For many years, I bred, trained and showed horses. My first breeding venture was called Court of Camelot Arabians, and my then husband Philip and I focused our breeding program on Egyptian Arabians. The first colt born on my farm which was in Anderson, South Carolina, was from a mare we bought in Canada in our short sojourn in Ontario months after we were married in England.


Then I discovered the Andalusian, those fairytale horses with crested necks and long flowing manes and tails. I saw an Andalusian at a show in Atlanta and fell in love. I proceeded to sell my Arabians and bought a 4-year-old stallion that had been imported from Costa Rica named Bonito. Bonito lived up to his name. He was a beautiful dappled gray with black mane and tale. His trot was high and airy, and people flocked to him. We had some rough times in those first years. I needed to be a lot better rider to manage a horse that knew more than I did about the finer points of equestrianism. But we made it and I showed him to two National Championships and a Reserve National Championship plus countless other wins for Camelot Act II (the fanciful name we gave our new breeding program).

The above photo is of my magnificent Bonito and me in Asheville, North Carolina, performing our Phantom of the Opera musical exhibition. The others of another stallion I owned named Alegre, another splendid stallion, and are from the Florida Renaissance Faire.

A couple of years after I moved to Miami, I realized I wasn’t spending the time with Bonito that a horse of his calibre deserved, and I sold my best friend. My heart still aches when I remember that day and when I look at my scores of show pictures.

I haven’t ridden in about 7 years, but I still go to Ebay and look at dressage saddles for sale and riding clothes. My favorite Google search is for a palomino Lusitano stallion. I can get lost in YouTube videos of these spectacular horses. The Lusitano is a Porgugese breed founded on the Spanish Andalusian.

I’m a city girl now, but my heart still yearns for the feel of a horse beneath me. I saw Warhorse last night, and I guess that is the inspiration for this personal little blog. I highly recommend this movie to horselovers and to everyone.

I have written blogs on the Andalusian horse (featured in Bianca Swan's novella about a hot Spanish bullfighter and a Virginia socialite Hot Spanish Nights) but I wanted to introduce another of my favorite equines – The Magnificent Lusitano, a Portugese breed, with a high percentage of Andalusian blood.

So enjoy meeting a truly spectacular breed:

Lusitanos can be any solid color but are most often gray, bay or chestnut. They also come in the luscious colors of black, dun and palimono. (I am particularly fond of the palominos—they are dynamic!) The typical Lusitano is 15.2 to 15.3 hands but many breeders are producing larger horses for the demand of the market.

Lusitanos have well-proportioned heads with slighly convex profiles. Their majestic necks are thick and arched. Long luxurious manes and tails make them look like fairy tale horses. Put a horn on a Lusitano and you would have a unicorn! They have short, strok backs, rounded muscles croups. Their legs are sturdy and muscled. These powerful horses are known for intelligence and willingness, are agile, their gaits elevated and comfortable to ride.

These horses are considered a Baroque breed, known for classical dressage, driving and bullfighting on horseback. Their ancestors were warhorses. The Airs Above the Ground (Capriole, Courbette and the Levade) performend to strike fear in the enemies’ heart or to maime and kill. The Capriole begins with the Piaffe (a slow trot advancing one step at the time or in place) then the horse (usually a stallion) leaps into the air and fires both back feet in a poweful elevated kick. In the Courbette, the horse rears to his full height and jumps forward.

The Levade is a crouched rear to protect his rider and terrify the other soldier. All of these movements, now rarely practiced except in the classical dressage schools like the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and the Cadre Noir in France, are diffcult but breathtakingly beautiful.

Today, Lusitanos can be found in the Olympic disciplines and high-level combined driving events. In 1995, a four-in-hand team driven by Belgian Felix Brasseur won the FEI Driving World Cup and took the World Championships a year later. In 2002, a Lusitano on the World Equestrian Games bronze-winning dressage team collected a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2006, the entire Portuguese dressage team rode Lusitanos at the World Equestrian Games.

You can still see this breed in the bullring in bloodless bullfights. The bull is not killed, and it is a disgrace to the rejoneador if the horse is injured.

If you are interested in checking out Hot Spanish Nights, visit Bianca Swan’s blog for a blurb, excerpt and book trailer. Take a look around the blog while you’re there. The Celestial Sin page contains a blurb, excerpt and trailer as well. And there is a free read.

Nothing to do with horses—fallen angels in fact—my latest release Night Before Doomsday is now available.

Palomino horses can be found on ancient tapestries, paintings and other artefacts of Europe and Asia and in Chinese and Japanese art over two thousand years old. Royalty and warlords revered these golden horses.

Palomino is a color and not a breed. Breeding a palomino to a palomino does not guarantee a palomino foal. The offspring can be chestnut or cremello. The horse to the right is Saphiro, a handsome cremello stallion.

These horses vary in shade from pale cream to a rich golden color. The mane and tail is usually white but may be gold and/or have dark hairs. Like chestnuts palomino horses may be affected by the sooty gene, when they display dark dapples. The effect is not unattractive but is nevertheless considered to be “incorrect” when compared with an “ideal” palomino. The coat of many palominos changes shade from cream in the winter to golden in the summer (seasonal palominos).

Pale palominos are sometimes called Isabellas, after Queen Isabella de-Bourbon of Spain, who is much remembered for pawning her jewels to fund Columbus' voyages to the “New World”. The word Palomino is itself a Spanish surname, derived from a Latin word meaning pale dove. Queen Isabella kept a hundred golden horses (but forbid her commoners to own one!). She did, however send a Palomino stallion and five mares to her Viceroy in Mexico (then called New Spain) to perpetuate the horse in the “New World”. North America palominos originally came from the Spanish settlements, presumably descendants of Queen Isabella’s horses.

