Horses

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By Pat Werner

Ephraim Squier may have been the first to write about Nicaraguan horseflesh.  One day in 1849, he was in Granada, riding toward the farm of José Leon Sandoval, located on the hill above the lake shore.  As he passed the Polvora, he noticed a group of lancers leave the main gate.  With them was one General Federico Muñoz.  He noted that Muñoz was dressed like a general should be dressed, and he was riding on a showy looking horse. Muñoz had apparently been attached to the Mexican Army general staff, and he knew his business.  After William Walker came to Nicaraguan in 1855, Muñoz and Walker were on the same side, fighting with the Liberals.  Muñoz detested Walker and would have nothing to do with him.  Muñoz, while fighting a battle in Pueblo Nuevo, was shot in the back, probably by agents of Walker.

Colonial Horses

Horses came to Nicaragua with Gil Gonzalez Davila in 1522 and later with Francisco Fernandez in 1524 and have been here ever since. One of the interesting mysteries is the location of the trail that was established in the 1520s from Leon Viejo to the mines at Nueva Segovia.  Historians have speculated for 50 years on that route, and it was a route that was traveled by both horses carrying riders, and pack animals, carrying cargo.  If I were going to ride from Leon Viejo to the mines I would ride to the mouth of the Rio Viejo, follow that river to s its headwaters by the Volcán de Yalí, and drop into the drainage of the Coco River, and follow the river to the mouth of the Jícaro River, where the mining town of Santa Maria de Buena Esperanza was established, burned out twice by Indians, and reestablished as Nueva Segovia in 1543.  It would have been quite a ride, of perhaps 300 km, and have taken 8-10 days.  Francisco de Castañeda wrote that the trail was easy to follow as the skeletons of dead Indians pointed the way.  Obispo Valdivieso wrote that it was an abomination.

There was a royal road, or camino real, that ran from Honduras to Nicaragua, following the present Panamerican Highway, beginning at Guasaule, and leading to Leon, then called Subtiava, then Leon Viejo, and on  passing close by the present New Leon Highway to Managua, Masaya, and Granada.  It apparently headed south by the present road to somewhere by Peñas Blancas, and crossed into the province of Costa Rica. We know about these old roads because two Spaniards, Andres de Cereceda and Frahy Ciudad Real, were sort of anal retentive and recorded their travel by these roads by day, village, ethnicity, and exact distances walked.

For several years I worked in the intermountain west, where the states of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah come together.  It was a place of very large cattle and sheep ranches, one being 240 square miles, and of that about 3,000 acres patented and the rest public (BLM) lands. It was the old stomping grounds of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.  Much of the ranch work was done on horseback as there were few roads and very big pastures, some being 50,000 acres.  Working on horseback was a lot cheaper than using jeeps and trucks.  Almost all of the cowboys, or vaqueros, were Mexican, many from the area of Namiquipa, Chihuahua, where Black Jack Pershing and his 10,000 man army spent Christmas, 1916, hunting for Pancho Villa, and never found him.  The land around Namiquipa is desert, with very large haciendas, and most animal husbandry being done on horseback. Many families work on those haciendas and their children are riding by the age of five or six, with saddles with really short stirrup leathers and fenders.  No matter, at the age of 10, most children are completely at home on a horse with saddle or bareback, and know completely how to handle and care for horses. One vaquero comes to mind, named Tony.  He was wiry, had a hook nose, and could do anything with a horse.  In the remuda we had about 50 horses.  When I wanted a particular horse, old Tony would get them loping around the corral, and rope the horse I picked out, usually with one throw, and always by a hind leg, usually the left hind leg.

One of Tony´s Sunday pastimes was to chase wild horses. It was a long time ago and legal in those days. He would pick out a small herd and try to get a sand dune between us and the herd.  He tightened up the cinch, climbed aboard his big thoroughbred well grained up, told me to try to keep up, and then burst around the dune and rode like the devil.  He would pick out the youngest looking horse and rope it while his cousin roped the hind legs.  I was usually close to a mile behind the boys when they caught their horse. I got there in time to see the horse still on the ground and hobbled.  I think that these boys were always amazed that I did not fall off the horse riding toward them.  My horse, Smoky Joe, was steady and pretty slow, so there was little chance I would fly off. It was a lot of fun.  Tony had grown up in Namiquipa, and was riding at the age of five or six.  He had no cellular phone, and spent his spare time practicing roping and rope tricks.  He embodied the sum total of learning of equestrian matters in northern Mexico.    In a sense, his horsemanship was a function of sociology, geography, and animal husbandry.

Nicaraguan Horse Tack

Nicaragua has its own equestrian tradition, in some ways similar to that of Mexico, and in some ways quite different from that of Mexico, or the United States.   There are no great deserts here, though there are large cattle operations, particularly in the north, and in Chontales.  And the horses are different.  Horse tack is a sort of historical mix.   To control the horse the bozal is more common, and metal bits less common.  Saddles are a diverse mixture.  The most common in rural areas is the albarda, essentially a wide surcingle with grass padding inside.  They are usually easy on the horse´s back, and almost never give problems to the withers.  The other common rural saddle is the McClellan, usually the model 1904 McClellan.  At the end of the Contra War, I spent some time in Quilalí, a northern mountain town. On Saturdays, the cowboys would ride in out of the mountains, have some local brew, and try to stay out of trouble.  They almost all rode McClellans.  How those US cavalry saddles got there I am not sure.  I remember as a little boy in the 1950s, growing up in Michigan,  seeing stacks of used McClellans in sporting goods stores.  The US army had demobilized the horse cavalry by the end of the Second World War, and later sold off all the old cavalry equipment.  Some of those thousands of saddles must have been purchased by some Nicaraguan, maybe old Somoza himself, and made their way to Nicaragua.

