Maria Caetano Presents Horizonte, a Third Grand Prix Horse for the Road to Paris

Dressage

Portugal

Portuguese Olympian Maria Caetano will be spilt for choice with no less than three Grand Prix horses lined up for 2023 on the road to the Paris Olympic Games. Last weekend she presented her newest star for top sport: Horizonte.

Horizonte is a 10-year old Lusitano stallion by Rico out of Lepida (by Icaro). He is bred and owned by Coudelaria Antonio Barreira.

Portuguese Bred and Reared

As a young horse Horizonte was trained and competed in Portugal by Mafalda Arriaga e Cunha. The stallion then moved to the yard of Mafalda Galiza Mendes for a period.

In order to train the horse up to Grand Prix level, the owner decided to bring Horizonte to Spain where Spanish Olympian and team rider Jose Antonio Garcia Mena competed him at national small tour level. He won the 2021 Spanish Championships for developing Grand Prix horses with him and went on to produce him to Grand Prix.

Home Coming

With the Paris Olympics looming on the horizon and Portugal having a great chance to field an Olympic team, Horizonte returned to Portugal and was handed over to multiple Portuguese Grand Prix champion and team rider Maria Caetano.

"Horizonte is in my stable for one and a half months now and we had a super match from day one," Caetano told Eurodressage. "He is a horse full of charm and power! It’s a joy to feel his strength and willingness to work!"

Maria added that the horse been extremely easy to form a combination with because of his wonderful training.

"It’s a great pleasure to have a horse previously trained by such good riders and great friends," she said. "When the good basis are there everything is easier inside the ring."

Winning Debut

Maria and Horizonte made their national show debut last weekend, scoring a winning 73,297% in the Grand Prix.

Caetano is thrilled with her new ride and hopeful for the future as she has now added a third big tour horse to her string, alongside Tokyo Olympic ride Fenix de Tineo (by Rubi x Oheide) and Hit Plus (by Bretton Woods x Peralta Pinha). She also has Happy Plus (by Bretton Woods) knocking at the door to enter the big tour.

Maria will use the winter months to gel more and then prepare a show plan for 2023.

"For now our goal is to get to know each other better and better and keep improving to start again in the ring in January," she said. "We are planning to start our international career together in the beginning of the year and see what the future brings to us towards the Europeans and the Olympics."