Peter Schmidtmeyer and criollo & gaucho

 
Salvete Omnes,
Peter Schmidtmeyer, a British traveler,
 
 while in Argentina 
-he disembarked  in Buenos Aires  and traveled to Mendoza  , in a company of one more Englishman, 2 Germans in a two-wheeled carriage as seen in the prints below -
and across the Andes to Santiago,  Chile on horseback and mule-back. Then he took off to Valparaiso on horseback, and so on.
During his travel  he drew a number of images showing the daily life in the newly independent republics (although the open warfare against the Spanish possessions and their royalist allies was raging, including open warfare against the semi-independent Mapuche and other Chilean Indians too, known as la Guerra a Muerte) and Argentina  during the 1820-21:




 



 



 

 


 

 

 

the actual book is accessible via archive world library. Nota bene the author did not see any beauty in the newly independent Buenos Aires, the town would become beautiful it is now much later on.
 horses in his view:



mules and asses in his view:

 to be continued
Valete
ps
all prints come come wiki commons

Criollo and gaucho

 
Salvete Omnes,
a short summer entry -  the subject will be mostly several video links to the Argentine way of horses, that is their fabulous criollo horse and gaucho equestrian culture.
 


Argentina is still the horse country - the big fairs - eg Festival de Jesus Maria in the Cordoba province with the entry of the tropillas of fillies or castrated colts led by a gaucho astride a gelding and la Madrina(a bell mare) (or here in Buenos Aires) -  are held every year in various parts of the country, as different provinces have different gaucho costumes and differences in horse horse tack, including the saddles and saddle pads.

here - starting a colt  by the Centro de Domo el Potrero.
a little program on the Pampa Indians horse ways and its current application - Tehuelches, Ranqueles, Mapuches/Araucanos, and others of more northern regions of the pampa  etc.
Argentina is where the best polo horses are bred - and in this link we have an example of polo horse preparation - a young 3 yo filly after 6 months of training.
I hope to explore the primary sources related to the horses on the pamapas, the Pampa Indians, gauchos etc in the future.
In Chile, (where gauchos are called los huasos)
 
Uruguay,
 
Paraguay,
 
and Brazil criollo horses are bred and ridden, and in Brazil the province of Rio Grande do Sul is the most famous for the criollo horses.

Finally, a curiosity: los baguales - los cimarrones or the wild horses of the Tierra del Fuego and southern Patagonia of Chile and Argentina.
Valete
ps
while writing this entry I have been drinking a strong yerba mate  - saludos a todos
most of the links are in Spanish - ole!
ps' all images are from wiki commons