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Campino DC, first competition at Pin Oak. Lusitano.
not unusual for me to return to my house at 10:00 pm, exhausted and filthy, to receive a phone call telling me he would be there in 30 minutes with H.R.H. Prince [fill in the name], and I would scramble into clean clothes and be showing horses. The current King of Jordan was one of many such guests.
After a successful trip to Jordan to buy some Arabian horses (nothing like going to the source!) I became very sick and felt that I could no longer manage the stables single-handed. I am still very good friends to this day with that wonderful gentleman who gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, and my first Iberian horse (another story).
I attended a classical dressage clinic given by Joaquin Rodriguez Morena, at that time Champion of Spain in Doma Vaquera and Doma Clasica, and was selected for a two-year scholarship in Spain. I studied under him, but was also able to ride under Alvero Domecq and several other top Spanish horsemen. This was one of the best times in my life, leaving me with a passion for Spanish horses and horsemanship and that beautiful country that has never left me.
After my scholarship, I returned to the U.K. and continued competing there. A chance encounter at a Grand Prix with a P.R.E. stallion led to a request for me to buy and train some American Quarter Horses to go western – which was just beginning to become popular in Europe. “Sure!” I thought, “how difficult can that be?”
Try a complete re-education… The Quarter Horse industry took off like a rocket in Europe, and within a year I was solely competing in Western events. The original person who had wanted the Quarter Horses moved on to speed boats, and I received the stud horse I had bought him as my share of the partnership. This horse, Mucho Bueno Lynx, is still very well-known in Europe and really helped to make my name there.
After many good years in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, I bought a ranch in Gainesville, Texas, with the plan of concentrating on cutting horses. I did this exclusively for the next 15 years, with many of my horses being sold overseas (Europe and South America, as well as Australia and Scandinavia) as well as having a strong U.S. clientele. At one point, I had over 100 head of horses, with broodmares, young stock, etc.
In 2006, I bought another property, starting with bare ground, so I could design it to my specifications. My business name has always been El Lobo Ranch, and I still continue that name and brand (a howling wolf) as my business.
In 2008, I bought a horse to train as an all-around horse for resale. He was a large (16.2 hand) Paint, who we discovered in the course of training had the movement of a top dressage horse. I dusted off my dressage saddle and off we went, after a break of 19 years, into the dressage arena. He was very successful, and I decided to do more dressage and less cutting.