The Seat of Presence

Free the Seat. Clear the Mind.

A 5-Day 6 nights Immersive Classical Riding & Wellness Retreat in Portugal

Join us for an intimate retreat at Lusitano Heritage, where the Lusitano horse becomes both your mirror and your muse. This programme blends world-class classical riding with mind-body integration practices to help you soften the seat, free old patterns, and rediscover joy in the saddle.

10 small-group riding lessons (1:2 coach ratio) on well-schooled Lusitano horses

• Daily wellness sessions with Ian Lopez: breathwork, tai chi, journaling, and confidence practices

• Your own personal journal an take away plan

• 6 nights at an Ericeira Hotel

• 5 organic lunches plus daily refreshments

• Transfers between hotel,

• Last night dinner

Wellness Guide

This retreat is co-led with Ian Lopez, Tai Chi and Qigong teacher, wellness strategist, and board-certified health coach. With roots in the Yang-style Tai Chi form and the lineage of Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing, Ian brings decades of experience in mindful movement, nutrition, and breathwork. His teaching focuses on song — deep relaxation that unlocks strength, softness, and resilience — helping riders connect more deeply to themselves and their horses.

Sample Itinerary

• Day 0 – Arrive in the Body: Welcome Grounding breathwork, sensory walk

• Day 1 – Soften the Seat: Tai chi, balance-focused riding, journaling, Bodywork, riding

• Day 2 – Ride the Rhythm: Flow in the saddle, bodywork and nutrition talk, riding

• Day 3– Nourish the Core: Stability and receptivity, gratitude lunch, building muscle, riding

• Day 4 – Integrate & Absorb: breathwork final rides in presence, synthesis, reflection

• Day 5 – The Seat I Carry Home: Breathwork, final rides, celebration dinner

A master of classical dressage and 35 equestrian practice with 25 of those years- veteran of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art, Nuno is known for his calm precision and sharp eye. His teaching helps riders find harmony, balance, and lightness with the Lusitano.

Founder of Lusitano Heritage, Teresa blends her deep equestrian knowledge with warmth and vision. She ensures every retreat is more than a holiday — it’s a soulful immersion in Portugal’s equestrian culture.

Tai Chi · Balance-Focused Riding · Journaling · Bodywork · Riding

We begin by softening the seat — the doorway to true connection.
In Tai Chi and movement practice, you’ll feel your body settle, your breath lengthen, and your awareness sharpen.

Like in our mindfulness work, today is about meeting yourself where you are, without judgement.
A softened seat comes not from trying harder, but from letting go — allowing tension to dissolve so the dialogue with your horse becomes lighter, clearer, and kinder.

Through balance-focused riding, journaling, and bodywork, we start to attune to the subtle messages our horses offer… and to the quiet intelligence of our own bodies.

Flow in the Saddle · Bodywork · rest/recovery the circadian rhythm · Riding

Today we explore rhythm — the pulse beneath every movement, breath, and intention.
As in mindfulness, rhythm is where flow begins: the moment when breath and movement merge and the mind becomes quiet.

In the saddle, we learn to follow the horse’s rhythm instead of managing it, finding softness in motion and harmony in timing. Explore the importance of the circadian rhythm how vital rest and recovery is to our well being

The result is a ride that feels intuitive, fluid, and deeply alive.

Classical Riding Lessons

2 semi-private lessons per day with Nuno Cavaco (1:2 coach ratio) on Lusitano horses, with feedback to refine your seat, balance, and connection.

Stability · Receptivity · Gratitude Lunch · Building Muscle · Riding

Presence becomes powerful when the core is stable, responsive, and open.
Today we explore the relationship between strength and receptivity — how a supple, supported core allows the seat to become steady without stiffness, receptive without collapse. A nourishing nutrition talk supports awareness from the inside out, reminding us that presence begins with how we care for our body.

Just as we teach in our mindfulness writing:

Strength is not force; it is the calm centre that allows everything else to move with ease.

After a gratitude lunch, we explore how mindful strength-building enhances the rider’s posture, confidence, and ability to feel the smallest shifts in their horse.
Riding sessions bring it all together with stability, softness, and deep listening.

Breathwork · Final Rides in Presence · Integration · Reflection

This is the day the pieces start to weave together.
Breathwork reconnects you to the inner still point — the place where presence lives.

Your riding today focuses on embodied clarity:

• feeling instead of forcing

• guiding instead of correcting

• allowing instead of anticipating

We integrate lessons from the week, absorbing what has shifted in the body, mind, and seat.
Reflection practices help turn these insights into lasting awareness — echoes you can carry back to your everyday riding.

Breathwork · Final Rides · Celebration Dinner

Our final morning anchors everything you’ve opened, felt, learned, and released.
With breathwork and a final rides, you experience the seat you have cultivated — softer, clearer, more attuned, and deeply connected.

As our mindfulness articles express, presence is not something you “achieve”; it is something you return to again and again.
This final session helps you understand how to carry this Seat of Presence into your home training, your daily life, and your relationship with every horse you meet.

We close with a celebration dinner — honouring the horses, the land, the journey, and the transformation each rider has made.