Blessing of the Horses

The Blessing of the Horses is an annual festival in the small pueblo of San Martín de Terrenos, which is located near the city of Guanajuato.  The festival covers a three day period, commencing on the 9th of November, with the main function being the blessing of the horses on the morning of the 10th of November. 

Last Saturday at 8a we depart from San Miguel de Allende to make the drive to San Martín , the objective of today's adventure being to visit the festival in San Martín related to the blessing of the horses, cowboys and bike riders.  The town of San Martín is a sleepy small town on the road to Guanajuato that many drive by on their way to the airport in Leon, but few ever notice that it exists.  That is true except for the one week of the year when the festiva for the blessing of the horses is held.

People come from far and near, there are buses that come from Celaya, Querétaro and even Pueblo.  But what is more impressive is the people who ride their horses and bicycles for a full day or two to get to San Martín and sleep out in the fields surround the town.

After crossing the pressa Allende, we are almost an hours drive from San Martín, but we are already encountering groups of bicyclers who are peddling to get to the Chapel of San Martín in time for the misa.  It makes the drive very stressful as the roads in Mexico, for the most part, do not have paved shoulders or bike lanes, thus we are having to share the road, while driving like a local (which is fast and aggressive).

Finally after about an hour and a half's drive, we arrive at San Martín.  Even though we have been to this festival before, it amazes me to see all of the people, buses and the size of the open air market.

For the first hour or so we amble around the open area market, sampling food stuff and looking at some very nice albeit inexpensive clothing.  The candies are excellent (no we did not buy any of these), the nuts very tasty (yes we did buy some) and the grilled bread was heavenly (we are going to a religious festival).

Once we arrive to the entrance to the Chapel, the leaders of the events ride into town.

I especially like the man who is in costume looking like he is the new sheriff in town.

For the next hour the various groups of riders are assembled in front of the Chapel.  It is amazing how they are able to pack these horses in so close with no incidences with the horses getting spooked. 

Once all of the riders were put into position, the priest came out and gave a blessing and threw holy water on the horses and their riders.  Then the doors to the church were opened and the walkers and bikers were let in for misa.  What is amazing is that the horses then had to stand there for two and a half hours while the walkers and bikers paraded through the church.

While we knew we had some time, we then went looking for someplace to have comida as there was not going to be any good photo-ops until the horses started to leave.  

So we start walking around looking for some place to eat when we look up and are amazed at the way the various street vendors have hooked up to the electricity.

We found this excellent stand that was serving a variety of Mexican cuisine, all of which was excellent.  The operators were from Puebla and the whole family was working including their cute little daughter.

When we returned to the Chapel, I discovered that I had shot the entire film card in my camera and my extra ones were in the car.  Thus I was not able to get any good shots of the horses leaving but I hope I have shared enough already in this posting.

The Blessing of the Horses at San Martín is an excellent festival that any person who enjoys horses or Mexican festivals needs to visit.  We had a great time.  If you want to see more photos from San Martín, please check out my complete set at flickr by clicking here.