28
Mar

The Charreada Challenge – Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico (part 3 of 5)

Posted on March 28th, 2010 :: Posted in Events, Horseback Riding, Mexico, video

Before we take you to a charreada (Mexican rodeo) we need you to forget about rodeos you may have seen in the US or Canada. In Mexico (where rodeo was born), it’s a whole different animal.

For starters, it’s a team sport with each charro (Mexican cowboy) on the team competing on behalf of the team in the event or events in which he excels at the most.

Charreada is a team competition and a bit of a beauty pageant.

After the Mexican Revolution Mexicans began to worry that the charro traditions were being lost so official organizations were formed to foster and govern what it means to be a charro and to keep the charreadas alive. They’ve done a good job and today charros and charreadas are very well respected. This video will show you why:

The first event in a charreada is Cala de Caballo and it’s one of the toughest charreada events to master. Besides the sliding stop (shown below) riders must train their horses to pivot in a tight, fast circle on one back leg. Then do it in the other direction.

The first event of a charreada is Cala de Caballo, a reining and responsiveness challenge that (among other things) requires a horse to gallop at full speed, then slam on the brakes without lifting his back feet for the duration of the sliding stop which is judged on distance and definition.

Charros competing in a charreada are awarded points for graceful and skilled execution, but points can also be taken away for any one of a confounding minefield of infractions in each event.

The second event of a charreada is Piales en Lienzo, or heeling, which involves roping the back legs (heels) of a galloping mustang....

...then roping her to the ground. That smoke you see is the result of heat generated by the rope wound around the saddle horn actually burning through the horn.

Often called the national sport of Mexico, charreada has strict rules about what each competing charro must wear and carry on his saddle in order to participate. Forget even one item and you can be disqualified.

Another essential element is a Mexican saddle, characterized by an over-sized saddle horn. The extra girth is needed to withstand events like Piales en Lienzo during which a wild mare is roped and the rope is then wrapped around the horn which is used to leverage the rope until the mare is brought to the ground.

So much heat is generated by the straining rope that it would burn right through the petite saddle horns used on Western saddles in the US. Even the Mexican mega-horns sometimes need reinforcements. Most charros competing in Piales en Lienzo wrap many layers of twine around their saddle horns before competing as a level of protection between the rope and their saddles.

Our friend Juan Zermeno, a competitive charro and much sought-after horse trainer. Notice how delicately he holds the reins.

The third event of a charreada is Colas en el Lienzo, or Coleadero or steer tailing and it's aptly named in any language: a mounted cowboy at the gallop grabs the tail of a running steer, wraps it around his leg and flips the steer over. Elapsed time: about seven seconds.

A properly tailed steer should end up like this with all four hooves in the air.

Winning teams aren’t awarded any money at the end of a charreada–just bragging rights and, maybe, a trophy.

The fourth event in a charreada is Jineteo de Toro or bull riding. The bulls may be smaller than the ones they ride in the PBR but the hats are bigger.

Charreada events aren’t timed as they are in rodeos in the US and, honestly, sometimes there’s not much action in the action. On the other hand, slow moments give you ample time to go get another cerveza…

The fifth event in a charreada is Terna en el Ruedo or team roping. First the bull is ridden, then it's roped by the back legs then by the front legs. Fancy rope work punctuates this event which is more elegant than fast.

Everyone goes to their local charreadas–crooked old charros, young couples, gorgeous women dressed to the nines and, of course, families and aspiring charros.

Charrito!

The sixth event in a charreada is Jineteo de Yegua or bronc riding.

Probably the most dramatic event in a charreada is Manganas a Pie or forefooting in which a charro on foot ropes the front legs of a galloping wild mare, then uses his own body to stop her and pull her to the ground. They do this by (ready?) wrapping the rope around a part of their own bodies. Usually their thigh or their waist. Some charros, however, wrap the rope around their neck. The finishing flourish involves the charro digging his heels in to stop the mare then throwing himself on the ground to finish the job. It takes skill and guts and a dash of insanity.

The seventh event in a charreada is Manganas a Pie or forefooting which involves more fancy rope work before a charro on foot ropes a wild mare by the forelegs then stops her by wrapping the rope around part of his body and throwing himself on the ground.

The eighth event of a charreada is also called Manganas a Caballo or forefooting, but this time the work is done on horseback not on foot.

The ninth event of a charreada is El Paso de la Muerte, literally the Pass of Death. It involves a charro moving from the bare back of his own horse onto the bare back of a galloping wild mare then riding the bucking mare before dismounting. But you can’t just fall off. In order to earn maximum points (and avoiding losing points for incomplete execution) a charro in this event must land on his feet, Nadia Komenich style.

