Gran Charreada

I can't believe it was two weeks ago that Jo Ann and I with two of Agistina's niñas went to the Gran Charreada.  This is really the only true nationally organized sport in Mexico and is similar to the American rodeo.  We were prompted to go as the local San Miguel de Allende team was competing against two other teams, one of which took second place in the national finals last year.  To say the least it seemed like a good time to go to experience the national sport of Mexico.

So what is a Gran Charreada, it is a competition of nine different events that earn points both on skill and style.  It starts as any sporting event with a lot of pomp and ceremony, with all of the charros in formal attire and their caballos similarly decked out.

The Charreada is a family affair as many of the charros' families are in attendance and during the pre-competition events, will ride with their fathers.

After the opening ceremonies, the charros present themselves to the audience and prepare for the competition.

There are nine individual competitions, where each team is given points based on performance (time and success of achieving the objective) as well as style points, all of this based on experienced judges.

The first event Cala de Caballo is where a charro puts his horse through various exercises to demonstrate the ability of the charro and the caballo.  These exercises include a controlled slide, half, full and triple turns, a reverse walk among others.

The second event Piales en Lienzo is where a charro tries to catch a wild mare with a lariat by the rear legs of the caballo.  Points are awarded for the distance needed to stop the mare and the charro has three attempts to accomplish the task.

The third event is the Colas en el Lienzo where the charro rides alongside a bull, wraps the tail of the bull around his leg and tries to get the bull to fall and roll as he rides past. 

 

The forth and fifth events are grouped together.  It starts with bull riding where the charro tries to ride the bull until it stops bucking so that he can properly dismount.  The charro must remove the bull rope and the bell rope during the event for points. 

The fifth event  is the Terna en el Ruedo, where a team of three charros attempt to rope the bull, one by the neck, one by the rear legs and the last ties its feet together.  There is a maximum of ten minutes time allotment and points are given for rope tricks and time.

The sixth, seventh and eighth events are combined together.  The sixth is the Jineteo de Yegua which is similar to the riding of the bull earlier except it is on a wild mare ridden with only a rope.  Again the charro must ride it until the mare stops bucking and then properly dismount.

The seventh event is the Manganas a Pie where a charro on foot has three chances to rope a wild mare by its legs cause it to fall and roll once.  This and the next event were the two events that we did not enjoy as it hurt for us to see these horses fall as they did, but luckily none were seriously injured.

The eighth event is similar to the previous, except it is Manganas a Caballo, where the charro attempts to rope the wild mare from horseback.  The charro has three attempts to accomplish this and points are granted based on time and for rope tricks.

The final event is el Paso de la Muerte where a charro riding bareback attempts to leap from his horse to the bare back of a wild horse and ride it until it stops bucking.  It is clearly the most dangerous event of the nine, but also the most thrilling.

Through out the Gran Charreada there is a group of Mariachis playing in between the competitions.  Their music is so enjoyable and traditional.

So how did San Miguel do, well they performed well but only took second place.  That is very good considering the competition but I believe that they felt that they could have done better.  It was great fun and I expect that we will be back again before too long.

There are more photos in my flickr set which you can see here.