22/02/2009

Equestrian art













Photos by João Quaresma


The Portuguese School of the Equestrian Art is the natural sequence of what the Portuguese Royal Academy, extin-guished in the last century. Even so, that horsemanship and tradition survived and they had a great influence on the way of riding in Portugal.

On the other hand, and due to the continued practice of bullfighting on horseback, the samekind of horse, the same horsemanship, harness and costumes used in the XVIII century have been kept up till nowadays. All this represents a unique cultural equestrian patrimony in the world.

The purpose of this School is not only to keep and divulge this patrimony, but also to the practice and teaching of the Art of riding, which has such a brilliant tradition in Portugal.

The stallions used by the School (EPAE) are Lusitanian horses from the ancient Royal Stud at Alter, founded by King João V in 1748. [*]


9 comments:

Sterl the Pearl's Daily Pics of Boulder said...

so interesting. great pics!

Hilda said...

I love the fabulous matching red costumes of the first pair! Even the horse has boots! :D
--
Don't forget to vote for the April theme! We get two choices this time, thanks to Elaine. Please help spread the word too.

PAK said...

Beautiful costumes and a horse.
I nominate Your blog:
http://chorzowdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/02/fridrich-wilhelm-von-reden.html

Anonymous said...

Those are amazing photos. I'm a bit scared of horses, so am happy to just look at pictures - much less scary than seeing them in the flesh!

Small City Scenes said...

So beautiful!! I love horses as you know. Look at the gentle communication between the horse and handler. MB

Lowell said...

What a wonderful series of pictures -- colorful, sensuous, striking ...

Your historical commentary was also much appreciated.

And thank you for visiting my blog!

George Townboy said...

Fabtastic! Thanks for posting these!

vero said...

Interesting post. Bye Bye

Dick said...

Wonderful, your pictures are great.