Lusitano or Warmblood?

Sometimes my students ask me what are the advantages of the Lusitano breed compared to a warmblood and... as very often it happens... I have to start answering saying... it depends!

I love Lusitanos because they really tend to try always hard to please the rider and I find them always easy to collect.

I love sensitive horses and Lusitanos are very sensitive and smooth and very confortable to ride. I love their brave attitude and their athleticism and generally riders that follow the classical principles of riding (calm and quiet riding style) find these horses always very pleasant to ride finding them extremely sensitive to the rider's legs and hands.

On the other hand, while you can find collection easier riding a Lusitano than a warmblood, you will maybe need to work more on developing a cadenced trot and, sometimes, more help to develop a good canter.

Anyway I find always very difficult to give a proper answer to this question: "Should I buy a Lusitano or a Warmblood?" because most of the success and pleasure will depend not only on the right choice but also on the good training. It can be true that a Lusitano, because of his incredible generosity, sometimes will try to do anything a rider will ask him even if not "through" his back. Sometimes you can see Lusitanos not well ridden with tight backs, short necks and behind the bit but this does not depend on the breed but on a bad training. Remember that there is no substitute for good training: no breed can hide the rider's fault with training as any horse needs a consistent training programme to build on the strenghts and overcome weakness.