Rodrigo da C.Matos

Mr. Matos is Portuguese and he work and lives in Portugal.

He started as an professional rider at the Escola Portuguesa d Arte Equestre (The Portuguese version of The Spanish Riding School of Vienna) in 1990. The Escola is rune by the well known Director: Dr. Guilherme Borba.
Mr. Matos works and train 5 Alter Real stallions for the shows.

The Escola show is every wednesday 11 o'clock at the Palácio Nacional from april to october in Lisbon.
In the show he shows: Capriole (picture), Levade, Pas-de-trois and Quadrille.

The Alter Real horses is known as a separate breed, from the Lusitano. The history of the Alter in short: the Alter horses where the royal Portuguese (after the separation of the original Iberia, in Portugal and Spain) horse breed, breed for Kings and Queens. But when the breed was almost destroyed by wars and poverty, the saved them by bringing in Spanish horses (Andalusian/P.R.E.). But nowadays the breed is used also in the Lusitano breeding and is approved in the APSL.

In 1993 he started working at the Morgado Lusitano Training Center. Here he trains the Lusitano stallions to perform in the show and to give lessons. He rides in the Morgado Lusitano show, they also perform in 18. century costumes.
Morgado Lusitano -www.morgadolusitano.pt/

The breeders Rex & Lee Henry's horses are being ridden by Mr. Matos, on the left, it is LEON, the black stallion approved for breeding by APSL. He is 8 y.o. old and they are here training the galob-changements.

This course is his first time abroad. But as you can see he has allot of teaching experience and many years of training with horses.
The course is in English, but with portuguese accent. We don't think it will be a problem, like he said:
My English is not perfect, but it's good enough to make people understand me.