A gathering of horses this Saturday

JIMENA A gathering of people and their horses, in fact. It takes place this Saturday from 12 noon at the fairground (at the bottom of the village hill) and includes a sevillanas competition (presumably not including a horse, but you never know), cintas and garrocha competitions (see below for descriptions), and a market in aid of our favourite charity, La Estrella. Also, flamenco singing by Antonio de Palmones and Manuel Cortés, of Jimena. As it says on the poster: a great variety of tapas and a 'great ambience'. Sounds good!

(Photo: © Alberto Bullrich 2012)

Garrocha: variously described as a lance, goad or cattle prod and is used principally at fighting bull breeding or other cattle farms, often to separate a chosen animal from the rest. It is also a countryside ‘sport’ with points given to the ways a rider can ‘turn’ or knock down a cow or bull. A tamer version is trying to get the pole, or garrocha, through a ring at full gallop - and this is what you'll see at the village fairs.

(Illustration only)

Carrera de Cintas: a 'ribbon race' where riders compete for the biggest number of ribbons they can pull out  with their short sticks (size of an Ikea pencil) of a line of them, also at full gallop.