The ninth event of a charreada is El Paso de la Muerte, literally the Pass of Death. It involves a charro moving from the bare back of his own horse onto the bare back of galloping wild mare then riding the bucking mare before dismounting and (hopefully) landing on his feet for max points.

Mexicans love a fiesta and a charreada is the mother of them all because it

Some charreadas include a tenth event for female charros. Called escaramuzas, the women wear colorful, traditional, many layered dresses called Adelitas and they perform intricate choreographed patterns while riding sidesaddle.

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23
Mar

On Horseback Through History – Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico (part 2 of 5)

Posted on March 23rd, 2010 :: Posted in Friends, Horseback Riding, Mexico, Outdoor

The Mexican state of Jalisco claims to be the birthplace of a few pretty important cornerstones of Mexican culture including Mariachi music and tequila. A lesser known contribution, which can be traced back to Jalisco, is the charro or Mexican cowboy.

Charros and charreadas (Mexican rodeos, which we’ll take you to in an upcoming Lagos de Moreno post) pre-date cowboys and rodeos in the US. It’s true. The unique riding skills and equipment here in Mexico evolved in the 1500s after necessary amendments were made to the riding styles imported when the Spanish invaded (some of their techniques and gear proved a little too prissy for the cattle and the terrain the average charro faces).

Ready to ride in front of beautiful Hacienda Sepulveda.

Charro riding techniques and the western riding techniques that we’re taught in the US are similar in a lot of ways. However, there are differences and though they’re subtle, they’re important–as we quickly learned (sometimes the hard way) when we spent a few days horseback riding around Lagos de Moreno.

1. The horn on the saddle is enormous–think dessert plate. We’ll tell you why in an upcoming trip to the charreada.
2. It’s all in the legs–reining in Mexico is an exquisitely delicate affair. Some riders hold the specially-knotted and weighted reins simply by hooking one finger through them. Uusually the pinky. This was the biggest shift for us since we’re used to horses trained to neck rein fairly heavily.

The Camino Real snakes through the Lagos de Moreno area (and much of Mexico). Sections of this historic road still make great trails.

The terrain and trails we rode on were just as old and different as the reining. Cactus, stone walls, small fields, more cactus, some mesquite, a creek, then more desert. Sometimes we were actually riding on sections of the original Camino Real which was unexpectedly thrilling.

Karen parking her horse during a lunch stop at Hacienda La Labor.

Our destinations were steeped in history too. Each day we set off from either El Ahito, or Hacienda Sepulveda bound for a different hacienda where we met the occupants and enjoyed a long delicious home-cooked lunch and a tour of the generations-old houses. Some were elegant. Some were fortress like. Some had elaborate private chapels. Some were only half-inhabitable. Some contained a museum’s worth of charro history and accessories. All of them were fascinating.

Once we were even met on the trail by the hacienda owner on horseback bearing a bottle of tequila and glasses so we could all sip on a pre-lunch amuse-bouche as we rode the final distance to the hacienda. To call it civilized is an understatement.

The food and the entertainment were both excellent during lunch in the extremely European dining room at Hacienda La Labor.

This aint jump rope. After lunch, intricate traditional charro rope work is expertly demonstrated by the grandsons of Don Jesus (in the background), Mexican cattleman extraordinaire and owner of Hacienda La Labor.

Karen, always happiest on a horse.

Most days we were in the saddle for about six hours. However, one very long day (with a particularly languid lunch) turned into eight hours and we ended up riding back to Hacienda Sepulveda in the dark. And you thought the heavy elk-skin chaps (made by Lena Kissling) and stiff wide-brimmed hats were were wearing were just for show! Nope. Those were the only things between us and an invisible world of eye-gouging, skin-tearing thorns as we rode in the dark through a tightly-packed forest of cactus the size of trees. If this doesn’t teach you to trust your horse (and vice versa) we’re not sure what will.

Days in the saddle are sometimes long but we loved every minute and didn't mind when we returned well after dark one night. Though riding through a tightly-packed forest of cactus the size of trees in the dark was a new experience.

Riding through the signature scrub and cactus that cover the hills and mesas around Lagos de Moreno.

Now’s a good time to mention one additional important difference between the way we’re used to riding in the US and the way people ride in Mexico: spurs. Every rider wears them. We’ve never seen anyone in Mexico kick their horse but we have seen a lot of judicious use of gentle spurs to get big results. A pair of spurs might have helped Karen urge her horse out of a drinking hole before good old Cheese Face (forever more known as Shit Face) decided to lay down with her still on top furiously trying to send a meaningful message to the horse with her spur-less boots.

