JANUARY 2007 • VOLUME 17 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Nadja: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate that.

Manolo: My pleasure.

Nadja: I really enjoyed reading the articles that Isabel sent me. I enjoyed them very much.

Manolo: Oh, so Isabel sent you some articles, yes?

Nadja: Yes. I have to say I’ve really, really enjoyed them. It was just such a pleasure to read your words, made me very excited about talking with you I think because, personally, I agreed with so much of what I read.

Manolo: Very nice.

Nadja: First of all, I wanted to ask for basic background from you

I understand your background originally was in Spain. Is that correct?

Manolo: Yes.

Nadja: So how did you get started there?

Manolo: In Spain? Well, in Spain, I was a farmer with my father, who was a farmer. We grow sheep, cattle and horses in the past, then later when I was 14, I moved to with a man who was growing bullfighter bulls and growing horses, a lot of breeding horses, and growing wine – the name is Alvaro Domecq. From there, I train horses for him, for the bullfight, because he was the number one bullfighter in Spain in the past. And from there, in 1972, I was I think 18, the Spanish Riding School here invite Spain for four hundred years in operation, then he invited Domecq, this man you know? Then we did a small little show, like working in-hand, and pas de deux and a little quadrille, then we go on to Vienna, then from there we come back to Spain for two or 3 weeks. Then we did another show for the Prince, when he was a prince who is now the King, Juan Carlos I, we did a small little show for him one time.

And he give to Domecq a trophy - gold horse, a little gold horse. Then we did a special show at the festival for the Prince, and he was very impressed. Then from there, the riding school started, the Government had to put money together to buy a small acerages in the city in Jerez with a nice big house like a palace, then we put more money and from there the riding school started.

Nadja: Really?

Manolo: That’s how the riding school started. Domecq, myself and a few more riders

Nadja: I didn’t know that. I thought it was a lot older than that.

Manolo: No, I started , I was the first trainer start riding in the school in Spain, with Domecq.

[Editors Note: Manolo is speaking of the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre -The Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art in Jerez de la Frontera]

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