Abrivado & Bandido continue ...

Finally, this third abrivado took place in the manade’s arena and it was the first one i took part of. For this abrivado, simbaos (‘docile’ bullocks) were used. Make no mistake they can still cause a lot of damage. It was very exciting and good for me from the riding aspect because it took my focus away from me and the horse. You only focus on the bulls.

 



18 years old Arabian talking to my cousin Franck.

We are warming up before cutting. i am on the right hand side
cantering a figure of 8. 

The bulls have been driven into the toril where they are attached
by my two cousins Franck and Clement.

Back from cutting, Bastian Colombet on a 3 y.o. Camargue and
me behind

All the Gardians into the arena ready for the abrivado. 
i am the furthest on the left. 

 

 In the video, Franck is in charge of closing and opening the door of the toril.  Bernard, the manadier, is the one shouting at us what to do, where to go and how to place ourselves. i am on the Left hand side of the V shape formation formed around the bulls. i am wearing a riding hat.

It was wonderful to have my cousins over for a few days at the manade. They got the opportunity to get involved in the last abrivado and they loved it. To wrap up this memorable time together, we raised a few glasses of rose, BBQed a few ribs of bull and laugh a lot!

From right to left, Val, David, Benoit, Marine, Bastain, Clement,
Floriane, Laura, Florian, Melanie, Marion & Bernard

From right to left, Floriane, Laura, Florian, Melanie, Marion, Bernard,
Standing up Franck, me, Val, David, Benoit, Marine & Bastain 

With my cousins, Jacky on the right, Frank, Floriane & Clement

        

Abrivado & Bandido

Back at the ranch, my training amongst the Gardians is in full swing. As well as more theory, there is not a day when i do not ride with the bulls. We displace them from one pasture to another, cut cows out of the herd, check for new born calves or load them into the tank.

They call a cattle truck, a tank. They are 19t trucks with no partitions and no roof as such. Instead of the roof there are transversal steel round poles and on top of the poles there are longitudinal wooden planks. Cattle are tied up by the horns to the round poles and the planks are used as walkways for the Gardians to manipulate the cattle. All manipulations are done from the outside. Horses are loaded and tied up the same way as cattle and depending on the individuals, they can travel together. It is the first time i see this system of transport. It is an efficient, simple and secured way to deal with cattle.

 

Picture taken from above the tank. Here we were in Nimes
for the Abrivado. We were 4 of us including those two
very experienced young men.

This is the inside of the tank. The bulls are tied up
before leathers are place on their horns before
they are let loose in the street. 

 

Back at the manade after the abrivado, the horses are downloaded first
then the bulls. Notice from where the gardians open and closed the doors when dealing with cattle.

This time the tank was used as a horse transporter and
the horses as saddle carriers. In Texas i saw also saddled horses being transported
in cattle truck. Cattle trucks being different than the tank above. 

Nowadays, bulls and horses are transported by truck from pastures to arenas for the course Camarguaise. Traditionally and before the health & safety nonsense, gardians would accompany the bulls by abrivade (Abrivado in Provencal dialect).  An abrivado is when bulls are surrounded by closely mounted gardians and as slowly as possible escort the bulls to the local arena. After the race the bulls would be brought back to their pasture in a bandide ( Bandido in Provencal). The bandido is a fast displacement, at the canter sometimes gallop, where each gardians will drive one bull from arena to pasture. During the abrivado and the bandido, young men would try to make the bull escape from the gardians. Some see that as a sport!

Here are a few pictures of three Abrivados.

This first one took place in the arena of Arles with heavy horses. It was a training exercise.

Simbao are released into the arena

Manadier Bernard Colombet guarding his Simbao
before introducing them to the heavy cavalery. 

The horses form a V shape figure.
There are 9 breeds of French heavies. Percheron and Comtois
are represented here.

Horses must be closely together or the bull will squeeze through.

Riders must lodged his inside leg in the flank of the horse placed on his inside
 

Thrilling!

