Juan del Rio - 5-4-2006 at 09:22 PM
Ok, we are getting ready for the "Ponies" in San Juanico. San Juanico Days is a big event in our little town (around June 20th). The local Ranchers
are on a daily physical exercise program with their horses..since there is big bucks involved if they win.
This photo is not a contender, but it's a nice picture that was taken on the beach in San Somewhere a few days ago.
Ok, Lets get ready to Race...
Juan del Rio - 5-4-2006 at 09:29 PM
Even though it's only, "One Horse Power"... compared to a few hundred with Wide Open Baja at Juan y Juan's last week; if you're in the area, come on
by and bet and see if you come up a winner! These guys in town are serious about their horses. It is sooooooooooooooo much better than the c-ckfights
we get!
Juan
Sallysouth - 5-4-2006 at 09:49 PM
Now that is one beautiful animal! I'll bet that the race will be fun and lots of adrenaline pumping on the sidelines! I'd love to be there for this
one! Where do we go to find this event?
San Juanico Days...
Juan del Rio - 5-4-2006 at 10:16 PM
Don't have the exact dates of the festival for this year or the date of the big race ( I'll post next week when I'm there), but can tell you it's a
great time in San Somewhere! Send me a U2U for location of the horse race...The Duke will be there as well!
[Edited on 5-5-2006 by Juan del Rio]
bajajudy - 5-5-2006 at 06:30 AM
Hey, that's Hopalong, my favorite!
I call these races, horse drag races. Are the races in your area one on one straight away to the finish, Juan?
burro bob - 5-5-2006 at 03:12 PM
Bajajudy
The only oval horse tracks that I know of are in Mexicali and Tijuana, all the others around here are just the straight type. There must be other oval
tracks that I don't know about.
Both the course at San Matias and the one at Rancho Zuniga here in San Felipe have pairs of starting gates. They are seldom used, most horses around
here arn't trained to use them. The last time in San Felipe when they used the gates one horse simply refused to leave. They had to lead him out, he
was terrified of the things.
One other interesting thing about the races here is that they don't measure the distance in furlongs. Instead they use a measure called the vara. It
is supposedly the length of a grown mans pace, about 3 feet. It was funny to watch some of the contestants at the last race bring out their 50 meter
tape and start measuring distances. When they had agreed on what was 250 varas they made a finish line in the dirt. The owner of the track meanwhile
paced off his 250 varas and made his own finish line. They raced to the track owners line. The bottom line, I guess, is that the pace of the guy that
owns the track is the official vara distance.
burro bob
bajajudy - 5-5-2006 at 05:17 PM
BB
Now that is interesting. I will have to ask around and see what the people here use to measure the length of the track. There are regular races in
Santiago and it is quite a scene. The picture above was taken during Dia de Marina here in La Playa. As you can see the track was right on the
beach(dump trucks carrying sludge use this same track today). You can see Punta Gorda in the background.
Here is another shot
capt. mike - 5-6-2006 at 07:21 AM
hey John, anything new on the horizon re an airstrip for Sand Won Neeko??