The word "rodeo" tends to evoke associations in the western genre: jeans and lasso, angry bulls and unbridled mustangs, on which any decent cowboy should hold on for at least eight seconds. All this is really present in the American version to this day. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks very different.
Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them on the go. There is no milking of wild cows, no spectacular lasso throws, no other picture tricks performed by dashing American cowboys in the program. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances are always held in pairs - must stop a bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guaso - also look more modest: they do not wear pointed boots, jeans and neckerchiefs. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned chamanto cape - something between a poncho and a blanket.
In the Chilean rodeo, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off in a round arena with a special fence, in which a narrow "loophole" is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take up a position that should not change during the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. The bull, clamped in this way "in a vise", in no case should break out of them. Raising clouds of sand, this tightly knit trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the barrier and “roll out” onto the “crescent”.
Then one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, preventing him from slowing down or moving back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the pursued animal, and then in a certain place direct it with its chest directly at the bull, literally filling it up on a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That, in fact, is all. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: “In a Mexican rodeo, such a half-ton bull is “filled up” by foot participants with their bare hands ...”
But not everything is so simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, but the ability to work “in a bundle”, precise movements to the millimeter and virtuoso possession of a horse. It is not so much the result that is important as the details of execution. Judges give points (from 0 to 4 for one "run"), depending on which part of the bull's body was hit by the horse's chest. The highest score - 4 points - is received by the participants when the horse knocks the bull down with a blow to the back of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position, the animal is more likely to get ahead and elude the blow.
A pair can score a maximum of 13 points for a faultless entry (three runs of 4 points each plus an additional point for a correct entry into the arena). Points in the Chilean rodeo are taken off much more readily than they are given: for the wrong turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the prescribed place, and for a thousand other things. So 13 points is a rarity. However, points began to be counted only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple count of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means "cattle drive".
Features of national cattle breeding
For a long time, grazing livestock in the boundless, underdeveloped and very turbulent expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. They were engaged in special people, who were called differently in different parts of it: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guaso. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner's herd to graze, and then drive it back.
In the summer, the Chilean guaso took cows from the sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. Clumsy animals now and then strove to fight off the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherds-riders made it possible to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, by winter the guaso lowered their herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and difficult work awaited them. Having driven the cattle to one place, it was necessary to sort it by owners, put brands on the offspring, and castrate young calves. It was called rodeo.
On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great horseman Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza ordered that the rodeo be held in the main metropolitan square and on strictly defined days - during the feast in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city gathered to watch this spectacle. The hard work of the guaso was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. So the pastoral practice turned into a mass holiday, and the governor Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "father of the Chilean rodeo."
Roughly the same thing happened with the neighbors, and today the rodeo exists in one form or another in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them, the shepherds developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground, grabbing it by the tail while galloping, Mexican riders are able to change on the go to an unbroken mare, in Cuba and the USA they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.
In the 80s of the 19th century, barbed wire patented in 1868 began its victorious march on both continents. This invention drastically changed the American way of life. On the Great Plains, in the pampas of South America and in the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures came into use, which made traditional pastoral activities meaningless. Cowboys, gauchos and guaso were out of work. The decline of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile, the word "guaso" began to refer to any peasant. And the rodeo holiday continued to be a massive and sometimes the only affordable entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.
About horses
An obligatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence, was a demonstration of horse dressage. Those describe the eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other tricks "for evaluation". Moreover, the criteria for this assessment here are special. In the United States, the cowboy style of riding even became the basis for an independent equestrian sport - the "western". Chilean riders are not too fond of the American style, opposing their own school to it. And their horses are also special, their own.
According to local horse breeders, Chilean horses trace their genealogy from the very 75 individuals of Spanish blood that crossed the Andes along with the discoverer of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia. An argument in favor of the purity of this breed is that, unlike in other American countries, here the horses were never kept in herds, which prevented the mixing of breeds.
However, when in 1992, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Chilean guaso undertook a symbolic trip to the former metropolis to demonstrate the art of rodeo, the Spaniards did not recognize “their” horses. They seemed very small to them: when they were taken away, they seemed to be bigger. Indeed, the height of a purebred “Chilean” does not exceed 142 centimeters at the withers (for which, in some classifications, it is referred to as a pony).
