horsey types might want to check out. The facility was beautiful and was being expanded during our visit. The footing was to die for (fabric based and dust free) and there was a large outdoor, and mirrored indoor school. The facility specializes in breeding, training and selling  Pura Raza Espanola (PRE) horses, commonly known as Andalusians. The horses were housed in stalls that were very small relative to most stalls in the US. The facility had paddocks for turn out and the horses get schooled daily.  Two of the trainers/owners, Agusti and Anabell, whom we had cold-called on the telephone, were so kind to allow our impromtu visit. The stable was built on Agusti's grandfather's land. We had a wonderful and very traditional Catalan lunch and vino tinto (red wine) at the stable's restaurant, Can Alzina. Afterwards, we had the pleasure of watching the schooling of a young (4 years old) palomino stallion named Pegaso JL (see pictures below: the one with the rider afoot is the Spanish walk; the last two are Restaurant Can Alzina and an animal pen). I plan on taking some lessons on one of their school masters during our stay. I have always dreamed of learning piaffe, passage and one-tempi changes but have never had the opportunity to ride a horse who knew these movements. It is something that is on my bucket list.