The Andrade Horse

When Dr. Ruy d’Andrade took over the management of his father’s property in Portugal in 1901, he acquired mares of pure Spanish blood (Cartujana breed?) from Guerrero Hermanos, D. Vicente Romero Garcia, and D. António Perez Tinao and thus laid the foundation of the Andrade stud farm.

As stallions, he used horses of the same origin of which we should highlight RUMBOSO from Guerrero Hermanos, ARRIERO from Camino Hermanos, BERGANTIN from Eduardo Miura, CARTUJANO and SALTADOR from D. António Perez Tinao, NOVELERO from Pallares Moreno and PRINCIPE VIII from D. Francisco Chica Navarro. However it was PRINCIPE VIII that would become the key stallion for the stud farm.

This stud farm has had many notable horses and an enviable track-record in almost all equestrian sports, from dressage to jumping to bullfighting. Since its foundation in the beginning of the XXth century up to the present date, it has been an acclaimed Champion of the breed many times, as well as Iberian Champion in 1970 and 1972 and has won innumerable other prizes.  

The Andrade horse is considered a sub-breed * of the Lusitano horse given (i) its distinctive morphological characteristics, and, (ii) the fact that this lineage is present in, and gave rise to, most of the best Lusitano stud farms worldwide.

Ruy d´Andrade wrote that the Lusitano horses of Andrade lineage should be “…short strong horses, valiant with the bulls, changing from calm to ardent if spurred and from ardent to obedient if left in peace; fast when running and rapid turnings; with a good pace, sensitive to the spurs, submissive, with softmouth, with an endless resistance …” Within the Iberian horses, the Andrade horses are generally of large stature having been selected mainly for their movements and functional qualities.

MARAVILHA, MAJESTOSO, JUSTO, VULCANO, ENEIAS, FIRME and MARTINI were all distinguished Andrade stallions.

Under the direction of Fernando Sommer d’Andrade, the Andrade stud farm obtained several prizes over the years and the following should be highlighted: “Iberian Stud Farm Champion” in the Feira de Campo, Madrid 1970, together with prizes of “Iberian Champion Foal” and “Iberian Champion Mare”. In the first Lusitano Horse International Championship, ZAMORIM conquered the first prize in the class of “Stallion over 5 years”.

The following horses were particularly prominent: EUCLIDES and JAGUAR ridden by Fernando d’Andrade, mestre Nuno de Oliveira and Egon von Meindorff and FIRME ridden by D. José d´Athayde and URCO ridden by José Luís  d´Andrade stood out in bull-fighting. FIRME was the sire of various notable Veiga horses, namely NEPTUNO, NILO, NOVILHEIRO and OPUS 72.

Additionally, several stallions from the stud farm stand out at this stage, namely URCO, UMBROSO, VIDAGO, YACHT, ZAMORIM and JABEQUE.

At present the Fernando d’Andrade stud farm comprises eight horses and nine mares. The horses were sired by the stallions: Malpolon and Náblio, both pure Lusitano/Andrade line. They are direct descendants of Jabeque, Yacht, Zamorim, Xexe, and Urco, Martini, Yacht. The brood mare Hamelética, one of the founder mares, had Yacht, Martini, Fenicio and Kayak in her direct ancestry. 

• Mares: Xarafim; Bianca; Dondoka; Dubi O Nodubi; E-Princesa; Inópia; Laroca; Lady L; Soquettes (2022 filly).
• Horses: Xiita and Bacante (stallions); Gabiru and Iago (geldings and presently stabled in a riding school in the Quinta da Marinha); Sibarita; Décimo; Hajibe; Idez-d-Rub (geldings) live free-range on the farm.

* The three sub-breeds of the Lusitano Horse are (i) Coudelaria Nacional, (ii) Veiga and (iii) Andrade.