BajaNomad

Ever been to an Ejido horse race?

burro bob - 8-23-2004 at 12:58 PM

Unfortunately I couldn't make it all the way to Tijuana for the Cactus Culture Festival but I did make it up the hill to San Matias for their 35 aniversary fest.
What a great little town. Kids still ride their horses around town and a horse is better for picking up chicks than a car. Those cowboys sure know how to party.
There was live bands (El Jefe) on Sat and Sun. as well as a decent little carnival. The best parts were the rodeo on Saturday and the horse races on Sunday.
The rodeo was in this tiny little arena with back of your pickup seating. They had some pretty good stock and some of the cowboys were the real thing.
The horse race on Sunday though was a real Baja experience. these races are between two horses at a time. The owners get together before the race to set up matches. The horses only race once at a distance agreed upon by the owners. There is usually a wager involved also. If any one has ever been to Zoo road jump for a score race you might get some idea of what the crowd was like. The spectators totally covered the course and only moved out of the way as the horses got closer. I don't think anyone got run over but one horse freaked when the starting gates opened and he did a course correction and hit a truck, (no damage to horse, truck needs a couple of dents pounded out).
I wasn't the Kentucky derby but only cost 25 pesos to get in ( free if you got to the field before the money collectors got there) and you could go up and pet the race horses. Some even let kids ride them after their race.
Attached is a photo of the closest race of the day.

Mission San Luis Gonzaga

jrbaja - 8-23-2004 at 01:22 PM

earlier this year. We are going to a big festival next weekend and they are having more "carreras" down there.
Bob, did you get my U2U's ?

jrbaja - 8-23-2004 at 01:26 PM

burro bob - 8-23-2004 at 01:43 PM

jrbaja
Sorry but I haven't been able to read your u2u's. For some reason I have never been able to log in. I can post and read others posts but the little caption at the top of the page always say's I'm not loged in and when I use the log in area at the top of the list of topics nothing changes. Any idea what i'm doing wrong?
burro bob

El Prisonero

capn.sharky - 8-23-2004 at 01:57 PM

El Prisonero is the numero uno caballo en Loreto right now. They race on the other side of the highway. We also have c-ck fights in Loreto just about every weekend---for the chicken lovers in the crowd. There is baseball, boxing and wrestling (really fake wrestling). Ah si senor, siempre una cosa en Loreto.

Hmmmm

jrbaja - 8-23-2004 at 03:58 PM

That's a new one on me. For your name to come up on here as Burro Bob rather than anonymous, I think you have to be logged in.

Doug? Can you help?

I wanted to discuss some filming and see if you might be interested.

Ejido horse race ....

cristobal - 8-23-2004 at 05:05 PM

Burro Bob .... I didn't know they were called that .....
I was at one SOUTH of SAN IGNACIO several years ago at about the 15 KM mark. That is right about RANCHO SAN JOAQUIN on your way to the LAGUNA S.I.The one thing that remember about the event was that TWO guys on they're horses would race from one end to the other and that PESOS changed hands after the races.... Very dusty after the horses went by .... It was a nice little social event where the guys could visit with amigos and the SINGLE girls could get all cleaned up and flirt with some of the guys from the ranchos ..... And there was a lot of CERVEZA consumed at the event ..... I think this was before the DANCE on the SATURDAY before semana santa .... That's right ... thats why there was so many people there .... probably 50 people ....

tunaeater - 8-24-2004 at 10:08 AM

Good picture Bob. We meet some guys at the saw mill a month or so ago and they were talking about the horse races..Thanks for the picture now we have a better vision of these races. This must of been a lot of fun..I wish I could find out more info when these little towns hold these carnival/rodeo events..I think they are a blast...thanks for sharing Paul

BajaNomad - 8-24-2004 at 11:12 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by burro bob
For some reason I have never been able to log in. I can post and read others posts but the little caption at the top of the page always say's I'm not loged in and when I use the log in area at the top of the list of topics nothing changes.
Sounds like you're blocking cookies through some security setting on your system - either through settings for your browser, or possibly even anti-virus or anti-"something" security software... ?

--
Doug