Friday, October 10, 2014

Colombia: Stoicism Of A Barefoot Cowboy And His Horse


In Colombia’s Llanos Orientales a barefoot cowboy and his horse remain immobile under a downpour as they keep watch over a herd of zebus. Barefoot riding defines all Llanos cowboys.
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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Sitting By A Fire


Cowboys of Colombia’s Llanos resting by a fire while it’s heating their branding irons.
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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Colombia: Of Men, Calves, And Mud

To mark calves in Colombia’s Llanos requires men to lasso the animals, to keep them down in the mud waiting for their turn to be branded, and to handle the branding iron. It’s all a game, really, full of hilarious situations.
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Marking Calves


Colombian cowboys marking calves inside a Llanos corral. Mud and water are two of the reasons why they always go barefoot. Much else was going on around in the corral. Like other men lassoing calves running wild. And it wasn’t easy to manage a camera on slippery ground while avoiding to be swept off my feet when caught by a moving lasso between cowboy and galloping calf.
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Monday, October 6, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Herding Cattle To Corral


Cowboys of the Colombian Llanos, all of them riding barefoot as is their custom, are herding cows and calves to a Colombian  corral to be separated there. After the cows will have been returned to pasture the calves will be marked.

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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Lassoing Horses


As described in previous posts, rounding up hundreds of widely scattered cows that have been left alone fattening on the Llanos grass for several months is very hard on horses. So much so that such annual roundups see each cowboy exhaust four horses over a day. Though, as was also shown in my earlier posts, horse selection starts at dawn, it goes on long after the sun has risen. Here, cowboys are lassoing the ones they will use. More cowboys are arriving on horseback to pick their own.

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Colombia: Cowboy Leading Horses To Corral


Horses following a cowboy to a corral in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales. Other cowboys there will select four of them each for the day’s work. In a giant round up, gathering widely scattered cattle, horses in constant gallop will need to be replaced for fresh ones as the day advances. 
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Friday, October 3, 2014

Colombia: Breaking A Horse


A barefoot Colombian cowboy breaking one of the four horses he will exhaust over a day to help other cowboys round up hundreds of cows and horses widely disseminated for months over their country’s vast Llanos grasslands. My previous post tells more on this.
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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Colombia: Barefoot Cowboys Of The Orinoco Grassland


Much of the year, peace reigns over Colombia’s Llanos orientales, the vast grasslands spreading east of the Andes Mountains. Cattle and horses roam freely, left alone to enjoy themselves and reproduce. At such times, few men are needed to keep the ranch going.

But when the time comes to bring the newborn calves to the corral to mark them, large numbers of freelance cowboys get hired—many of them young daredevils. All cowboys will ride barefoot. They will come with their own hammocks to be hung under a communal roof. And during the days their work will be needed they will be up at 4 a.m. to breakfast on beef ribs and black coffee.

It’s still dark when they start selecting the four horses each of them will exhaust in mad around-the-clock gallops. They are difficult horses that were never mounted before or had not been mounted for many months. The cows are equally wild. I had to photograph them from the safety of my own horse or of a tree limb.

The picture above shows two of the poncho-clad barefoot cowboys selecting, in the sparse light of a blue rainy dawn, the four horses each will need to alternate that day to do his job.

In the next few days I will post more of those cowboys’ pictures.
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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Colombia: Cowboys Watering Horses


Horses drinking water left behind by the last rainy season in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales, the vast Orinoco Basin's grassland spreading east of the Andes Mountains. Surrounding cowboys are herding them to a corral to ready them for a cattle roundup.
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