Nad\u00e8ge Labrecque and her husband run Keberica Lusitano Farm in Quebec City, Canada, where they have been breeding Lusitano horses since 2010. What started as a passion for the breed has grown into a dedicated breeding program with horses imported from Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been raising Lusitano horses since 2010. This year will be our fifteenth foal. I used to ride warmblood horses, but as an amateur and a small rider they were sometimes difficult for me. One day we went to see a Lusitano stallion and we immediately fell in love with the breed. The temperament is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Nad\u00e8ge Labrecque<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For Nad\u00e8ge, the temperament of the Lusitano is one of the breed\u2019s most important qualities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are horses that suit both amateur riders and professional riders. At first we bought a stallion simply because we loved the breed. Then we added a mare and slowly the breeding program started to grow.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Breeding in the Great North
\nToday Keberica Farm has around fifteen Lusitano horses. Breeding Lusitanos in Canada brings its own challenges, especially because of the climate and the complexity of importing horses.<\/p>\n\u201cYou need to be a little crazy to raise Lusitano horses in Canada. Importing horses into Canada is not easy, but we kept building our program step by step.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Despite the growth of their breeding program, the farm remains a passion project. Both Nad\u00e8ge and her husband work full-time outside the farm, but they travel regularly to Portugal to stay connected with the origin of the breed.<\/p>\n
Connecting with the Figueiras bloodlines
\nIt was during one of these journeys that Nad\u00e8ge first became closely connected to the Figueiras bloodlines.<\/p>\n\u201cWe had been following Drag\u00e3o das Figueiras for quite some time. In 2018, we decided we wanted to add a Figueiras horse to our program.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They travelled to Belgium where they discovered a young mare, Marquesa, who captured their hearts. After winning a gold medal at age one, she went on to win a silver medal at the Belgian Championship before being imported to Canada. This success led the couple to look for another Figueiras horse. They eventually imported a young colt, Prodigio MVL, a son of Drag\u00e3o das Figueiras.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the photo when he was only 24 hours old and I immediately fell in love with him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Future in the sport
\nToday the stallion is in training with international rider B\u00e9atrice Boucher in Florida with the goal of reaching Grand Prix level. For Nad\u00e8ge, the qualities that impressed her most about the Figueiras horses remain their character and rideability.<\/p>\n\u201cThe temperament is exceptional. Oscar das Figueiras is also an amazing horse. Even though I already own a son of Drag\u00e3o, I would still like to use Oscar in the future. Oscar brings something different through his dam line.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While the Figueiras bloodlines are not yet widely known in Canada, Nad\u00e8ge hopes that will change.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to develop more Drag\u00e3o bloodlines in our breeding program. The story of Keberica Farm is ultimately about passion for the Lusitano horse and the people who dedicate their lives to breeding it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"featured_media":709,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-976","voices-of-figueiras","type-voices-of-figueiras","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsesoffigueiras.bonsaidev.nl\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/voices-of-figueiras\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsesoffigueiras.bonsaidev.nl\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/voices-of-figueiras"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsesoffigueiras.bonsaidev.nl\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/voices-of-figueiras"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsesoffigueiras.bonsaidev.nl\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsesoffigueiras.bonsaidev.nl\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}