Ride With Cowboys: Newsletters

Pedro watches the herd This hot, rugged corner of Spain was the cradle of some of history's most significant events, from its days as a major stronghold of the Roman Empire, to its status as a longtime border between Christian and Moorish Spain. It was here that the crucial developments in horsemanship by the Moors would influence the Spanish style of cattle herding and later, after the reconquista, be adopted by history's most famous conquistadores and taken to the New World.

Had these developments happened even a few hundred miles in any direction, the Americas may very well have been a herding culture primarily of sheep, goats or pigs!

Mounts ready to run So important is the cattle culture here that wide strips of public land called canadas are set aside for moving cattle across the countryside. It's not unusual to come across a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere caused by a cattle-and-vaquero crossing, giving a unique regional double-meaning to the term: "drive carefully."

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