The next abrivado took place in the streets of Nimes with Manadier Bernard Colombet and his Gardians. Nowadays, for health & safety, fences are erected on both sides of the road to avoid the bulls to escape in neighbouring streets and local bars. Fences also mean that bodies are easily crushed against them! Choice is yours.

Gardians Benoit Colombet & Florient gaining composure
 before the start. For all involved, Abrivados are dangerous.
It is fast, horses and bulls travel at full blast on tarmac.
i leave the rest to your imagination.

Para-medics are getting composed too!

Fences are getting erected on both side of Avenue Victor Hugo.

At the beginning the manade is paraded. 

Abrivado's horses are experienced. Horse's shoes are studded.

Arriving at full blast, the gardians are driving the bulls forward
whilst the men are trying to distract the bulls from their trajectory.

 

At each end of the abrivade there is a tank either to release or receive
the bulls. All the pictures are taken from above the tank i am on.
Here the bulls are about to climb back into the tank.

 

This post carries on on the next post called Abrivado & Bandido Continue...

A simple monk

From Avignon i took the train to Switzerland to listen to a man who describes himself as a simple human being just like you and me. His name is Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama.

   At the age of 5 years old, he was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13^th Dalai Lama and consequently as the reincarnation of the Buddha. In 1950, at the age of 15, he was called upon to assume full political leadership of Tibet after the Chinese invaded his country a year earlier. In 1959, he fled from Tibet and has remained in exile in North India ever since.

His Holiness’s three lifelong commitments are
the promotion of universal values common to all human beings whether we are religious or not,
the promotion of harmony between all major religions and
to be the spiritual leader of Tibetan people.

H.H. The Dalai Lama arrives in Friburg on Saturday 12th April.
Pictured by his official photographer, Manuel Bauer.

All human beings regardless of race, gender, nationality, education and economic background have an innate desire for happiness and to avoid suffering. Through training our minds to become compassionate and tolerant and through constant self-discipline, we can make a real difference to our state of happiness, for ourselves and for others around us.

 

8,000 persons came on both days of his teaching
in addition to the 4,500 Tibetans refugees who live in Switzerland.

In 1961, Switzerland was the first Western nation
to offer asylum to 1,000 Tibetans.

Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Tibetans have endured the worst diaspora and genocide ever in history of mankind. And it is still going on. (Tibetans are still crossing the Himalayas to seek refuge in India; monks are still ordered to kill; nuns are still raped and Tibetans across the board are still tortured for wanting to conserve their cultural identity). At some point during the week-end, Manuel Bauer, the official photographer of the Dalai Lama, gave a conference on the refugee's situation.  He presented the case of a Tibetan born in 1929 who was imprisoned in the worst condition possible for 37 years. Once released and during an audience with the Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama asked him, as he would to every ex-prisoner, the same question. How was it? And as always he received the same answer ‘It was ok except for once when i lost compassion for my torturers.’ This answer summarises the effect non-violence stance has in conflictual situation. Despite the insidious methods used to eradicate the Tibetan culture, the Chinese are not succeeding what so ever. It is a fact. The non-violent approach to resolve conflicts as promoted by the Novel price winner is succeeding against the mighty China. There are 6 million Tibetans worldwide of which 4,500 live in Switzerland. Switzerland was the first non-Asian nation to open its doors to Tibetan refugees in 1961.  

   i have been interested in the Dalai Lama’s teaching and been aware of the ‘Free Tibet’ issue since my mid-teens. But this was the first time i listened to him live and he was very much as he has been to me over this last 25 years. He reaches out to people in a non-dogmatic way. He is pragmatic and possesses a fine sense of humour without being frivolous. This makes him a much appreciated public speaker and a highly regarded figures worldwide.

 

His Holiness on his thorne during the empowerment initiation.
The empowerment is related to White Tara, one of the most popular deities in Tibet.
This empowerment is open to all and may be received to non-Buddhists simply as a blessing.
Note His Holiness is wearing a top less cap allowing to see his audience better!

His Holiness is seating on a white leather armchair.
Always seated in the lotus position for over 2 hours at a time.
He is 78 years old.