Short-legged and broad-chested, Chilean horses are ideally suited for mountain conditions. Thanks to their thick skin, they are not afraid of the cold and are extremely hardy. It is to this endurance that the Chilean cavalry owes its success during the Pacific War at the end of the 19th century, when it crossed the waterless Atacama Desert. Later, scientific and technological progress relieved people of the need to use these animals for household and other needs, and the breed was in danger of extinction.
The grateful military men saved the Chileans. General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, when he became president of Chile in 1927, included a special clause in the rules of the rodeo: only Chilean breed horses must participate in at least two races. Today, the rule of breed purity is even stricter - horses that are not registered with the National Horse Breeders Association, which since 1946 has included all purebred "Chileans", cannot take part in the Chilean rodeo at all.
The publication
At the beginning of the 20th century, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Chile's independence, celebrated in 1910, the country's leadership turned to the rodeo in search of the roots and symbols of national identity. The uncouth and rough guaso was "combed" and released into the arena in the central metropolitan park named after Cousinho (now O'Higgins Park). The townspeople liked the idea, and the rodeo became fashionable, and most importantly, patriotic entertainment. Since 1931, the best rodeo rider (according to the Gil Letheiler club) has been entrusted with the most honorable mission - the opening of a military parade on Independence Day. Moreover, before the start of the passage of troops, he personally presents the president of the country with a cow horn filled with chicha.
In the wake of the revival of the glorious traditions of rodeo in the country, several dozen arenas were built, the main one in the city of Rancagua in 1942. Since then, it is on it that the sports season (from September to April) annually ends with the All-Chilean Rodeo Championship. But they did not stop there: on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee, by Decree No. 269, declared rodeo a national sport.
At the same time, the rodeo was strictly regulated and, for reasons of political correctness, women were allowed to participate in it. And if, until recently, women's participation was limited to the beauty contest "Queen of the Rodeo", then in 2009, for the first time in history, the title of champion was won by the rider Elia Alvarez, who was paired with a man.
The appearance of women in the rodeo gave the masculine national sport some glamor - the costumes of riders for the championship were developed by the well-known fashion designer Milarai Palma in Chile, whose outfits are flaunted by local TV presenters and participants in beauty contests. And men's chamantos have become national clothes par excellence, which is now customary to present as a souvenir to distinguished guests.
However, Chamantos still look most appropriate on broad-shouldered guaso in combination with a straw hat, a red wide belt, knee-length leather leggings and long shiny spurs. They made such an impression on Darwin at one time that he wrote: “The main pride of the guaso is its ridiculously large spurs. I measured one, and it turned out that the wheel was 6 inches in diameter, and the wheel itself had over 30 spines. Stirrups - the same scale; each carved from a rectangular piece of wood, hollowed out, but still weighing 4 pounds (about 1.5 kg)." Massive wooden stirrups, similar to shoes without a heel and covered with highly artistic carvings, are still the pride of the guaso. But there are problems with the spurs. This attribute causes protests from animal advocates: horses suffer greatly from it. But, despite all the protests, the rodeo does not lose, but only gains supporters. In recent years, it has attracted even more attention in its homeland than traditionally the most spectacular sport - football.
Photo by Rodrigo Gomez Rovira
Cowboy (cowboy) (English cowboy, from cow - cow and boy - guy) - the name used in the Wild West of the United States in relation to cattle herders. The era of cowboys began in 1865, when it was necessary to herd giant herds of feral bulls, mainly in Texas. This era ended about twenty years later. About a third of the cowboys were blacks who gained freedom after the Civil War, but had neither work nor property. Another third of the cowboys were Mexicans and a third were descendants of Europeans.
Cowboys drove cattle from pastoral areas to the nearest railroad station. At night, during parking, they patrolled around the perimeter, calling to each other through couplets, one started, the other on the opposite side finished. This is how cowboy songs, cowboy poetry were born.
The most interesting thing began when they returned with the money they had earned. The authorities from the towns along their route hired bandits to protect the population from the wild cowboys. In addition to noisy "festivities", cowboys in their free time arranged competitions - who better stay on a wild horse, on a bull from a herd, who throws a lasso better and whose horse is better educated. Over time, these competitions were “overgrown” with rules, divided into disciplines, and closer to the middle of the 20th century, Western sport was formed.
After the 1930s, a nostalgic, glorifying take on cowboys came into vogue in America. It is reflected in the country music style, comics, advertising, clothing, cinema (see Western). Jeans, a cowboy hat, boots, a vest, a plaid shirt with buttons with a double yoke (western yokes), a lasso, a revolver are considered indispensable attributes of a cowboy.