In many ways, the McClellan saddle is a very well designed saddle for both man and horse.  It is probably George McClellan´s best work, designed in 1859, as he proved to be an ineffectual general who got fired by Abraham Lincoln.  Though he said the saddle was based on Hungarian cavalry saddles, it is probably a modification of earlier US cavalry saddles, such as the Grimsley.  The saddle weighs only 15 pounds, and has a wide, high gullet, so it is easy on the withers, regardless of the construction of the horse.  It also is usually rigged in a center fire style, so the rider is directly over the center of gravity of the horse, or its pivot point.

Bits are another matter.  The most common cavalry bit was the Shoemaker bit of the late 19^th century, or a curb bit,  uch as the model 1906, or Pelham bit if the horse was a bit spirited. The spade bit, a favorite of the Mexican and American cowboy equestrian traditions, was not a US cavalry bit accepted for government issue.  For many in rural areas, a metal bit and headstall might not be practical, so the bozal, has become the most common ¨bit¨. It is in reality the  ancient Arab jácima,  called  stateside the hackamore,  a headstall and reins attached to a loop that goes around the nose of the horse and is tightened down by pulling on the reins.

The influence of television, namely the westerns of the 1950s, has had a strong influence  on Nicaraguan saddles, particularly those ridden in horse parades, or hípicos.  These saddles, sometime called the Association saddle, are heavy, usually double rigged, which puts the rider far back on the horse´s back.  They have a low cantle and swells, and have padded seats, an abomination.   They look to me clunky. Lastly, one finds English riding or jumping saddles, which are a light delight compared to the Association saddle.

Horse Flesh

What sort of horses the first Spaniards used, I do not know; neither do I have much idea on saddles, bits, and tack of those early riders. I have never been able to find a saddle, or bit, that I felt dated from the 16^th or 17^th century.  I found, south of Quilalí, one bronze stirrup, probably from the 17^th century, and I photographed bits, tack, and  from probably the 17^th or 18^th century that I found in the city museum of Antigua, Guatemala, but no saddles nor saddle trees.  There are found on rural fincas small, tough horses.  And among the modern horse riders, there are many varieties of Arab horses, call them Español, Andalusian, or Peruano.  Some of these can be observed at the famous horse farm, Majaloba, owned by Ismael Reyes, outside of San Marcos.  There is probably no finer horse flesh in Nicaragua that that found at Majaloba.   I am sure there are other blue stocking horse farms, but Majalobas is close and I know Ismael.  Take a look. 

Horse Buying For Expats

Buying a horse is a gentle art. I was once in charge of maintaining a horse herd on a large ranch, and an old boy told me that all horse traders are liars. Horses are all individuals and unpredictable and can easily fool a human – just ask any horse owner who races horses. It is very easy to buy a good looking horse and find out he has several non obvious bad habits, or has no bottom, or endurance.  Sooner or later, if you deal in horses you will get stuck by a trader smarter than you, and you will have to tell a lie to get rid of a mistake.  So be careful buying a horse. You may become a liar someday too.

The process for buying a horse is like in the western United States.  You will need a bill of sale, a up to date brand inspection, and a guía, or a day permit to transport the horse from its seller´s location to where you are going to keep your horse.  If you know about aging a horse by its teeth, by all means take a look, especially for the hook that appears twice in the horse´s life.   And do not forget about Equine infectious Anemia, as it exists here as well as in the States.  They just do not call it the Coggins Test.

For Further Reading

For photos of Quilali at the end of the Contra War, with lots of McClellan saddles, see my web page, www.nicaraguanpathways.com and the photos of Quilali.  For saddles generally, see Russel Beatie, Saddles, University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. On the wild and wooly tale of  chasing Pancho Villa in Chihuahua and around Namiquipa, see Col. Frank Tompkins, Chasing Villa, JMC, 1934. On horse packing and knots, see Smoke Elser and Bill Brown, Packin´ In On Mules and Horses, Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula, and US Army, Manual of Pack Transportation, 1916.

In a future article, I hope to discuss dressage in Nicaragua, perhaps the highest form of equestrian activity, and Nicaraguan polo playing, surely the fastest moving and most fun of all horse activities.

Pat Werner – Bio

Born in Michigan in 1948, Werner received his education at Michigan State University and Wayne State University.  He began working in a gun shop at the age of 14, and began competitive shooting at 16. He worked as a friend of the court in family law matters, assistant prosecutor, and entered private practice, specializing in family law and bankruptcy.  In the intermountain west, he became involved in ranch management, began gold prospecting as a hobby, and got post graduate education in handling green broke horses.

Werner moved to Nicaragua at the later part of the Contra War, and was engaged by various news agencies, including Izvestia and the Los Angeles Times, taking reporters into various places in the northern mountains, and the Miskito Coast. He had the opportunity to wander the northern mountains and Miskito coast, and worked exporting fish from the Miskito Coast to Costa Rica in 1989. He worked at the American School and later began work at the University of Mobile, San Marcos campus.  He continued to work at the campus in various positions, including professor and Academic Dean at Keiser University, retiring in December 2014. He served for several years on the board of the CCNN of the American Embassy.

His scholarly interests include Nicaraguan archaeology and anthropology, ethno-botany, Hispanic colonial law and Nicaraguan history. He has published seven books, including the first guide to Nicaraguan orchids in English and has also written 10 manuscripts, and presented 60 papers at international conferences on botany, archaeology, anthropology, and Hispanic colonial law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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