PRE horses and dressage

Kylara

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I have liked PREs from afar for a great many years, and in my search for a horse for dressage I have been seeing quite a few pop up that fulfil all my requirements. However, I do not know an awful lot about them, aside from they find collection easy, are generally good tempered and there are a lot of stallions about.

I'd guess from their good self carriage and temperement that teaching them the higher movements would be easier, but I'm not sure how easy they are to deal with on a day to day basis as Spain's heat and management is different (lots of stabling). Also what is the PRE registration body in the UK?

Anything that might be good/bad about them in regards to dressage?

Do any of them jump at all?

Are they easy to keep on a well run yard or do they have feeding/turnout problems?

I have taught people with a couple of PREs before (retraining) and they struggled to take the contact forward and struggled a bit with the whole concept of free walk on a long rein, but I don't know how frequent this is in the breed, and would guess its a conformation thing as one of our As is built very well in front and has natural carriage but struggles with stretching on a contact.
 

TheMule

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They're more like a thoroughbred to ride than a warmblood. Ride them deep and round at your peril- you'll spend a lifetime getting the nose out of the chest! They don't find stretching difficult, if they're ridden well.
Correctly produced they are wonderful, trainable athletes who'll do anything. They can jump and are usually very neat over a fence but can lack some scope for width- they have a tendancy to go up not across.
Have had lots of PREs and lusitanos over the years, never had any management problems but do avoid molassed feeds- they aren't used to the sugar and can be quite intolerant of it!
 

Cowpony

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I can't talk from any level of knowledge, but I almost bought one and this is what I gleaned from that process. A lot of them are very pigeon toed. My potential purchase failed the vetting because of it. The vet's view was that it would cause problems in the future, but I know there are people on here with horses which have similar conformation and have had no issue at all. There is also something they absolutely can't eat - anything molassed from memory, but no doubt somebody will know for sure. The one I tried would certainly pop a jump and was quite good at it. Can't speak for anything high/serious as the ones I did were about 2'3".
 

TheMule

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I've never met a pigeon toed iberian but they do generally have boxy, upright feet with a deep frog which can be prone to thrush
 

Booboos

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It depends how serious you are about dressage. If you want to be out competing with a chance at winning your best bet is a warmblood. PREs may be good at collection but it's a long road before you get there and they need to be able to do everything else before that. In my experience they can be hot which is frustrating as they end up working against you and they can find it difficult to stretch down and out but that may also be down to how they are broken in (they don't always have the best start in life is Spain but again it depends who you go to).
 

Shadowdancing

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My horse is UK bred and raised. She's very spooky so out and about competing dressage many comment on her beautiful paces and way of going when not freaking out. But she's still young and things are getting better. Yes she can jump- boy can she. She's giving 1m 10 fences miles of clearance. She's not tried many spreads though so can't comment on that, we're in training and considering affiliating next year- honestly I think she likes to jump much more than do dressage. Sadly I am not a jumper, so I've had to find her a rider for that discipline and they are doing very well. Her feet are excellent according to all the farriers I've had, but she's been barefoot all her life and I think there's a tendency for the boxy upright thing to come from Spanish shod horses from what I've heard... Overall having owned her since she was just 3 I'd always go for another and again I'd probably look for younger horse, here in the UK, and keep it barefoot if I could. Downsides- they're smaller- suits me though I'm tiny. Upsides- they've got great movement, presence, a sweet nature and they learn fast. Having bought mine for dressage it's been a pleasant surprise how much of an allrounder she is, and as she is starting to settle I've got high hopes we'll do a nice test in the near future, though I genuinely think she sees herself as a showjumper!!
 

Shadowdancing

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Forgot to add- such an easy keeper. Very sound even when she was beaten up by another horse in the field and her leg ballooned she never took a lame step. Not a good doer though I've heard some are, but nor does she drop condition. Since I've had her she's lived out 24/7 for a year, in at night in winter out in summer, and even had a few weeks being totally in a stable during the winter. Never a problem. She is quite bossy in the field but not aggressive, bounces her bum in other horses faces if she feels she must but rarely have I seen her kick. Only once when the other horse was new and refused to back down. She's a pleasure overall, so easy to manage.
 

Kylara

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Thanks guys. I'm looking for something to train up the levels as far as possible really and jumping is a bonus.

The one I've seen and seriously considering going to view looks very nice and is UK bred (from Spanish imports I think) and looks to have good paces. Doesn't seem to be very uptight in the neck either.

I'd rather deal with boxy feet than low heels!

