Trail ride, minus the trails

Riding with Ulloa

I had a very special opportunity to go on a ride with a man named Ulloa, a well-known and well-liked gaucho from just outside San Martin. He is a good friend of Maria Luisa and Michael’s. I first met him at the Rural back in January – he was showing his stallion and won many awards.

So when he invited me to go ride with him on one of his horses, I jumped at the chance.

I met him early one morning at the stable were he trains horses and he had a mare ready for me. She was a beautiful 12 year old llegua tostada (chestnut mare), with a long roman nose and was thicker and wider than my Warmbloods at home! Standing a little over 15 hands, she was the biggest animal that I had seen in Argentina. Ulloa said she was for sale and if I lived down there, I would’ve bought her.

I wore all the gaucha uniform that I had – bombachas (pants), boina (barret-type hat) with my cowboy boots. I’m sure he must have rolled his eyes at this crazy gringa who showed up to go ride with him wondering what he had gotten himself into.

We headed into the mountains on the northwest side of San Martin. Even though Ulloa doesn’t speak English, we were able to communicate just fine, especially about horses.

He is quite a character, and after slyly watching me ride on the first easy trails, all of a sudden we dove off the trail and into the lush, thick shrubs and trees. I guess he thought I passed the “can this girl ride and how much guts does she have” test. And then before I knew it we were following jabilí tracks. Jabilis are the wild hogs that are in Argentina. They are even uglier than the wild hogs that we have at home in California and are prehistoric looking. He hunts them with his dogs. They track the hogs and then when the dogs have it pinned, the gaucho goes in and stabs it in the gut with his knife. The sport probably dates back to prehistoric times, I guess. I was glad that we didn’t find any of the live animals that morning, only saw lots of tracks. I had visions going through my mind about what would happen if the dogs did find some big, old, hairy thing with 6 inch tusks…what happens after they kill it, I had a feeling that he would want to put it in my lap and I would have to ride back with it…I guess my mind was jumping ahead a bit!

It was a blast going through the lush vegetation, ducking and diving out of the way of branches and thorny bushes. We finally made our way to the top of the ridge, where we could see a magnificent view of San Martin and of the next valley over.

It was a wonderful experience to ride with Ulloa on one of his very nice horses. We shared many laughs at the horses and at the dogs. I had a great time!

Thanks to Michael's photography skills:

This is me on the mare:

This is Ulloa: