The Andalucians.

I am so  lucky to be married to My husband.  He heard several months ago about the horse show in Jerez.  It features the Andalucian horses, ancestors of the Arab horse breed and several others.  Saturday we went to Jerez to see them perform.  There is a festival in their honor right now so we got the whole picture.  These are the fathers of the Limpizzan Stallions, the ones in that movie I saw when I was a girl, the white ones that dance and do the 'airs above ground'!  Due to wars and other upsets, the Spanish had to go to Austria to relearn the art of training the horses, which they did 50 years ago, but the horse breed was still here and that is essential.  Not all types of horses are strong enough in the hindquarters to do these  performances.  I was going to call them 'tricks'  but this is way more than tricks.  It is a whole art form.

We got to wander the grounds before we went in to the performance.  This horse was being exercised.  Notice there was no lead on the horse.  He just walks fast enough that the poles behind him don't hit him.  Then it stopped and started going the other way and so did he.  Don't want them to get used to just one direction.

 

I was interested that all the windows were round.

I brought my telephoto lens so I snuck a photo of the tack.

This guy was just getting some exercise and extra practice.

These horses hold their feet in the air for a beat or two when they are performing, and will extend their front feet in front as they trot which gives them the look of dancing.

They will also turn their heads to the side as they walk straight forward.  I think that was what he was working on with this horse.



These horses seem to carry their heads  this way naturally.  I was intrigued with the double rein too.  Wish I knew more about how they work.



There!  See how he has his foot in the air?  There is a little pause before he puts it down.  It looks so cool.

I kind of love the brand... with a crown!

I believe this is one of the riders we saw perform.  I love the long fringe on the boots. 

It says 'Andalusian Royal School of Equestrian Art'

This is the crew we brought with us.

Oops, someone is missing!

There he is.  He had to go ask about the lighting instruments and ask what kind of board they were using.  They offered to get him in the back with the horses but he told them there were 7 in our group and that would probably be too much.

 We weren't allowed to take photos during the performance.  That is probably a good thing.  Sometimes I spend so much time trying to get a good photo, I don't just appreciate the program.  This one I most certainly did.  (The seats were mostly full by show time.)
They had a single horse that performed with his rider carrying a long pole which he could rest on the ground and then put one end on the horse's neck as they did turns.  They do almost all of their performance at a collected trot, the horse's neck arched and every move carefully controlled.  This one did some fast gallops and sudden stops though, as part of his routine.  I loved it.
There was also a section done with teams of horses pulling carriages.  I was impressed at how often the horses feet were in sync.
The classic Andaluz Stalion is usually ( but not  always) white or grey, as were most of the ones doing the 'dancing'.  Most of the program was the horses doing complex patterns in their 'floating' trot, just changing leads (which foot comes out first in the trot) on the turns. (They are supposed to have the foot on the inside of the turn as the lead foot)  Sometimes they had them change leads every step.  It looks so cool.  Then they had them changing leads every 3rd step.  They look almost like they are skipping.  Amazing.  You really can't see any of the signals the riders give the horses when they change patterns or even when they turn.  This is all done in time to music.   For the final part of the performance  they have the horses on long leads without riders.  One horse kept that controlled canter or trot but without moving forward! The others  stood on hind legs, did hops on hind legs and then some did the leaps where all 4 feet are off the ground at once.  It is so impressive.  These are all done from a standing start and in perfect control.  The control of both the riders and the horses was what most impressed me, along with the strength and power these horses have.  I loved it.  I felt like I was 13 and 'horse crazy' all over again.  Soo Fun!

After watching those horses, we had to copy them....

The city loves their horses.  Several sculptures celebrate their heritage.

Several of the audience wore their gipsy outfits.

You know they love their horses when the horses pulling tourists around look like this!

I am sure this fair ground looks even cooler at night, but look at all the people parading up and down.  There must have been some sort of informal competition because many people were totally decked out!

The family that rides together...

Every day  people dancing flamenco.



The harnesses have tassels and bells.  Notice the braided tails and that front team is 3 horses...

Even the police have gorgeous Andalucian  horses

They stopped at the cantina for a drink....

We had so much fun.  I love these people.  I especially enjoyed getting to sit and visit with Sister Nielson who is our new office sister.  She is Great! 

Elder D has been wanting to practice driving a manual transmission vehicle so Rod didn't even have to drive. 
Win  Win!

 We love you all!  Thank you for the photos you post, the comments you leave, and the prayers you make on our behalf.  We feel your love and support every day in every thing we do.  You are making a difference for us and for many people here in Spain that you don't even know.  That is the beauty of this amazing church!  There is no limit to the love we share!