La Rural...Nuestro Caballos y Nuestro Perros

Every year, at the beginning of April, La Rural (Exhibition Grounds) in Buenos Aires hosts one of the most renown Horse and Dog Exhibitions in South America. Modern exhibition halls complement the graceful Belle Epoque beauty of historic exhibition halls and spectator stands. Only a couple of years ago, this event was a cauldron of activity, dozens of exhibitor stands of all kinds, hundreds of horses and their picturesque gauchos, and huge crowds of spectators. Galloping inflation has taken it's toll even here. Transportation and stabling has reached unaffordable levels of expense for the rural community,  

The vast halls housing the animals were hardly occupied, the feria artesanal was reduced to a couple of dozen stands... and the public stayed away.

 

Beautiful Belle Epoque Exhibition halls

 

 

 Young woman working her 'Peruvian Paso' in the warm up ring ...

 Criollo Horse line classes...small, compact, intelligent, tough, strong....a horse with legendary stamina, descendands of Andalusian Horses turned feral after the Gaucho wars a couple of hundred years ago.

 A smaller crowd of onlookers, mostly exhibitors as well...

 One of the few remaining artesans at the Exhibition: a jeweller creating pieces made from horse shoes. There were a couple of silversmiths selling mate gourds, horse tack stands, clothing vendors, one or two artists and two stands with local delicatessen (honey, cheeses, hams, bacons and sausages)

 Not a tack store, but a tack room for Frisian carriage teams - there actually were one or two of them...

 The dog show was almost as well attended by participants as in previous years - however, again less vendors offering pet food, clothing, grooming and insurance.

 Housing a dog at an exhibition involves a crate and a little space, definitely less expensive than paying for one large stall per horse, especially when travelling with more than one equine.

 The intrepids and less impoverished still take their treasures to town. Every time I see a magnificient specimen of the Criollo breed, I wish I could take one home to Canada...

Judging in Progress

The Walk Past in front of critical judges of quality horse flesh.

No exhibition, no sport, no game, no outing ...nothing is complete, without a stimulating sip of hierba mate...

And the Winner is...

 ...maybe this dairy cow...already occupying her stall in an adjoining exhibition hall, awaiting the exhibition of 'lechera' ....milk production

I was glad to have visited the Nuestro Caballos y Nuestro Porros exhibition to connect 'with the country' and sad at the same time, to see, how over a few years a popular event with a large number of rural participants, four and two legged, has devolved into a shadow of itself.
The Dairy Exhibition, which was scheduled to follow the one of Horses and Dogs, was already gearing up with a few dairy cows undergoing their visit to the 'Dairy Spa' for a wash, dry, and cut...