Modern Texas cowboys (USA).
Other American English names for cowboys include cowpoke, cowhand, cowherd, and cowpuncher.
Cowpunchers, named after men wearing hats, wore covers from thorny thickets (chaps, chapparajas), had short lassoes and drove cattle into railroad cars. They operated in New Mexico and Texas.
And in our time, real cowboys involved in the breeding of cattle and horses can be found in the United States on a ranch. Some of the cowboy workers also take part in rodeo competitions. Working cowboy horses and working cowboys also take part in competitions for the best working horse - Versatility Ranch Horse].
Historically, cowboys have been and remain part of the American spiritual culture. The first cowboy church was organized in Waxahachee, Texas. Now the cowboy Christian movement is united in the American Association of Cowboy Churches. There is practically no research on Christian cowboys in Russian. This topic was opened in 2008 by an article by the American bureau of Christian magazine.
In South America, in the conditions of the pampas (analogous to the prairie), in the 19th century there was a social stratum similar to a cowboy: the gaucho. Gauchos appeared much earlier (XVI-XVII centuries), they were mostly mestizos by origin, but in the 20th century, gaucho and cowboy became similar popular stereotypes. This was especially noticeable in the first half of the 20th century, when Argentina was a country of first magnitude and Argentine cinema competed with Hollywood.
1. Interesting facts about cowboys
The cowboy phenomenon, from which this image was mythologised, as a worker-driver who drove beef cattle from the pastures of the West to Kansas railroad stations for their further transportation to cities in the eastern United States, lasted only 30 years, from about 1865 to 1895. After these 30 years, the cowboy profession became more localized.
There was only one president in American history who was a cowboy by trade. This is Theodore Roosevelt. Early in his career, from 1883 to 1886, he worked as a cowboy.
The unique role of the cowboy myth is associated not with history, but with the psychology of America, which Remington was able to portray. His best work has become an American icon and won a seat in the Oval Office.
The America where Chekhov's Chechevitsyn dreamed of escaping was a country where "they drink gin instead of tea", where "the earth trembles when a herd of buffalo runs across the pampas", where "mustangs kick and neigh".
Mine Reed discovered all this for Russian children, and westerns for American adults. Long before they appeared not only in films, but even in books, artists, or rather sculptors, took up the image of the Wild West. The Bronze Age of the Western, which preceded paper and celluloid, became the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Unlike the monumental sculpture that adorns (or intimidates) squares and gardens, the bronze figurines were chamber-sized. Allowing a relatively inexpensive reproduction of the original, they turned out to be an indispensable part of a decent environment in American apartments of the 19th century. Like birds in a cage, such sculptures lived not outside, but inside, representing the domesticated part of virgin nature. Each composition served as a desktop memorial to the West with its Indians, bison, cowboys and freedom to the horizon.
This myth differed from Tchechevitsyn's America in that it more or less corresponded to reality. That is why it was so difficult for people from the Old World to capture it. The masters who had gone through the European (usually Italian) school did not know the language suitable for describing the fresh reality, not yet trampled by art, of another continent that seemed to have fallen from the sky. Faced with a new challenge, the artists were forced to retreat into the distant past and dress up the Wild West in antique attire.
“Having discovered America,” announced art, “we set off back in our own history. The Far West is a tunnel into the past. Through it we can fall to the origins of our world. The Indians are the Achaeans of the Iliad. Powerful, fearless and sad, like all epic heroes, they again leave the arena of history. The task of the American artist is the same as that of Homer: to capture the face of a vanishing world as a warning to future generations. It must be admitted that the sculpture did not cope with this task. Its Indians are more often reminiscent of museums than of the prairies. Perfect as the gods of antiquity, their hair in Renaissance fashion, they shoot like Apollo, hunt like Artemis, fight like Achilles, and die like Hector.
Better than the natives, European sculptors succeeded in the animals of the New World, especially bison. And it is clear why: they struck the imagination. Once, when I was driving through the upstate New York, I happened to see steep snow-covered hills trudging along the fence of a farm that was trying to breed them for meat. Up close and in the open air, the bison seemed like prehistoric creatures. Like dinosaurs in a barn, they didn't fit into agriculture. This is how the sculpture depicted them. Discarding sleek antique models, the artist created an expressionistic portrait of the Indian West, to which the shaggy mountains of bison served as a temple and idol.
