El desfile hípica de Zaragoza en espanol.
Zaragoza is known as the little Spain of Guatemala. The streets are laid out in grid formation like nearby Antigua. The Catholic Church is massive and beautiful.
I heard about the parade thru my new friends at SABESA/ World Horse Welfare in Zaragoza, Guatemala.
They are friends of my friend “Concho” Concepcion Hernandez Ramirez of Puebla City Mexico. You may have seen him in my post as I travelled thru Puebla. He’s a 4th generation farrier and one of Mexico’s premier vets. He does workshops all Mexico as well as in Guatemala with World Horse Welfare.
SABESA and World Horse Welfare’s mission is to provide horse related stuff like:
Trimming
Horseshoeing
Saddle making
Pack saddle making
Tack work
Horse health workshops
Here’s a link to their site. I’ll write more about their workshops when Concho comes down in a couple weeks.
https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Guatemala
After visiting SABESA to have new cantle saddle bags made, the people there told me about the upcoming parade. I told them I was in. FO’ SHO’.
I rode to the parade the day before hand, on Saturday. It takes about 90 minutes to get there. We partied that night, but not too much.
I woke up early to get ready for the parade. I was early at the start. Almost everyone else was late, lol.
As the ride was about to start a couple riders from different Cuadras or horse clubs, aked if I wanted to join theirs for the parade, as I was alone. I joined up with the group from San Martin, a town 33km from Itzapa.
I really had fun with those guys! You guys are awesome with your dancing Peruvians.
The parade in general was so organized. The horses participating were extremely high quality. Each Cuadra had their accompanying cars and or trucks and sound systems and each group did their thing or show. Because Roxy doesn’t any of that, but she loves kids, I would ride her up to kids in the crowd and they would pet her. It was great.
As I toured around town with the Cuadra. I passed the SABESA headquarters. At that point, I got off and hung out as it was raining slightly and Roxy was getting antsy. I ended up missing the after party and I heard it was fun. But I had fun visiting locals in town, before crashing out in the afternoon.
The next morning, I left to go back to Maya Pedal in Itzapa. This is Leonardo Montufar, the SABESA coordinator. My new friend.
That was my experience at the Zaragoza Horse Parade. I highly recommend it.
Chris MacLuckies’ professional career began with a decade-long stint as an organic vegetable grower in Ontario Canada. His career is prolific in breadth and scope. He has farmed organics commercially, volunteered in Guatemala, ran a gardening business, raised and raced sled dogs, tended his livestock, and ridden his horse on a multi-country expedition.
Chris is a certified TEFL ESL English Teacher, author of seven books, freelance content creator, and outdoor travel gear designer.
