Andalusians- your experiences

Cortez said:
All of this ^^^^ Beautifully put.
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Out of curiosity, would they be too much of a jump from an athletic but bombroof tb × Irish draught. (Mostly tb but with a fair dollop of Irish draught).
This would be for someone who's better at calming stressy horses than motivating chilled out horses).
 
sunnyone said:
I spent just under 6 months at what was believed to be a respectable livery yard in Spain with other foreign owners and my own horses. I saw during that time amongst other things:
1: a noseband with spikes on the inside in use which were sharp enough to make the horse bleed and for it to need ointment on the wound for 1 week.
2.a stallion rear and throw the YO twice in the same spot in the school which was then taken back into its stable and thrashed for 25 minutes (immediately prior to the thrashing I was told to leave the area, but I hung around as I had left my bag in the building).
3. No vet treatment sought for a pony that was suffering with pneumonia as the livery wasn't going to pay the bill. The pony died.
4. The groom was only given 1 day a month time off because the foreign liveries insisted. I believe he was an illegal immigrant as well since he had to hide when the police turned up to inspect license.

Now in France, I bought a "Portuguese" horse who was actually Spanish. At 9 years old she had been through 9 homes in Spain and the very caring French dealer I bought her from. She took a long time to settle and trust me and my farrier.

Of course not all yards are the same but as they say "buyer beware" because animal welfare is definitely not of the same standard, in Spain.
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I b ought the loveliest horse from Spain...he does/is exactly as advertised. Animal welfare standards are not set as high in Spain as in other countries, but that doesn't stop horrendous acts of cruelty, neglect and abuse going on here or any other country you could think of.
 
Can I just weigh in on the "Spanish people are cruel" response: SOME are, just as some people are in every country. Horses are kept and handled more robustly than they are in the UK in most countries in the world IME. Treating Horses the "English way" is not necessarily better, in fact I prefer not to buy horses from the UK if I can avoid it. Most of my Spanish horses have been rescues: none of the abuse they suffered occurred in Spain.
 
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The question asked was "what is the strong fear and hesitation about buying from Spain? " I answered that question, with examples that were not at the extreme of the spectrum that I happened upon. No casual visitor is likely to see such things but the caution mentioned is probably the result of others buying horses which have been treated similarly somewhere.
I am not anti-Spanish per se but yes I am now wary of horses coming from Spain, yet that didn't stop me buying the one I accidentally found here in France.as I said; but I expected to have to overcome issues and I was prepared to give the mare plenty of time to adjust and learn. Not everybody can or will do that.
 
Mule said:
Out of curiosity, would they be too much of a jump from an athletic but bombroof tb × Irish draught. (Mostly tb but with a fair dollop of Irish draught).
This would be for someone who's better at calming stressy horses than motivating chilled out horses).
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I personally can't quite imagine anything more different. My experience of Irish horses/IDs is that they are polar opposite to Iberian horses though much loved by many and perfect in certain settings of course.
 
My experience matches CanteringCarrot and a few others on this post. None of my PREs have been ‘hot’, although all have come from the same training yard and I know what I get from there (so much so that I sent my youngster back from the UK to Spain to be backed last year).

That yard also supplies horses to Classic Spanish Horses. I’ve not seen any of them myself but IME horses from the yard in Spain are happy, safe and a pleasure to work with. I think quite a few at Classic SH are unregistered but she has had some purebred through as well.
 
It's a lot about training, isn't it. Mine was hot to school, but never on hacks. I think I once described her as hotter than a hot thing, but I have spent months teaching her to wait for me to give her instructions in our arena work, and to slow everything down mentally and physically. I wouldn't now describe her as hot, just forward and sensitive.
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Mule said:
Out of curiosity, would they be too much of a jump from an athletic but bombroof tb × Irish draught. (Mostly tb but with a fair dollop of Irish draught).
This would be for someone who's better at calming stressy horses than motivating chilled out horses).
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It would feel physically like a big change but your last sentence sounds ideal.
 
ycbm said:
It's a lot about training, isn't it. Mine was hot to school, but never on hacks. I think I once described her as hotter than a hot thing, but I have spent months teaching her to wait for me to give her instructions in our arena work, and to slow everything down mentally and physically. I wouldn't now describe her as hot, just forward and sensitive.
.
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Been teaching mine to wait for, oh, 4 years now ? he's the most enthusiastic and lazy horse that I know.
 
sz90168 said:
So after a while searching my first PRE is arriving this evening. He is a 4 year old Gelding. He was imported from Spain last year unbroken. His feet need a lot of attention but he seems to be real a sweetheart. I'm excited for the journey ahead.
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Your going to have a wonderful time discovering how lovely they are. They're a bit different from other breeds, but definitely in a good way. Wishing you lots of happy times with him!
 