Only having exterminated native America, the country discovered new heroes for itself - cowboys. Theodore Roosevelt was the most famous of them, although few people were less suitable for this role. Coming from an old Dutch family, the future president was born in New York, on 14th Street. In this house, which has become a museum, everything betrays a well-established, respectable, quite bourgeois everyday life: crystal, a piano, a bust of Plato. Roosevelt, however, nurturing his political ambitions, went west and started a ranch. A stranger in this environment, he suffered from ridicule: because of his glasses, he was called the "four-eyed cowboy." Defending dignity, Roosevelt participated in cowboy duels. But even having achieved recognition in the West, he carefully guarded the secret of the 20-kilogram chest where he kept his favorite books. It is unlikely that real cowboys would approve of the habit of reading the same Iliad at night.
Carefully choosing his mask, Roosevelt fell in love with her. One of the first to create literary westerns, he announced that it is in cowboys that the ideal character of an American is embodied: independence of behavior, independence in judgment, stubborn persistence in achieving a goal, the ability to survive, relying only on oneself.
The first cowboys appeared in Texas at the beginning of the 19th century, when there, as, indeed, now, there were many free pastures for cattle. Experienced riders, usually Mexicans, mulattos or blacks, were hired to drive huge herds. For every herd of 2,500 cows, there were a dozen cowboys who led a difficult nomadic life that seemed romantic only to East Coast city dwellers.
At first, there was nothing specifically American about the cowboy figure. The same character in similar conditions arose in South America, in the endless pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. These are gaucho shepherds with their colorful folklore and peculiar attire (ponchos, soft boots, a bright belt with a vessel for mate tea fastened to it). Moreover, there were cowboys in the Old World. I saw them on the southern outskirts of France, in the Camargue. In this still sparsely populated region of the salt marshes of the mouth of the Rhone, wild white horses, direct descendants of the prehistoric horse, have been preserved. These European mustangs are ridden by Provençal riders who call themselves "guardiens". They consider themselves the first cowboys to export this look to the New World, along with all its trappings, including the famous blue jeans.
In other words, the unique role of the cowboy myth is connected not with history, but with the psychology of America, which the most famous artist of the West, Frederick Remington, managed to depict in textbook sculptures. His finest work has become an American icon and won a spot in the Oval Office of the White House.
Most of all, Ronald Reagan liked this half-meter composition. An excellent rider, he knew how to appreciate the bronze dance of a man with a horse, which the artist himself called "The Bronco Rider". In semi-Mexican cowboy slang, "bronco" is the word for a horse that has not yet known the bridle. The same can be said about a cowboy riding a stallion. Lean and bony, they are similar even in appearance. Both of them are caught by the author at the moment of dynamic equilibrium, which can end in the fall of both.
An awkward pose for a sculpture reveals the hidden meaning of the masterpiece. The metaphor of the Wild West stands on two legs, and both are equine. If the bronze Indians are elegiac (the decline of the race), then the cowboys live in a short present, in an intermediate state between reckless will and inevitable civilization. No wonder the horse reared up.
The horse is one of the most ancient symbols of the unconscious, the elemental. Only by curbing this mighty and obstinate beginning, a person subdues the destructive forces both in the external and in the inner world - in himself. Exceptional geographical circumstances - the youthfulness of American destiny - overturned the archaic myth into modern history. In its context, the myth of the cowboy plays out in the vastness of the Wild West the mystery of the birth of order from chaos. As every western fan knows, lonely cowboys make the best sheriffs.
But in addition to the historiosophical interpretation, the plot of the “man in the saddle” also has a very specific, everyday meaning. The sculpture by Remington, who studied cowboy life in Montana and Kansas, tells everything you wanted to know about horseback riding but didn't dare to try.
I realized this only when I got acquainted with the Icelandic mustangs. Introduced 1000 years ago by the Vikings, they never left the islands. In the summer, Icelandic horses live unattended in the mountains, in the winter they languish in the stables and are happy to get out for a walk - on their own terms, not ours. Without knowing all this, I climbed into the saddle for the first time and immediately regretted it. From the outside and on the screen, it seems to you that you can hold on to the reins, driving an animal like a bicycle. In fact, the harness is needed in order to connect a person with an animal, rather, an electrical or telepathic connection. It allows the rider to transmit impulses that in my case were exhausted by fear. Instantaneously realizing this, the horse went at a gallop and into the river, which did not freeze only because of the furious current. Enjoying their freedom, both paid no attention to me and did the right thing, because I still did not manage to find out how to intervene in the process, let alone stop it. Left to myself, I tried to just sit in the saddle. It was as difficult as dancing in a canoe. Any movement caused an unforeseen reaction with equally dangerous consequences. Through horror (and thanks to it!) it dawned on me that horse riding is not violence, but a symbiosis of two wills. The parity of a man with a horse is not harmony, but a unifying struggle, like poles in a magnet.