Genetics of palomino:Palominoes have a base coat color of chestnut (i.e. of genotype ee, eaea or eea at the extension locus) and genotype C+CCr at the C locus (the cream dilution gene). The CCr allele is semi-dominant and dilutes red pigment to yellow in a single dose (i.e. in palominos). The wild-type C+ allele is effectively recessive since it needs to be homozygous for there to be no dilution of the base color. (Horse Genetics.com)

The two horses in the photos are Lusitanos, which originate in Portugal.

I personally owned Andalusians, and palomino is not an Andalusian color.

Andalusians are supporting actors in Hot Spanish Nights, an erotic novella, by Bianca Swan, now available from The Wild Rose Press.

Congratulations to:

Mary Marvella -- t-shirt

Barbara Monajem -- coffee mug

Joanne -- download

Mona Risk -- coffee mug

Please contact me at BiancaSwan20@yahoo.com with your contact information for delivering your prize.

Thanks everyone for stopping by with all the encouragement.

A wall painting unearthed at Knossos in Crete, dating from about 2000 BC, shows male and female acrobats confronting a bull, grabbing its horns as it charges, and vaulting over its back.

The art of bullfighting on horseback, as currently practiced in Portugal, where it is called toureio equestre and in Spain and Mexico, where it is called rejoneo, claims a direct origin to the Iberian Peninsula, having developed from Middle Ages war exercises, particularly the cavalry.

Coridas mixtas are also popular, where a rejoneador and two matadores (or a rejoneador, matador and novillero - the last of which is an apprentice matador) perform.

Bullfighting in Spain traces its origins to 711 A.D. The first bullfight took place in celebration for the crowning of King Alfonso VIII. In Spain, an estimated one million people each year watch bullfights.

Until King Felipe V, who took exception to the sport) banned the aristocracy from participating, the sport belonged to the nobility. The King believed that aristocrats in bullfights set a bad example to the public. Commoners enthusiasticlly adopted the sport, but since few could afford horses, took the fight to the ground, confronting the bull on foot, and modern corrida began to take form.

Today’s bullfight is much the same as it has been since about 1726, when Francisco Romero of Ronda, Spain, introduced the estoque (the sword) and the muleta (the small, more easily wielded worsted cape used in the last part of the fight).

During a performance, rejoneadores often ride several horses:

• A parade horse - physically attractive and disciplined
• A horse for the first tercio (entrance of bull) - very fast and brave.
• A horse for the second tercio (banderillas) - fast, agile, and a natural instinct for fooling the bull
• A horse for the third tercio (death of bull) - very steady
Bullfighting horses are highly trained to swerve instantly, yet remain calm when charged by a fierce, angry bull. The must possess an extreme dose of bravura, agility, and obedience.

A rejoneador's usual costume consists of a dark waistcoat (usually brown or grey), brown leather chaps and a broad, straight-brimmed hat.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8251327
Rejoneador and Palomino stallion (most likely Lusitano).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTYWw3f7kx8
Pablo Hermoso

Now we’ll pass the champagne, chocolate and baked brie! Join me in celebrating the release of my erotic novella, Hot Spanish Nights, from The Wild Rose Press, The Wilder Roses.

There will be random drawings. Among the prizes are t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens and refrigerator magnets.

Let the party begin!

Cheers! Bianca

Since my love scenes are caliente, I decided to dabble in erotica and wrote Hot Spanish Nights targeting the Destination Pleasure line of The Wilder Roses at The Wild Rose Press. I was very pleased that the editor liked the story (and fortunate since she is also a devotee of horses). She asked for rewrites, using the buzz words. At first, I found using the buzz words difficult, but then I got into it and now, when editing one of my fallen angel manuscripts yesterday, I struggled for a word that a buzz word would have fit perfectly! The story grew beyond the word length for Destination Pleasure and will be released as a miniature (novella).

For many happy years, I bred, trained and showed Andalusian horses. They are the most intelligent, beautiful and loving creatures in the world. My stallion was twice National Champion at Halter and many times champion under saddle. I could sing the praises of the Iberian horse for pages, and this story gave me an outlet to present them to a new audience. In Black Swan, my vampire story from The Wild Rose press, I used my car in a love scene. In Hot Spanish Nights, I used my own stallion Bonito as one of the heroes (the four-legged one). The socialite and the bullfighter--when a competitive man and a competitive woman meet, sparks fly.

To view the trailer and read an excerpt, please visit my blog at: http://biancaswanblog.wordpress.com/

Blurb:
Southern vixen Erica DeLongpre journeys to Spain to find the horse of her dreams, never expecting to find a man capable of stirring her sexual awareness. Damián Xeres, a renowned bullfighter is deliciously skilled on a horse--and in bed. But a woman from Damian's past rattles Erica's confidence and threatens the very essence of her trip. With Lucia waiting for the slightest chink in her armor, Erica can't help wonder what lies ahead in those Hot Spanish Nights.

Please return to The Pink Fuzzy Slippers on October 29 for my Release Day Party. There’ll be fun, virtual chocolate strawberries, baked brie, champagne and lots of prizes—all served with a little eye candy!!

PS. I have the talented Angela Anderson to thank for my stunning cover. Let’s hear it for Angela.

Halloween weekend: http:www.thewildrosepress.com