“… in fact he even went so far as to run me into a thorn bush, ripping my top.”
So we awoke early on this Wednesday morning, feeling pretty fresh for our lack of cocktails the night before and excited and ready for the day ahead. Except. It was raining. Hard. We refused to let this get us down and headed down to our favourite cafe for a classic completo breakfast.
We returned ten minutes before we were due to be picked up, made a cup of tea and sat in the living room to wait. As the rain got heavier and our pickup got later, we feared the worst. Eventually, 45 minutes after we were due to be collected, there was a knock on the door. We downed the rest of our tea and ran outside to dive in the van, getting as little rain on us as possible.
We were greeted by a gruff Argentinian man and a petite French girl, thankfully both of whom spoke English. In fact Laura was carrying out some work experience on the ranch in order to improve her Spanish, and spoke better English than the language of the country we were in! On the hour journey to the outskirts of Cordoba, we stopped several times to pick up supplies for our day. Very mysterious. We were told that the pair had struggled to find our location as we weren’t staying at a traditional hostel or hotel. We were also informed that people often cancelled last minute when the weather was like this, leaving them high and dry (metaphorically speaking) so they were glad that we were still keen.
Over the course of the drive, the weather drastically improved. By the time we arrived at the ranch, it had become dry and overcast, protecting us from the blaring Argentinian sun whilst allowing us to remain dry. We were told that first we would feed the horses (I suspect that this is mostly so that tourists can see that the animals are well cared for), but that we had to stand behind a fence because they would fight once the feeding began.
Not really sure what to expect, we cowered behind the fence as Laura and Sebastian threw armfuls of hay out into the field. Laura told us that Sebastian has 26 horses, most of which were already gathered, having anticipated the feeding given the arrival of the car. The rest quickly came running as soon as the hay was distributed and it was certainly a sight to behold. The horses congregated in groups and, every now and then, one would take a disliking to the other and chase them away from his or her pile. Teeth, hooves and heads were used to drive away to offenders, these skirmishes were alarmingly frequent.
Once the horses had had their fill, we headed over to the house for a cup of tea and to wait for Sebastian to wrangle a couple of steeds and prepare them for our day. We spent a really pleasant hour chatting to Laura about her big move to Cordoba for study, she was due to start studying at the University of Cordoba in the next month.
Sebastian returned with four horses in tow and it was time for our first ride of the day. This was to be through the forest and was supposed to be quite a challenging trek. We climbed aboard our noble steeds, snapped a few shots and we were off.
We were instantly glad for the cloudiness of the day. This ride, under the glaring sunshine of Argentina’s summer, would have been quite a lot less enjoyable. Also, the dampness of the day meant that my allergies were kept under control. As someone who grew up around horses, I am alarmingly allergic to the animals and all the bumph that comes along with them (hay, grass and dust).
The ride lasted for an hour, through the dense forest that covers much of the lower hills that surround Cordoba. There were several hairy moments when our horses headed straight for low hanging branches, giving us moments to duck or get ripped off the back, but ultimately it was an excellent experience.
When we returned to the ranch, Laura brought out a bottle of wine and some pop and left us to ourselves whilst the two of them prepared our lunch. During this hour or so, we became very well acquainted with Sebastian’s three dogs and a local stray. It quickly became clear that one of the bitches was in heat but also that she was very much in a cuddly mood and not in the same frame of mind that the boys were clearly in. As such, she spent most of the next hour trying to squeeze in between us or to sit on our feet, the boys were just interested in being as close to her backside, and as far away from each other, as possible.
This scenario lead to a rather awkward half an hour in which we routinely had to get out from behind our table in order to escape the snapping jaws of the two boys as they competed over the, clearly uninterested girl. To make matters worse, the stray seemed to have an awful lot of nervous energy, and when he was not attempting to mate, he was intent on sitting on one of our laps. Add to this the little, yappy Jack-Russel puppy that only wanted to chew on his jowels and you have yourself a pretty stressful party.
This carnage continued until our lunch was served (and also after, when the washing up was being done). As soon as Sebastian reappeared, however, all four dogs instantly decided to behave themselves and it was as if nothing had ever happened. While we were eating the dogs were kept away so we at least had a brief respite.
Our lunch was a traditional gaucho barbeque. We had been sitting salivating over the incredible smells for the past 10 minutes and we were pretty excited when we were finally called to the table to eat. We were served up the juiciest steak, short ribs and barbecued potatoes and grilled veggies we could have asked for. All four of us sat down together to enjoy our meal and discuss life here on the ranch.
After lunch it was time for another ride. Over lunch Laura had told me that my horse was known to be lazy. I had been a little self conscious thinking that I was too heavy for the horse so I was reluctant to make him work too hard. Knowing, however, that this was not the case, I was determined to make sure we kept up with the others. At first, he didn’t seem to be too happy with me insisting that we move at a little more than a snails pace, in fact he even went so far as to run me into a thorn bush and rip my top.
After several minutes of a solid battle of wills, we reached an agreement. We would be allowed to fall behind a little, I get it, I hate walking uphill too, and then we would trot or canter to catch up. This ride took us along the river and through the local village. My horse was a little spooked by dogs, so when we rode through an area with approximately 3000 dogs, all barking at us, he got a little skittish. Apart from this however, the ride was beautiful and relaxing.
When we returned to the ranch, Sebastian took the horses back to the field and we sat with a cup of tea and had a debrief with Laura. Our Gaucho Day had come to an end. It was our time to jump in the car and head back into the city.