I am a bit concerned about his feet which have been flagged up. I have got a good remedial farrier on standby. Are your PRE's barefoot? I am hoping to keep barefoot.
 
Mine is barefoot but she's only three and obviously not broke. I'm hoping to keep her that way, though. So much less faff and money than shoeing!
 
sz90168 said:
That is good too know. His feet are quite upright and boxy which we can hopefully improve on.
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Be careful with that, they are supposed to be fairly upright and boxy. Upright and boxy feet are very strong and, ime, the easiest to take and keep barefoot. If your farrier tries to make them more "normal" they could ruin them altogether.

Mine is barefoot and has little rocks on the end of her legs :)
 
Agree with above- their feet are much more upright than we're used to and trying to 'normalize' them can make much worse problems. You need a farrier who has shod/ trimmed Iberian feet before. They can be more prone to thrush I've found so keep an eye on that, but generally lovely strong feet
 
After faffing about with shoes for a few years (came shod from Spain) I pulled my PRE's shows at the end of September. His hooves are the best they've ever been and I cannot foresee a reason to ever have him shod again. Yes, his are rather upright ans boxy, but this fits to him and his conformation. His hooves are incredibly tough too.
 
ycbm said:
Be careful with that, they are supposed to be fairly upright and boxy. Upright and boxy feet are very strong and, ime, the easiest to take and keep barefoot. If your farrier tries to make them more "normal" they could ruin them altogether.

Mine is barefoot and has little rocks on the end of her legs :)
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Omg this every time!! If they are boxy that’s probably the way they are… mine was born here but has inherited the hill feet. You can get those with more flat feet and these would have inherited some marshy genes somewhere. I had two from same family entirely different feet and had I had a farrier trying to shape them.. one would be lame guess which!

congrats by the way!! They do fantastic barefoot!!
 
sz90168 said:
That is good too know. His feet are quite upright and boxy which we can hopefully improve on.
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Please be very, very careful with "improving " Spanish feet. They are naturally more upright with higher heels than horses bred in wetter, more marshy countries. If you go tinkering with the angles you risk a whole host of problems. I've never had to shoe a Spanish horse, and my farrier understands how to trim them.
 
There's a couple of Spanish horses on Rose's yard, both imported from Spain and the first thing I noticed about them was the boxy upright feet. Neither of them is young but both are sound and working at an advanced level quite happily and have fantastic temperaments, especially the stallion! I didn't know anything about Spanish Feet, so have learned something, yet again. Their older owner has great fun with them and both hack out beautifully putting many English horses to shame.
 
Have fun with your new boy!

I'm another who has had all my PREs barefoot. The first has boxy, fairly upright feet and I knew no better when he came over, so I left it to the yard farrier to work with them. He tried to make them more 'English' and Pocholo ended up with navicular. He's been sound and barefoot for 10 years now and tbh his feet look less boxy now he's allowed to self-trim.

My other two (both from similar breeding lines) have far flatter feet but are perfectly comfortable over all surfaces.
 
sunnyone said:
I spent just under 6 months at what was believed to be a respectable livery yard in Spain with other foreign owners and my own horses. I saw during that time amongst other things:
1: a noseband with spikes on the inside in use which were sharp enough to make the horse bleed and for it to need ointment on the wound for 1 week.
2.a stallion rear and throw the YO twice in the same spot in the school which was then taken back into its stable and thrashed for 25 minutes (immediately prior to the thrashing I was told to leave the area, but I hung around as I had left my bag in the building).
3. No vet treatment sought for a pony that was suffering with pneumonia as the livery wasn't going to pay the bill. The pony died.
4. The groom was only given 1 day a month time off because the foreign liveries insisted. I believe he was an illegal immigrant as well since he had to hide when the police turned up to inspect license.

Now in France, I bought a "Portuguese" horse who was actually Spanish. At 9 years old she had been through 9 homes in Spain and the very caring French dealer I bought her from. She took a long time to settle and trust me and my farrier.

Of course not all yards are the same but as they say "buyer beware" because animal welfare is definitely not of the same standard, in Spain.
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Horrendous.I have seen some pretty horrendous stuff over here too.
 
There‘s also one going on nfed cheap as it’s a project. Hopefully it’ll find a home where it’s breed is understood.
 
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