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Rapa Das Bestas - Spanish Horse Wrestling Festival
An ancient festival in Galicia Spain, the Rapa das bestas is an old practice of ‘Taming the Beasts’ and is thought to date back to the Bronze Age. Men and women alike would wrestle the untamed horses to the ground with their hands and arms to cut their manes and tails.
It’s a noble tradition where man pits his strength against a beast without ropes or weapons and only using his bare hands and courage. This Spanish fiesta goes on for three days of which after the horses are sent up to the hillside again and it does not involve cruelty and death.
17 more pics of the Rapa Das Bestas festival after the jump.
Source: Blame It On The Voices
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July 31st, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Funny.. that looks pretty cruel to me.. :l
July 31st, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Cruel, stupid, idiot.
What they wnt to proove?
Yes, we are smarter than horses…?
I dont think so.
Why not to put their children there to fight with bears?
f*ck that stupid festival..
August 1st, 2008 at 5:55 am
what the hell is this crap . People are f*cking idiots !!!!
August 1st, 2008 at 6:06 am
This is not good. This might be a tradition, but this is also a very bad experience for a horse. Today we don´t need to handle horses like this. I hope people don´t look at this “tradition” as a good thing.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:20 am
okay this is to much! ..Fighting with horses? ..whats wrong those guyse nedd some theraphy i’m not kidding ..itðs just sick! ..that people that are fighting horses for christ sakes should be in their own ring and check how it is to be beeten up of two or three horses!
Okay i’m from Iceland and i ride horses every day and belive me i’ve been throogh many things with horses ..all they have to do is get into a mood and your dead!
August 1st, 2008 at 8:16 am
You sick freaks, you call this entertainment. What the fuck is wrong with you guys. You are hurting the horses grapping their Tales what the fuck. You may all die in hell
August 1st, 2008 at 10:14 pm
poor animals and i mean the humans, they should be sacrificed cuz’ they are a waste of brain capacity -.- this is pointless
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 am
You people are ridiculous - who gives a flying **** about the wild horses?
at least they aren’t killing them.
whinny bitches - I swear to god the way some animal lovers act you’d think they’d rather they be dead than an animal.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
yeah, theyre not dying, but still. its painful for them to be wrestled like that. How would you like it if someone was beating you up? wait, you’re not dying so its okay, right?
no its not… Its wrong
and while these people are following “tradition”, they might aswell follow that “sacraficing human life “tradition too. since it is pretty entertaining to watch pain in action. (sarcasm)
August 16th, 2008 at 6:25 am
This is article is wrong from the beginning….this festival is not about wrestling or taming the horses,.
These pictures don´t reflect the real instinct and purpouse of the festival.
The wild horses are “picked” up from the mountain and guided to that kind of square. The purpouse and history of this tradition was to keep track of the different group of horses that lived in a certain area and also it´suppossed to help the horses by cutting their hair, and this way they don´t get it stuck in bushes and things like that.
They only thing the humans do is grabbing the horses and cutting its hair, not beating or wrestling them… like this pictures may portray
You can check this out: http://www.galinor.es/galeria/rapa-e.html
August 19th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Mmmm, nice festival maybe they should have a festival where horses trample on these people…lol
August 29th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Great photos and respectful text, but…
Well, this is all really full of “f**king idots” and “sick stupid freaks” seeking for “entertainment” -¿?- who have to “die in hell” but this ones are the people that comments in blogs without any idea of what they are saying.
The “rapa das bestas” -Crop the beast`s hair- is a festival in which possibly the last wild horses of Europe are marked by its owners by cropping their manes -see the last photo-, without fire, AND NOTHING MORE. And after that, the animals are set in the wild again, to the next year. THAT IS ALL (Well, and the music and wonderful food and wine). The “wrestling” -like in the photos- happens when they try to immobilize a horse so it doesn´t hurt anybody. Or itself. Nobody wants to hurt his or hers own horse.
Is a bad idea to speak about something, specially when insisting in what is right or wrong or who is this or that, without knowing what you are saying.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Wow, great comments on these pics. It seems people are either outraged or outraged at the people that are outraged.
This tradition probably does no good. Does it do harm? Is there potential for people or the horses to get hurt?
August 30th, 2008 at 4:56 am
In USA the cattle its been marked by iron incadescent.. that’s better, isn’t? Look at you own shit, and then, you may criticize about another ones.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:34 am
This broke my heart, horses are the most beautiful, noble wonderfully trusting animals. How on earth can these poor excuse for humans do this to such a wonderful animal (or any animal)
The write up states NO CRUELTY INVOLVED???? are they blind or stupid? things like this must be stopped along with all the other barbaric things like bull fighting, dog fighting, cock fighting and all of the other crazy cruel animal hurting activities!
And to Michael….. please tell me what is to be gained from this cruelty the horses have no need to have there mains and tails chopped off after being scared half to death? please open your mind and understad how horrific this must be for thoese poor horses.
And Alaric ….. you say it does no harm but if you know anyting about horses you will know the look in those horses eyes means they are full of fear and that is harm! Why own a horse if you leave it to be wild? it either is wild in wich case leave it alone or its owned by someone in wich case care for it, love it and gain its trust then it will happily give love back to you and let you cut it’s tail if you so wish!!
December 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am
i hate why your doing this is because it has cruelty and its really really stupid gay.