When Katherine Cook took her three young Lusitano stallions to their first dressage show at Rocking Horse Stable in Altoona, FL, on April 4, 2009, her goals were “to get them on and off the trailers, in and out of new environments and see how they would do.” The Brazilian-bred Interagro Farm well-mannered stallions not only made a big impression on the central Florida equestrian show crowd, they scored well with the dressage judges, as well. Cook’s newest acquisition, a four-year-old golden palomino, Alfacinha Interagro placed second in training level, test 2, in a class of 10 horses, and third in training level, test 1, in a class of 16. Xisto Interagro, a 16.3-hand dark bay ridden by Captain Barry McKie, placed second in training level, test 4; and Zola Interagro placed first with the highest score in the show, 73.5% in introductory test B. Cook reports that some had never seen a Lusitano before, and she had to spell the name out.

Domesticated in approximately 5,000 B.C. in the Iberian Peninsula, the Lusitano was used in battle, bull fighting, equitation, sport and pleasure before being exported to Brazil and now North America.