Portuguese Olympian Antonio do Vale Relocates to Portugal for New Chapter

Horse Sales and Training Services

Portuguese Olympian Antonio do Vale and his wife, Grand Prix rider Joana do Vale, have relocated home to Portugal to begin a new chapter in their professional career.

After achieving a career goal, riding at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Antonio has mapped out a different road to achieve new targets and life goals.

15 Years in Germany

In 2010 the Do Vales left Portugal to build a life in the heart of the horse world, Germany.

Antonio's career kicked off with the support of the Böckmann family, who provided a base for the couple and gave Antonio his first major horses to ride, such as Fidertanz, Bailarino and Hofrat.

While Antonio gained experience and built his business, relying on the support of his wife Joana (née Serra Lopes), their family grew to five animal-loving children. In between having children, Joana continued to ride and compete, including for instance Daniel Ramseier's Ribery and Pavla Rubickova's Xangai at Grand Prix level.

Both earned their Golden Rider Badge in 2019 for 10 S-level placings.

Antonio riding breeding stallion Fidertanz in 2015

"To be able to settle our business at Family Böckmann's yard in Lastrup was a dream come true and we are forever grateful for the support they gave us through the last 15 years," said Do Vale.

Fine Fellow H

Antonio's career shifted into a higher gear when in 2019 he began a collaboration with horse owner Johann Heinrichs with whom he shared the mutual dream of making it to the Olympics.

Heinrich gave eight talented horses into Do Vale's care to train with the goals of the Olympics. Several were sold along the way and it was the Oldenburg gelding Fine Fellow H (by Furst Fugger x Epikur) that made the dream come true. After winning the 2019 Oldenburg Regional Championships and competing in the 2020 Nurnberger and Louisdor cup qualifiers, the pair made its CDI debut in 2021. Two years later, in 2023, they were named reserve to the team for the European Championships in Riesenbeck.

In 2024 they were again selected as reserve for the Portuguese team at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but due to the withdrawal of Joao Moreira's Furst Kennedy, the pair got ride down the centerline in Paris in the gardens of the Versailles palace. They placed 47th in the Grand Prix with 66.910%. Antonio and Johann's coveted dream came true.

Antonio rode on more CDI on Fine Fellow H, in Gothenburg in February 2025, after which the gelding sold as final step in the project Do Vale and Heinrich Horses signed for in 2019.

"Heinrich Horses was a huge supporter of us throughout the Olympic project and we will be forever be thankful," Antonia stated. "We still are very close to Johann and hope to plan more future projects of a similar scope with him."

Return to the Roots

Joana on Magnanimous at the 2023 CDI Hagen

After fifteen years in Germany the couple has decided to return to their roots and move back home to Coruche, Portugal, where they own a family yard "O Montinho"

"As the sport is growing more and more in Portugal, Spain and France, we decided to relocate our horses to our barn in Portugal so we can start showing them in smaller shows in the South of Europe," said Antonio. "There are excellent opportunities there to begin the career of young horses and young Grand Prix horses in those countries."

Joana added, "we have many horses ready to start showing. With our family of five we need to surround ourselves with a good support network and to be near our family will allow us to focus more on the sport and on our competition careers."

They said, "we are super excited what the future will hold for us and we are happy to come back to Portugal after almost 15 years away from home."

New Goals and Projects

Antonio is aiming for the 2026 World Championships in Aachen and and 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles with new quality horses, partners and sponsors. He has also shifted his attention to coaching.

The ties and network in Germany remain intact as Antonio regularly travels to Hamburg to teach at the Ulanska family's Stable Maas J. Hell. At the start of 2025 he began training several dressage stallions there and coach talented students from the area.

"We have a select number of horses in training, all of them with focus on the sport and big goals. All of them were in Germany and came with us to embrace this new chapter in beautiful Portugal," said Antonio. "We have amazing partners and sponsors, such as the Dobrow family from Australia, Portuguese Casal dos Rios, German Gabrielle Block, and the Ulanska family who all have allocated horses to bring to upper level sport."

The most experienced horse in the string is Dobrow's 9-year mare Donatella (by Dimaggio x De Niro) which Antonio has competed in her first Grand Prix tests, followed by Conceição Lima's 7-year old Oldenburg Top Gun (by Topas), and their own 7-year old Ferrari (by Fidertanz x Sir Sandro). There are plenty of young horses in the barn too, including Block's 6-year old Holsteiner stallion Cleverness (by Clarksville x Krack C) and 5-year old Oldenburg Füssel, amongst others.

Busy times are ahead for the Do Vales who also ride "young talented German horses from 4 to 6 years old that we want to develop with time and respect through the levels hoping to reach the higher sport."

Follow Antonio and Joana do Vale's path in Portugal on Instagram