Ethnography

CURRO OF MOUGÁS

CURRO OF MOUGÁS

A unique place where you can see the ancient ritual of the Rapa, where herdsmen capture and brand wild horses in an impressive mountain corral.
The Mougás farm is made up of three enclosures. The largest is where the curro takes place, the medium-sized one is where the horses for sale are kept and the small one is where the foals are kept. The Mougás curro is the largest in the municipality of Oia.
Thus, first thing in the morning, the farmers go up to the mountain and lead the wild horses to the curro. Afterwards, they eat on the mountain, in the picnic area or in the canteens, which are in the vicinity of the curro. In the afternoon, the herdsmen enter the curro and separate the horses by branding them with fire and cutting off their manes, before setting them free again.
In the same way that in many Galician towns, the amarradores are in charge of catching the horses at the closing of the curro, here the beasts are caught with a "vara de encabestrar".
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the only main event is the celebration of the Rapa. Thus, the breeders enter the "cierre" and by means of techniques already used in ancestral times, they identify and choose their horses, clean them, cut their manes and mark the new animals.