As i am now travelling back to Avignon from Switzerland, i am thinking of this idea of attachment. Attachment is considered to be very important in Western cultures. Without it we often consider life being colourless. But attachment can carry a negative desire which tint the reality of a situation. It causes biased and distorted views of the way things really are. Consequently, it leads to disrespect of other sentient beings and cultures. Back in the context of the horse culture i ride in, we can see how disabling attachment to my own equine culture can be when experiencing the Camargue culture where the use of the bulls and horses are so different. Make no mistake, detachment does not mean being indifferent or have no feelings. We can recognise the good from the bad and by applying an attitude of compassion and tolerance, increase the good over the bad.

His Holiness in a meditative state at 8am 
before giving his Sunday teaching.

i am now approaching destination and be reunited with Simon, Axle & Ruby. But before i go, here are a few things you may find interesting:

Traditionally, the reincarnation of the deceased Dalai Lama is to be discovered on Tibetan soil. Consequently and due to dire situation in Tibet, after the death of the 14^th Dalai Lama there will be no more Dalai Lama. However, His Holiness has stated that it will up to the Tibetan people to decide whether a 15^th Dalai Lama will succeed and if so it will become possible to find his reincarnation outside Tibet.

The 14^th Dalai Lama is adamant not to be a mercenary of Buddhism. He rather urges people to stick to their own cultural faith as opposed to becoming a Buddhist. However, his message of compassion is addressed to all believers and non-believers alike.

The 14^th Dalai Lama is not a vegetarian.   

Back to Paluds-de-Noves, a picture of my own Buddha caring for a lettuce!
Thank you Simon for looking after Axle & Ruby whilst i disapeared to Switzerland.

Black & White

My HQ back home tells me of a geographical blip in my previous post. The ‘cheval de Troyes’ i wrote about earlier was in fact the ‘cheval de Troy’ from an ancient Greece town now in Turkish soil!

~

Just after Easter, we reached Paluds-de-Nove, in the highland part of the Camargue where we intend to stay for another five weeks.  Palud in provencal language means marshland. We are at Manade des Orgonens with head Manadier, Mr Colombet.

The idea of this trip is to experience the Camargue equine and bovine culture, ride different horses, ride school masters (in this context master cow horses), experience cow working, get out of my comfort zone and improved myself.  In a nutshell, the story of my first week at the manade went like that:

Arrived at 5pm on Tuesday and by 5.30pm i was on a horse. Got off at 7.30 pm; By 8.30 am the following day, a bunch of gardians and greeny me were amongst the bulls; rode five different horses by day 3 including Mr Colombet’s super sensitive main horse; went over the dashboard only once; castration of yearlings bulls on day 4; took part in a ferrade (branding) on day 5; received my first course in cutting on day 7.

Provencaux are very welcoming people. They put you without delay in the heart of the action. i reminded myself i had a good insurance policy and went with the flow admittedly not always knowing what i had signed for…what a wonderful week!

Locals are mad about bulls and horses. These animals are the nucleus of the Camargue culture in a similar way they are to Vaqueros, Gauchos, the tauromachia culture, the horse racing’s culture etc. The mounted herders are called the gardians. They assign themselves to a manade and share within it all the activities including games, horse training, cow work, fencing etc. They are under the direction of the head horseman called the manadier. Everybody here breath, drink and eat horses and bulls, horse meat even. It is not unusual to find horse tartar on local menus as the Chef’s suggestion of the day. What is one part of the world’s culture, is another’s taboo!

~

Black and white are for me the colours of the Camargue.

Black is for the Camargue bull. The breed is classified as a wild breed. It is a native breed which originates and lives semi-feral in the marshland of the delta of the Rhone river. A mature bull reaches about 450 kg. It is first of all bred for a game called la Course Camarguaise whereby little rosettes are attached to the horns and fast running men try to remove them. Each decoration has a monetary value which increases in value as time goes by. A more ferocious bull will dictate a higher value per decoration sometimes reaching Eur 2,000 per rosette. If none of the decorations are removed by the razeteurs, the value of all rosettes goes to the manadier who owns the bull.