The moment of truth brought me back alive to the stable and helped me deal with the bronze western.
The cowboy needs a wild horse to harness the energy of freedom, and the sculptor needs to capture the zenith of the West. Still wild, it attracted those who civilized it and killed it. The brief respite of progress gave us a chance to relive the excitement of the prehistoric struggle with nature. A cowboy on a horse, like a matador without spectators, fights her alone and on equal terms.
The excitement of this duel feeds the world with raw emotions for the second century. But if the myth of the cowboys turned out to be durable, then they themselves did not last long. The railroad and the barbed wire had taken their jobs, except, of course, the show business job.
According to the writer Nadezhda Teffi, the pampas were famous for their forests. And J. J. Rousseau, who proclaimed the famous slogan "Back to nature", is sometimes jokingly paraphrased: "Back to the pampas!" Tempting pictures of the exotic landscape are also drawn by another famous character - the literary and cinematic Ostap Bender. In his pampas, “buffaloes run…”, baobabs grow and serious passions boil between a pirate, a Creole woman and a cowboy. So, what does pampas mean? Why are they unique?
Mysterious Pampas of the Southern Hemisphere
There is only one place on our planet that combines a flat terrain and a subtropical coastal climate, thanks to which this spacious steppe territory has become attractive to the colonizers of South America. This so-called pampa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Andes, covered with grassy vegetation. On the map, the pampas are a solid green spot on the territory of modern states - Argentina, Uruguay and a small part of Brazil.
Origin and meaning of the word pampas
What does the word mean pampas? Dictionaries give somewhat different interpretations of its etymology. For example, the pre-revolutionary edition of A. N. Chudinov’s “Dictionary of Foreign Words” traces it back to the Peruvian language, in which it denotes a plain. Modern works of linguists and lexicographers are unanimous in their opinion: pampas is a Spanish word, a form of the noun "steppe". And in Spanish, perhaps, it appeared as a borrowing from the language of the Quechua Indians. Thus the meaning of the word pampas the following: this is the name of a geographical object in the subtropics of South America, a combination of areas on the plain, steppes, salt marshes. These expanses are beautiful in their own way: for most of the year, the pampas look like virgin land covered with thick tall grass. Apparently, this is why the youth jargon rethought this space in its own way. The expression "go to the pampas" has two meanings: "get drunk, lose your head" and "get out of sight, get lost for others, leave society."
And the popular Internet resource "Electronic Pampas" contains excellent literary works for children (of all ages!). What are pampas in this case? This is a symbol of endless scope for creativity, games, adventure and fantasy!
The history of the conquest of the pampas
Before the invasion of the Spanish colonialists in the 16th century, life in the picturesque pampas flowed peacefully and moderately for thousands of years, in harmony with nature. The local population - the Quechua Indians - fought hard against the conquerors, but, despite fierce resistance, European values nevertheless began to be implanted, and the local natives were exterminated. What is the pampas for the Indians? The vast expanses of the steppes, the unique natural world, fertile lands... In the mythology of the indigenous population of South America, the pampas symbolized the infinity of life and at the same time its frailty, the insignificance of one living being before eternity.
Over the past centuries of development of the pampas, the local flora has become completely different, because for the European colonialists these steppes were another source of enrichment and future prosperity. The Spaniards brought with them not only the warlike spirit and traditions of agriculture, but also mustang horses, which had not been in South America until then. Now they also personify the spirit of the Pampas: grazing herds, the edge of the Andes, grass on the slopes and a wide flat expanse ... And somewhere, along a well-known path, a gaucho rider, a descendant of the Spaniards and Indians, is galloping. Modern Criollo horses are also the feral descendants of those legendary Spanish Baguales.
Nature and climate of the pampas
What pampas are, one who had to play and hide in tall grass as a child will understand. Only here it is endless boundless expanses covered with cereal herbaceous plants (feather grass, bearded vulture, fescue).
