He used to have us in fits in lessons, Sarah. He would suddenly remember some anecdote about a horse we would be riding and we would be nearly falling off with laughter. Luis used to have a restaurant above the indoor school- you can see it on the video, which was rented to a Spanish guy. At the end of the lessons, Luis used to be seen nipping up the stairs to the restaurant, to nick the sugar lumps off the tables, for the horses!
On one occasion, Dr Margaret Cox was looking for a horse and we were at Luis's with some friends of ours from the States- Dr Bill Sanders and his wife, Lynda, and our friend Sarah Pinney. The stallion we were going to see was at Cascais, so Luis borrowed daughter Sofia's people carrier to pack us all in. Honestly by the time we got there, he had regaled us with tales about Nuno Oliveira, who never learned to drive, and Luis used to act as his driver quite often. Luis has a way of telling a tale that is so comical, so innocent, never a hint of malice, and also tells a tale against himself- that our stomachs were nearly knotted by the time we got there. Even my cheeks ached from grinning so much!!
On the way home we had another batch of tales, so our stomachs were even more in knots. But Luis knew a good cafe on the way home' they have such good cakes'- so he parked the people carrier on the other side of the road with hazard lights going- as it was a no parking area- and off we went for coffee and cakes. What a day- we were all exhausted from laughter by the time we got back to Vila Franca!!
Luis was running us back to our hotel one evening, and stopped at a zebra crossing to let a lady, her two children and elderly grandma cross. 'Hmmm' observed Luis, deadpan, as Granny tried to run to catch up her daughter and grandchildren 'she has a good trot'.
Never a dull moment with him, I can tell you!!
