Sandra’s Experience
We came to Portugal 11 years ago with our 3 horses, driving them ourselves in our 7.5 ton truck which was pulling a 25 foot caravan … our new temporary home. We decided that the easiest route for the horses and ourselves would be to travel on the Santander ferry from Plymouth.
Sandra on Roxy
Our adventure started with 4 horses, my sister’s 21 year old arab was with us but he developed a serious colic before we boarded the ferry, he had to be taken to Bristol vetinary university for an operation which he survived thank goodness, and he is still alive and happy today in Brighton at the age of 32 years old. He had a full vetinary check before we left and he was not prone to colic, so I would have to give a word of warning to anyone thinking of moving an older horse.
The other 3 horses, a thoroughbred, an arab, and a welsh cob, settled really quickly and happily, they are still with me today, all in their 20s, in full health and still working.
We arrived in Portugal in November, so the weather was cooler, similar to a cool English summers day, the main shock for the horses, and us, was that the flies really bite!! They are horrid and must be the only thing that I don’t like about Portugal, or any warmer climate when you throw animals into the picture!
Central Portugal has not in the recent past, had a history of horses, the area was pretty ignorant to the needs of horses, but it is changing very fast, we now have good specialist vet’s, good farriery, and we can get hay, and although my supplier still insists that hay is for sheep and straw is better for horses, he does supply me with excellent quality hay, often better than I had in England because the weather is more stable at the harvesting time of year.
I was speaking to my vet recently and he said that more and more people (mainly us fussy foreigners) are asking for pysiotherapists, dentists, and other specialist horse people. At the moment they are pretty thin on the ground, but it is only a matter of time……..
In general, my horses say that they miss the big open grass fields of England to have a good gallop, but they like the milder winters, a lot of the tracks are stoney and rough but even my thoroughbred copes really well. I think we tend to molly-coddle our horses in England. When our guests arrive to ride my horses they often say “my horse would never go up there” or “surely we can’t ride down that steep rocky track, my horse would have a heart attack”! but by the end of the week guests are saying ” I’m going to be a bit tougher on my horse when I go home, I never realised how well horses can cope with rough terrain”!
The flies are definately the worst thing about the summer, the horses cope really well with the heat, as long as they have a cool stable or a nice tree to shelter under, but the flies are relentless, you will need a good fly spray, I have given in and now use nasty chemicals because my horses have to be ridden all through the day in summer and it is only fair to them to make their job as easy as possible. I know some other people use natural home made sprays, I will ask around for recipes …. watch this space ……
I think my horses are happy here, they live much closer to me than they did in England when they were at livery, they would like to have more grazing, but I’m working on that!
Sandra and her husband Steve live on a beautiful riverside property and run offering fabulous riding trips from a one hour ride to a custom-made holiday of a week or more.