In regards to molasses I would be avoiding that anyway, I don't really agree with feeding horses sugar! (Had a major meltdown looking for a mineral lick the other day and couldn't find anything suitable. 10 years ago you'd get a lump with minerals and vits in and away you go, ended up buying a himalayan salt thingy).

I'll not write them off the list then and will organise a viewing on this PRE then.
 

MagicMelon

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You could always get a part bred Iberian, Ive got a Luso x TB (now retired) - he was amazing, took me to a 3rd place in CIC* eventing, 1.20m BSJA etc. The most honest, willing horse ever. He was bred in Portugal, I worried his hooves wouldn't cope up here (NE Scotland) but he's always had amazing feet and never had any issues at all. He is sensitive though, but that made him read my mind (brilliant for eventing/jumping). I would definately consider a pure bred but I do think for dressage, they're not common enough for judges to really understand and like them... so eventing-wise, a part bred IMO is perfect.
 

j1ffy

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I have two PREs here in the UK. They are very different personalities but both of them love humans, love to work and are yard favourites. Our first was more traditionally Spanish trained (they're both imports) and is more 'Baroque' in shape so he finds stretching harder and is more likely to sit behind the contact, but he's far better then he used to be. He enjoys jumping but hasn't attempted higher than 2'9".

Our second is more 'modern' in shape and is from dressage lines (Pallares lines, which are one of the pure Carthusian lines). He can extend, collect, stretch and finds lateral work easy. Sadly he managed to injure himself in the field as a 5yo and ended up with a wonky neck but finally we're getting the straightness 4 years on. His fourth ever competition was last year's BD Spanish horse dressage champs and he came second in the Prelim just 5 weeks after his first affiliated outing. This year we've qualified for Regionals at Prelim and Areas at Novice, plus we've started jumping which he loves.

Novice dressage:


Second time xc:
 

MS123

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My horse is UK bred and raised. She's very spooky so out and about competing dressage many comment on her beautiful paces and way of going when not freaking out. But she's still young and things are getting better. Yes she can jump- boy can she. She's giving 1m 10 fences miles of clearance. She's not tried many spreads though so can't comment on that, we're in training and considering affiliating next year- honestly I think she likes to jump much more than do dressage. Sadly I am not a jumper, so I've had to find her a rider for that discipline and they are doing very well. Her feet are excellent according to all the farriers I've had, but she's been barefoot all her life and I think there's a tendency for the boxy upright thing to come from Spanish shod horses from what I've heard... Overall having owned her since she was just 3 I'd always go for another and again I'd probably look for younger horse, here in the UK, and keep it barefoot if I could. Downsides- they're smaller- suits me though I'm tiny. Upsides- they've got great movement, presence, a sweet nature and they learn fast. Having bought mine for dressage it's been a pleasant surprise how much of an allrounder she is, and as she is starting to settle I've got high hopes we'll do a nice test in the near future, though I genuinely think she sees herself as a showjumper!!

Could have wrote this myself about my last mare. Are they twins? haha! T (Hispano Mare - Andalusian x Arab) loved x-country and jumping and had such natural scope! I bought her primarily for dressage but she proved to excel more at jumping/x-country. She had the heart of a lion and I miss her dearly.

I found T was very easy to keep and easy to do in all ways (never sick or sorry, lived off fresh air, and was super clean to muck out which was a bonus, ha). She was, however, sharp and fiery and too clever for her own good. In the wrong hands she could have been a nightmare.
 
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Shadowdancing

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Could have wrote this myself about my last mare. Are they twins? haha! T (Hispano Mare - Andalusian x Arab) loved x-country and jumping and had such natural scope! I bought her primarily for dressage but she proved to excel more at jumping/x-country. She had the heart of a lion and I miss her dearly.

I found T was very easy to keep and easy to do in all ways (never sick or sorry, lived off fresh air, and was super clean to muck out which was a bonus, ha). She was, however, sharp and fiery and too clever for her own good. In the wrong hands she could have been a nightmare.

MS123 this is exactly what some friends on a yard where I had her for our first year together said. I'm quite a confident rider and could manage her through her major spooks and anxious moments, but you had to be tactful and keep your cool. Like my yard mates said, if she'd had too aggressive or too nervous a rider, things could have gone down hill very fast! She needed to be reassured at times, firmly told, no we're staying right her until you listen at others. She is very clever and if she got her way once you had days of negotiations on your hands to get her back that step, as I discovered with loading!

Her jump jockey is super excited about her and can't wait to be competing- so yes that looks like her true forte!

She's also a clean horse in the box.

Interesting to see so many parallels with similar horses! I absolutely adore her and I'd definitely get another, but as I've said I'd probably prefer a youngster so I could bring it along the same way I have with her.
 
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