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!

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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!

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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!