MacsTravel Blog

Jerez de La Fontera is a town of a couple of hundred thousand people which lies 30 minutes to the north of Cadiz. It’s primarily famous for sherry and horses. We decided to make a day trip up the road for the horses.

La Fundación Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre (The Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art) is a world famous centre for training horses and riders. While wandering around the property we thought a lot of our niece Hope, who has ridden for a few years now and would certainly be blown away by the facility and the show.

The facility itself is impressive, with a small “Royal” palace. A king stayed here once so it gets to be “Royal”and display the “chains” out front to indicate this privilege- I didn’t bother to unpack that symbolism.

The grounds are beautifully manicured and there are botanical gardens, an impressive fountain and a beautifully maintained arena.

It was probably about two thirds full when we visited, and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.

The show features a range of equestrian skills and disciplines with a heavy emphasis on dressage commands. It is pure 19th century Spain in terms of the costuming, music and choreography. The performance we attended was a ninety minute show of incredible riding and horsemanship. There is a mix of agility work with a rider, horse maneuvers without riders, two and four horse carriage maneuvers and then multiple horse and rider displays reminiscent of the RCMP Musical Ride in Canada.

The show began with a solo rider in a traditional “Spanish cowboy” wide brimmed hat and leather chaps. He took his horse through a number of different maneuvers, the equestrian terminology for which I believe are “the electric slide”, the “do si do” and the “moonwalk”.

This was followed by a small group of riders in acorn hats and grey formal wear who showed off more synchronized footwork, including a version of the “Hokey Pokey”. I apologize for the formal equestrian terminology. I will try and keep my descriptions more accessible.

The stars of the show were probably the horses without riders who demonstrated incredible agility and jumping. That section of the show was absolutely worth the drive to Jerez.

After a short intermission where a tractor dragged a “poop-Zamboni” (TM) around the arena we were treated to more solo horse maneuvers, the carriage horses and finally, the big finale.

All in all, it vastly exceeded expectations and we would certainly recommend attending one of these shows if you are ever in the area of Jerez, even if you don’t have my mastery of equestrian terminally.