San Isidro Labrador

San Isidro is the Patron saint of fieldworkers. The day proper was yesterday but there are lots of events going on over this weekend to celebrate. I left the flu riddled Maggie for a little while to go and see the Enciero a Caballo (bringing in the bulls using horses) at the bizarrely named Águeda del Caudillo.

It's odd because Caudillo was the name chosen by Franco, like Führer or Il Duce, and most reminders of the days of the Dictator have been removed. Not here though, the main street is called Calle del Generalisimo.

As if to prove how rural it was the stands for spectators were farm and lorry trailers. I stood on the back of one of them and waited for the horses and bulls to go past. I never know what's going on and I never ask for fear of speaking but a little girl next to me asked her dad what was going to happen. He gave her the blandest of answers but she wanted details so he asked the person standing next to him what the routine was and that person didn't know either. I felt much less lost.

Most of it was quite boring really. The horse riders galloped down the main street, hung around a while and galloped back to a field where a few oxen were let loose. The horses chased the oxen around the field until they streamed up the street at a canter. Then they let go a couple of young fighting bulls which the horse riders chased around again. I only saw them successfully surround one of the fighting bulls and move it to the corral at the top of the main street. Actually that was quite good. It looked as though they had it right; the riders with their long lances formed a wall of horse flesh around the bull and moved it to the pen in a very organised looking way.

I had a look at the saddlery stall and the beer tent but, as I was driving, I couldn't have one and that seemed to be the sum of the things to look at. So I drove away. As I left the bulls were still running hither and thither in the field with horses, riders and bull runners doing likewise.