Boaventura Freire Leaves Germany to Return Home

Dressage

Portugal

Former Portuguese team rider Boaventura Freire is saying Germany - his home for the past 12 years - goodbye and returning to his roots in Portugal.

The 38-year of Freire built a life for himself in Germany away from his family's Lusitano breeding farm, Dressage Plus, managed by his uncle Vasco Francisco Freire.

Going Pro

Freire has been commuting between Portugal and Germany already from his teenage years.

In 2004 he spent time training with Dolf Dietram Keller and Nuno Palma e Santos at Klosterhof Medingen.

Freire made his international debut as a junior rider, still based in Portugal. Aboard the Lusitano stallion Peralta Pinha (by Hipolito x Uije) he represented Portugal at the 2005 and 2006 European Junior Riders Championships and at the 2007 and 2008 European Young Riders Championships. At the 2008 Europeans on home turf in Azeitao, Portugal, there was plenty of drama as Freire got eliminated from the team test for blood, but the rules then allowed them to start again in the next rounds. He ended up finding redemption and won a historic kur bronze medal on the Westfalian gelding Derby L (by Derby Favorit)

From 2008 till 2011 he worked at the horse dealing yard Wintermühle and trained with Johan Zagers.

Between 2012 and 2014 he was back in Portugal. After a five-year break from international showing Freire returned to the CDI ring in 2012 with several young horses at the Sunshine Tour, before moving to Germany to begin a professional career in riding.

More than a Decade in Germany

At the end of 2013 he moved to Germany and settled in Salzhausen.

His career focused mainly on national level showing, but in that 13-year period in Germany he rode four years internationally and achieved his biggest success so far. With the Hanoverian gelding Sai Baba (by Sir Donnerhall x De Niro x Warkant), bred by Robert Gaus, he showed at international Grand Prix level between 2016 and 2019 and rode on the Portuguese team at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg, where he finished 35th in the Grand Prix with 67.214%. The CDI Leudelange in July 2019 was his last CDI. In 2021 Freire sold Sai Baba to Zen Elite in the U.S.A.

At the 2017 European Championships with Sai Baba

This year his main competition rides in Germany were Rolf Seidel's Grand Prix horse Dante Aleghieri OLD (by Dante Weltino x De Niro) and two small tour horses: Andreas Kaiser's Oldenburg Fortissimo MM (by For Romance x Weltissimo) and Stefanie Neumann's Lusitano Olimpo Plus (by Rubi AR x Acucar do Pinheiro).

Returning to the Roots

Boaventura has decided the time is ripe to return to his roots and settle himself back in Portugal.

"I have decided to do it first of all to support my family, second of all because I believe in the Lusitano horse breeding and I’m very proud to be part of one of the best companies in the industry that I know , Dressage Plus," he said about his family's business.

Dressage Plus is known for breeding Lusitano and Luso-warmbloods (Portuguese Sport Horse). They also have a line of Hanoverian mares, which delivered their most successful offspring so far, European champion Zonik Plus (by Zonik x Hohenstein). Dressage Plus bought Zonik Plus' dam at a Klosterhof Medingen auction in Germany. Thanks to the Belgian Justin Verboomen's success on Zonik Plus, as well as Maria Caetano on the cross-bred Hit Plus (by Bretton Woods), the stud farm was able to rise to a second place on the WBFSH Breeders' Ranking for 2026.