The territory of modern pampas occupies about 750,000 square meters. km, this is slightly less than the area of Turkey. But this does not mean that the steppes in the La Plata basin are completely overgrown with herbs. Closer to the Brazilian Highlands, the climate becomes more continental, arid, mixed vegetation begins, resembling a forest-steppe with islands of evergreen shrubs and man-made forest plantations (maple, poplar).
reserved corner
What is the pampas for the modern inhabitants of South America? A significant part of the land is occupied by farmland with crops of cereals and other crops, farms and pastures for livestock (especially in the Argentine part). But the residents also care about the well-being of the reserves - after all, human activity must be restrained, otherwise, transforming the world around him, he may end up in the desert. In the hard-to-reach corners of the pampas, far from the roads, along the banks of the rivers, untouched islands of virgin nature have been preserved.
The fauna of the pampa is made up of unique representatives of the fauna of our planet - pampas deer, rodents of nutria and viscacha, Patagonian mara, ostrich nandu, armadillos, scarlet ibis.
Trees do not grow in the pampas; white mesquites (caldens) are rarely found in the foothills.
Cortaderia has become world famous. Due to its unpretentiousness and good adaptability to environmental changes, perennials began to be used as an ornamental plant. Cortaderia bushes reach a height of three meters, they are long-lived - they can grow up to 40 years and even longer.
The word "rodeo" tends to evoke associations in the western genre: jeans and lasso, angry bulls and unbridled mustangs, on which any decent cowboy should hold on for at least eight seconds. All this is really present in the American version to this day. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks very different.
Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them on the go. There is no milking of wild cows, no spectacular lasso throws, no other picture tricks performed by dashing American cowboys in the program. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances are always held in pairs - must stop a bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guaso - also look more modest: they do not wear pointed boots, jeans and neckerchiefs. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned chamanto cape - something between a poncho and a blanket.
In the Chilean rodeo, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off in a round arena with a special fence, in which a narrow "loophole" is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take up a position that should not change during the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. The bull, clamped in this way "in a vise", in no case should break out of them. Raising clouds of sand, this tightly knit trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the barrier and “roll out” onto the “crescent”.
Then one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, preventing him from slowing down or moving back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the pursued animal, and then in a certain place direct it with its chest directly at the bull, literally filling it up on a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That, in fact, is all. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: “In a Mexican rodeo, such a half-ton bull is “filled up” by foot participants with their bare hands ...”
But not everything is so simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, but the ability to work “in a bundle”, precise movements to the millimeter and virtuoso possession of a horse. It is not so much the result that is important as the details of execution. Judges give points (from 0 to 4 for one "run"), depending on which part of the bull's body was hit by the horse's chest. The highest score - 4 points - is received by the participants when the horse knocks the bull down with a blow to the back of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position, the animal is more likely to get ahead and elude the blow.
A pair can score a maximum of 13 points for a faultless entry (three runs of 4 points each plus an additional point for a correct entry into the arena). Points in the Chilean rodeo are taken off much more readily than they are given: for the wrong turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the prescribed place, and for a thousand other things. So 13 points is a rarity. However, points began to be counted only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple count of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means "cattle drive".
Features of national cattle breeding
For a long time, grazing livestock in the boundless, underdeveloped and very turbulent expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. They were engaged in special people, who were called differently in different parts of it: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guaso. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner's herd to graze, and then drive it back.
In the summer, the Chilean guaso took cows from the sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. Clumsy animals now and then strove to fight off the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherds-riders made it possible to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, by winter the guaso lowered their herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and difficult work awaited them. Having driven the cattle to one place, it was necessary to sort it by owners, put brands on the offspring, and castrate young calves. It was called rodeo.
On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great horseman Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza ordered that the rodeo be held in the main metropolitan square and on strictly defined days - during the feast in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city gathered to watch this spectacle. The hard work of the guaso was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. So the pastoral practice turned into a mass holiday, and the governor Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "father of the Chilean rodeo."
Roughly the same thing happened with the neighbors, and today the rodeo exists in one form or another in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them, the shepherds developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground, grabbing it by the tail while galloping, Mexican riders are able to change on the go to an unbroken mare, in Cuba and the USA they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.
