A Day on the Pampas at Estancia Santa Susana:
Located an hour's drive from Buenos Aires, Estancia Santa
Susana is near the town of Los Cardales in Buenoes Aires Province. It occupies
almost 3000 acres and is mainly dedicated to agricultural activities. Today the original
house is a small museum and the immediate grounds offer "a day on the pampas"
experience to visitors every day of the week.
Upon arrival at the estancia you are greeted with empanadas
and a refreshing juice, wine or beer. You have time to visit the home-turned-museum,
filled with the family's furniture, gadgets and clothes from the past, and the small
chapel next to the main house. There is also time to go horseback riding or take a
ride in a horse drawn carriage. And all this while, the gauchos are cooking lunch
over huge beds of coal.
Then enjoy lunch of four salads and a selection of grilled
meats, follwed by dessert, and all accompanied by wine, beer or soft drinks.
After lunch there is a show with a couple dancing tango to
recorded music followed by a live trio playing folkloric (Gaucho) music while the same
couple, decked out in traditional Gaucho clothes, dances, complete with fascinating
display of the "bolleadores" - braided leather cords with wooden balls that the
Gaucho dancer wields in a circle, allowing the wooden ball to hit the floor in a manner to
create a rhythm. The Gaucho also uses his boots - bottoms and sides - to create a rythmic
beat as well.
NOTE: Shows that included Gaucho folkloric music and dancing are not so easy to find in
Buenos Aires any more, so this is an excellent option.
After the show you move outside to a viewing area along
side a huge field for two traditional Gaucho activities:
Carrera de Sortijas (Ring race)
The carrera de sortijas (ring race) comes from the time the Spanish came to South America.
There is a “goal” and from its crossbeam hang some rings. The objective of the
game is for player to come galloping and remove the rings from the goal with a pointer.
Players come galloping one by one or two or three at a time. Then the players give the
rings to some women in the audience as presents from a “gaucho”.
Entrevero de Tropillas
The group of horses is compound by 8 or 9 male horses that follow a mare (termed
"godmother") that has a bell around her neck. The mare is led by a gaucho. The
objective is for no male horse to leave the group. Five groups of horses come together and
mix. Every horse has to stay within its group. The horses in each group are all the same
color.
NOTE: below is a
separate and more descriptive explanation of this activity by Endurance Net, along with a
link to their sire for even more Gaucho traditions and activities.
LADATCO's "Day on the Pampas at Estancia Santa
Susana" includes:
- Private transfers Buenos Aires-Estancia Santa Susana-Buenos
Aires
- Services of a private guide
- Empanadas & wine reception in the ranch's pub
- Beverages: soft drinks, water, sparkling water, juice, red
& white wine, beer.
- Lunch including
Starters: Chorizo (pork sausage) – morcilla (blood sausage)
Main dish: variety of meat , chicken, “bife de chorizo”
Variety of salads
Desserts: “pastelitos criollos” & coffee
- Guided visit to the museum & to the church
- Horseback riding and "sulky" rides
- Entertainment including tango and Gaucho folkloric music
& dancing
- "Destrezas Criollas" including
sortija race
Entrevero de Tropillas
cuadreras race
A great explanation of "tropillas"
taken from a larger article
from the web site of "2005 Pan American Endurance Championships, April 13-15 2005 by
"Endurance Net"
http://www.endurance.net/2005PAC/StephStory/note005.html
Great first hand description of La Fiesta de Tropillas
Here's the problem: the rangelands of Argentina and the
pampas were vast - horses, cattle, sheep, Indians, gauchos, ranchos spread across the
land. The people had to travel great distances by horseback, and each man needed more than
one horse to do the work. The work of transportation - simply getting from one place to
another, and the work of moving and managing the herds of cattle and bands of horses.
Here's the solution: train a band of horses to travel
together, to stay together, to always seek and follow a leader. Like a tight school of
fish, or a flock of sheep, or goslings bound to their mother, panicking if they are
separated or she gets out of sight. Create a band of horses that wake, graze and travel as
one. No need for fences or corrals, no need for halters and ropes. Wherever the madrina
goes, the others follow. Where she is picketed, they stay. When she moves they follow.
Where she is led, the others go. A band of horses - broke to saddle, trained to work, and
always at hand. Simply change saddles from one horse to another, any time, anywhere on the
range.
The look in the eye of these horses is different when they
are free, when their madrina is on the move. Their focus is intent, always an ear or an
eye toward the mare with the bell. It's the look you see in the eye when something
startles a herd - what now? where now? run? stay? - ears erect and pointing toward the
danger, but the focus toward the lead mare for direction.
Over the years the tropilla has become a tradition, a
specialty - defined visually and functionally. It must meet certain standards of
composition, and performance. The size of the tropilla generally ranges between 10 and 20
horses. There is always a mare, the 'madrina' (godmother) who wears a bell collar. A loud
bell, the bell that the others are trained to follow and stay close to. No matter what.
This mare is always of a different color from the others.
There is also the 'lunar' - (the mole, the beauty mark) - a
gelding of yet another different, distinctive color. The lunar - the mole - is the accent
of the tropilla - the artistic touch - the signature of the owner.
The rest are geldings, generally of the same color, ideally
of the same size and type. All blacks, all tobianos, all overos, or all roans, etc. The
madrina and lunar are chosen to have complementary colors. For instance, if the band is
black/white tobiano, the mole might be a bay/white tobiano - and the madrina a solid
black.
