Lisbon, Portugal (August 11, 2011) – Dr. Paulo Gavião Gonzaga, the founder of Interagro Lusitanos, the largest exporter of Lusitano horses in the world, was honored at the 23rd International Festival of Pureblood Horses in Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Gonzaga was recognized for his extensive promotion of the Lusitano breed in the United States and Latin America at the festival, which attracted thousands of people and breeders from all over the world.
Arsênio Raposo Cordeiro, an international judge of morphology who is considered one of the leading authorities on the Lusitano breed and author of The Lusitano Horse – The Son of the Wind, acknowledged that Dr. Gonzaga is thought of as a “trailblazer” for Lusitanos. During the emotional tribute, Cordeiro and the audience applauded Dr. Gonzaga on his many years of excellent service to the breed.
“We owe much to him in the promotion of the breed in the United States and Latin America. We owe Dr. Gonzaga for his preservation of the breed in a difficult time, when there was an equine epidemic. At that time, Dr. Gonzaga had the foresight to prevent an impending disaster by acquiring groups of mares which he took to his ranch in Brazil, thus creating a Noah’s Ark of salvation for the Lusitanian breed. We can never forget what he did for the Lusitano horse,” Cordeiro said.
Dr. Gonzaga was extremely honored by the tribute and said the victory of preserving and promoting the Lusitano breed was a victory for all. “It was not the megalomania of a crazy Brazilian, but was actually a very well thought out plan,” Dr. Gonzaga said of his importation of Lusitanos to his Brazilian farm. “In the ‘70s many Brazilian horse lovers acknowledged that there was a gap in Brazil. The largest Portuguese speaking country had great horse breeds, but there was not a purebred Lusitano. And considering the strength of the Portuguese traditions, so deeply rooted in Brazilian society, that needed to be corrected. We thought that this wouldn’t get done with single imports, but would require a large number of mares coming to Brazil. And so it we did it. By the end of the 1980s, the horses began to emerge and now dominate the Brazilian equestrian world, which fills us with pride.”