Karen looking a bit perturbed after her horse tried to roll her in a watering hole.

One of the horses enjoys a sunny rest while we enjoy lunch at Hacienda San Cayetano.

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21
Mar

Hacienda Heaven – Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico (part 1 of 5)

Posted on March 21st, 2010 :: Posted in Friends, Horseback Riding, Mexico

It’s a travel truth that applies even to lifers like us: The more you travel the more likely you are to find the place that makes you want to stop traveling and stay for a while. Or forever. For us, Lagos de Moreno in Jalisco may be that place.

Over the next five posts we’ll do our best to convey the appeal of this sleepy, dusty, little-visited spot in central Mexico. Is it the people? Is it the history? Is it the desert? Is it the horses? Is it the horsemen (and women)? Is it the haciendas? Is it the pride? Is it the tequila? Is it the fact that there’s not a single word about Lagos de Moreno in our guide book?

We start our little Lagos de Moreno-arama in the very first place we saw with the very first people we met when we first visited Lagos in 2009. What was meant to be a brief stay turned into almost three weeks thanks to the hospitality, peacefulness, wisdom and grace of Jorge “Pancho” Serrano Zermeno and Lena Kissling and Hacienda El Ahito. We’ve been drawn back to Lagos de Moreno since that first visit and every time it gets harder and harder to leave. Here’s why.

Hacienda El Ahito was built many generations ago by Pancho's ancestors and has been in his family ever since.

El Ahito is not one of those luxuriously restored haciendas (we’ll get to some of those in upcoming Lagos de Moreno posts). The floors tilt a bit, the hinges creek, the paint peels. But it all adds up to a laid back, artistic style that brings to mind cowboy hippies, if such things existed.

El Ahito is also a working hacienda where registered Charolaise and Simmental cattle and registered Appaloosa horses are raised. It’s also Pancho and Lena’s home and home to an aging caretaker and his family members who have lived on this piece of Mexico for their entire lives. Nothing happens on the sprawling, cactus-covered El Ahito ranch without one of them knowing about it. It is as if the dust and the lake and the fences and the mesquite are connected to each of them.

Hey Pancho, move your ass!

Unless he’s in trouble (a frequent condition) no one calls Jorge by his real name, preferring to stick with Pancho. It’s a nickname he picked up in Wyoming where he spent a few years working on the Willow Creek Ranch and where he met Lena, who had left her native Switzerland to go work at the guest ranch.

We’ll let you know as soon as the devilishly “imaginative” Pancho tells us the real story behind his nickname. For now, just believe us when we tell you that it’s fitting.

That's why he's called Pancho and you're not.

In late 2005 Pancho and Lena packed up their favorite horses and made a road trip that impresses even us: they drove thousands of miles in December from Wyoming to central Mexico pulling horse trailers.

Once back home at El Ahito Pancho and Lena started building their dream and now they welcome guests and take riders from around the world into the wonderful landscapes of Jalisco. In the process they also bring them into the world of El Ahito, teaching you how to ride more like a Mexican charro (cowboy)–which is surprisingly different from the western riding we’re taught in the US–and how to slow down and appreciate, well, everything including the fact that you still can’t persuade your horse to move sideways along a gate so you can open and close it without dismounting.

Lena and Karen pushin' cows.

Pancho grabs a little escapee from the roundup.

Fittingly, the word ahito means satisfaction and as long as you’re drawing breath you should be able to find it here. It’s in Lena’s delicious scrambled eggs mixed with bits of luscious mango and chiles. It’s in the way their dog Max is dying for you to throw him a stick, then can’t seem to find it even though its right under his nose. It’s in the daily fashion show put on by the hacienda’s peacocks, including a few stately albinos. It’s in the way Pancho uses one of his many enormous hand-crafted pocket knives to slice the most delicate slivers of his beloved firey peppers before laying them onto hunks of pineapple and watching (with a Cheshire Cat grin on his face) as you pop it into your mouth. It’s in the sound of Lena and Pancho’s leather working tools as they whoosh and thump through the Zen-y stages of elegantly hand-tooling belts and handbags and bridles and saddles and chaps (leave room in your luggage).

At El Ahito, what’s normal is extraordinary. If you want to go see for yourself shoot Pancho and Lena an email at indianboymx at yahoo.com (allow some time for a response, they’ve both got far better things to do than check their email). We’re also working on a web site for them, so be on the lookout for that as well.