Elian is crafting little rosettes to attach to the bull's horns.

With this in mind, the Camargue bull is bred with the inverse mindset of its domesticated counterpart. Docile Camargue cattle go for meat whilst the ‘means’ ones are kept in the breeding program. They are exceptions. Each manade purposely domesticates a few ‘docile’ bullocks to be used as helpers when cow cutting. Those bullocks are trained to leave the herd when gardians call them by their names. They are fast moving animals and great jumpers. i have seen a mature bull jump a 150cms fence from a standstill, Olympic material i say! 



The Gardian holds a trident which is a long stick with a sharp metal ending used to keep the bull a bay 

White is for the Camargue pony. They are born dark grey or brown and grow old light grey. Of rustic type, they are bred in extensive in the marshland amongst the bulls. Their raison d’être is to work the bulls.

Manadier Renaud Vinuesa with his daughter Anna who is a
really good hand in her own rights, now 10 y o.

At one year old, horses and cattle are branded in an event called a ferrade. Animals to be branded are gathered at the morning. One at a time they are released, the gardians gallop after them, cause them fall either with a trident or by pulling them by the tail and once fallen the yearling is taken near the hot iron for branding. A ferrade is also a big social event. Here are a few pictures of last Sunday’s branding of yearling cattle.



At the morning we cut 5 cows and 5 yearlings into a pen.
The cows were tied up and their horns protected by metal endings.
There cows were used in the afternoon in a kind of Course Camarguaise.
 

Our horses are waiting whilst the Gardians are having a spot of breakfast before the ferrade starts.

Baguette and charcuterie, no veggie option!

Gallop at around 45 km/h alongside the calf.

Gardians chasing at very high speed whilst the young are getting
reading to catch the cow once it has fallen.
This Criollo is a rocket.

The cow is caught by the tail. The Gardian accelerate and
by doing so spins the cow out of balance causing it to fall

The cow is branded before being released.

i end this first week on a high note. Today, Mr Colombet gave me my first lesson on cutting amongst the herd on two master cow horses...easier said than done! 

From Cambridgeshire to the Cevennes

The three of us left Cambridgeshire in the night of the 28th of March. Meet the team!

Axle

Ruby


Our first stopover took us to Troyes, a town of medieval architectural interest and also famous for the episode of the ‘Cheval de Troyes’ from the Greek mythology. The Greeks having besieged for 10 years the town decided to resort to a stratagem of war to invade Troyes. They built a giant hollow wooden horse which contained soldiers. The citizens of Troyes accepted the offering of the horse and consequently fell victims to the Greek army led by Ulysses. This is in this episode that Ulysses gave a valuable advice in that stratagem unlike trickery and crime, is a lawful evil in society, game and international relation.
 

On our second leg of the journey going south, we drove on National roads (as opposed to motorways).

 

Plane tree lined National road

 

This is a great way to travel if time is on your side. National roads took us through splendid countryside, plane tree lined roads and enables us to experience the famous ritual of the baguette which always takes place by the boulangerie on every villages and towns you drive through. This is how it goes ~ Double park your car alongside one which is already parked, let the engine run and don’t use your hazard light, run in the bread shop and on your way out ignore the queue of car which has formed behind your Renaud, don’t be apologetic and drive off with your baguette. It sounds such a cliché but is so true and amusing again, if time is no object.

We carried on the deserted motorway through the vast and beautiful Massif Central’s North regions also known as the volcano region. This led us to our second stopover, the Cévennes, region of the Southern part of the Massif Central. We laid camp for three nights.  The Cévennes is wilderness France for those who take their escapism seriously and hiking there is something not to be missed. Here are a few snaps.

Parc National des Cevennes



Hiking at 1223m high

 

Tree top house at L'Oustaou de Josephine

A borie which is an old traditional little house used by shepherds

Room with a view at 600m high

We left the mountain for the drained marshlands of the northern Camargue called Paluds-de-Noves near Avignon.