In the 80s of the 19th century, barbed wire patented in 1868 began its victorious march on both continents. This invention drastically changed the American way of life. On the Great Plains, in the pampas of South America and in the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures came into use, which made traditional pastoral activities meaningless. Cowboys, gauchos and guaso were out of work. The decline of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile, the word "guaso" began to refer to any peasant. And the rodeo holiday continued to be a massive and sometimes the only affordable entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.
About horses
An obligatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence, was a demonstration of horse dressage. Those describe the eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other tricks "for evaluation". Moreover, the criteria for this assessment here are special. In the United States, the cowboy style of riding even became the basis for an independent equestrian sport - the "western". Chilean riders are not too fond of the American style, opposing their own school to it. And their horses are also special, their own.
According to local horse breeders, Chilean horses trace their genealogy from the very 75 individuals of Spanish blood that crossed the Andes along with the discoverer of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia. An argument in favor of the purity of this breed is that, unlike in other American countries, here the horses were never kept in herds, which prevented the mixing of breeds.
However, when in 1992, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Chilean guaso undertook a symbolic trip to the former metropolis to demonstrate the art of rodeo, the Spaniards did not recognize “their” horses. They seemed very small to them: when they were taken away, they seemed to be bigger. Indeed, the height of a purebred “Chilean” does not exceed 142 centimeters at the withers (for which, in some classifications, it is referred to as a pony).
Short-legged and broad-chested, Chilean horses are ideally suited for mountain conditions. Thanks to their thick skin, they are not afraid of the cold and are extremely hardy. It is to this endurance that the Chilean cavalry owes its success during the Pacific War at the end of the 19th century, when it crossed the waterless Atacama Desert. Later, scientific and technological progress relieved people of the need to use these animals for household and other needs, and the breed was in danger of extinction.
The grateful military men saved the Chileans. General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, when he became president of Chile in 1927, included a special clause in the rules of the rodeo: only Chilean breed horses must participate in at least two races. Today, the rule of breed purity is even stricter - horses that are not registered with the National Horse Breeders Association, which since 1946 has included all purebred "Chileans", cannot take part in the Chilean rodeo at all.
The publication
At the beginning of the 20th century, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Chile's independence, celebrated in 1910, the country's leadership turned to the rodeo in search of the roots and symbols of national identity. The uncouth and rough guaso was "combed" and released into the arena in the central metropolitan park named after Cousinho (now O'Higgins Park). The townspeople liked the idea, and the rodeo became fashionable, and most importantly, patriotic entertainment. Since 1931, the best rodeo rider (according to the Gil Letheiler club) has been entrusted with the most honorable mission - the opening of a military parade on Independence Day. Moreover, before the start of the passage of troops, he personally presents the president of the country with a cow horn filled with chicha.
In the wake of the revival of the glorious traditions of rodeo in the country, several dozen arenas were built, the main one in the city of Rancagua in 1942. Since then, it is on it that the sports season (from September to April) annually ends with the All-Chilean Rodeo Championship. But they did not stop there: on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee, by Decree No. 269, declared rodeo a national sport.
At the same time, the rodeo was strictly regulated and, for reasons of political correctness, women were allowed to participate in it. And if, until recently, women's participation was limited to the beauty contest "Queen of the Rodeo", then in 2009, for the first time in history, the title of champion was won by the rider Elia Alvarez, who was paired with a man.
The appearance of women in the rodeo gave the masculine national sport some glamor - the costumes of riders for the championship were developed by the well-known fashion designer Milarai Palma in Chile, whose outfits are flaunted by local TV presenters and participants in beauty contests. And men's chamantos have become national clothes par excellence, which is now customary to present as a souvenir to distinguished guests.
However, Chamantos still look most appropriate on broad-shouldered guaso in combination with a straw hat, a red wide belt, knee-length leather leggings and long shiny spurs. They made such an impression on Darwin at one time that he wrote: “The main pride of the guaso is its ridiculously large spurs. I measured one, and it turned out that the wheel was 6 inches in diameter, and the wheel itself had over 30 spines. Stirrups - the same scale; each carved from a rectangular piece of wood, hollowed out, but still weighing 4 pounds (about 1.5 kg)." Massive wooden stirrups, similar to shoes without a heel and covered with highly artistic carvings, are still the pride of the guaso. But there are problems with the spurs. This attribute causes protests from animal advocates: horses suffer greatly from it. But, despite all the protests, the rodeo does not lose, but only gains supporters. In recent years, it has attracted even more attention in its homeland than traditionally the most spectacular sport - football.
