The big trip to the farm for our new horses

After our horses had been at the beauty salon they got onto the truck the next morning at 5 AM. Fourty minutes later we stopped at a little fonda next to the Pio Pio fast food restaurant in La Chorrera. Pio Pio offers everything made from chickens as it is owned by the Melo group of companies which has a very large chicken operation. Our group preferred the fonda next door due to the variety offered there.

Here is the whole group at breakfast. From left to right: the truck driver with his son, the owner of the corral who ran the horse beauty salon for us, Dimar - Luis’ uncle - and Luis. As always I’m not in the picture, as I took it :-)

We had coffee, empanadas, liver, meat, yucca, potato - basically the same food as one would eat for lunch. If you are not used to eat like that at 6 AM, you probably stick to coffee with empanadas. So did I.

About three hours later we arrived in Buenos Aires. There is another corral but this time it’s all made of wood and instead of having built a ramp they simply used the bank for it.

It’s a small truck but there is space for quite a few horses or a good number of cattle. During auction days, which is usually two or three times a week in any region, you can see many trucks of this kind fully loaded with cattle.

First the saddles get unloaded and then Luzero stepped off the truck. It turned out that he almost had an accident. His hoof slipped into a small gap between the logs and the bank this ramp is sitting on. He didn’t brake anything but we decided not to use that ramp any further.

So we moved the truck and used the raw bank. Pedron, which is the white horse in the picture, and the - yet unnamed - horse were able to get off without any trouble.

If you know a nice name for a horse, please let us know. He’s a good horse and deserves a name. Help us to find a good one.

After they all came down saddling them up begun. Here is Pedron:

The nameless horse gets put on the saddle. To the right in the picture you can see the truck drivers wife and their son. He brought the whole family. That’s actually quite common with Panamanians. Wife and son had to get up as early as 4 AM to be ready for the trip. They preferred this so that won’t stay home alone.

And finally here is Luzero ready for the 1 hour ride from the village of Buenos Aires to the farm. By car it takes about 20 or 30 minutes. On horse it might have been a hour and maybe a little bit.

There was one challenge though. Although we called and asked around we had not yet secured the service of someone to care for the horses while we are gone. The idea was to leave them at the farm or at a place close by. Ideally at a place we can drive the Jeep to and then simply take the horses for the rest of the way.

Initially we had hoped that a gentlemen who lives just on the other side of the first river and has pasture around his house would be able and willing to take care of the horses. Unfortunately he explained us that the pasture he has weren’t good for horses and didn’t want the responsability. The place would have been perfect.

Then we talked to our immediate neighbor, Sr. Didimo, whether he knows a solution to our dilemma. He did. His property has different pasture but as it’s the farm next to ours we would not be able to drive the Jeep all the way to where the horses would be. He offered to store our gear (saddle, machetes, lasso, etc.) in his old house, which is located on his land and offered to bring the horses down to a place accessible with the Jeep each time we need them. If he can’t do it personally, he would send a peon to do it. In the end his offer suited us best and we’ve been satisfied with the service he is providing us. The horses are happy too.

15 Sep 2009

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