La doma: the art of training horses for riding, competition, or managing cattle

Cowboy horse training is an art that combines the aptitudes and learning ability of the horse with the skills and high doses of patience of the rider, and when all this comes together, the result is an animal trained for riding, for competing, or for being essential in the handling of wild cattle. Juan Rafael Nevado is a 23-year-old who has been managing his own training facility in Pedroche (Córdoba) for five years, where he currently trains about twenty horses, most of them belonging to clients. A lover of these animals since he was young, he has assured Efeagro that his job is to train them from scratch but also to solve behavioral problems between horse and rider. It is an arduous task, full of patience, and in which it is "impossible" to give an estimated average time for how long it will take to train: "There are horses that do nothing in 15 days and others that do," he has pointed out. In this education phase, it is essential that the animal "respects," knows "who is in ...