by Fabio Ochoa Restrepo

Translated by Juan Carlos Bossa from Fabio Ochoa Restrepo’s from pages 164-165 of the small book titled "Mi Vida en el Mundo de Los Caballos" with permission of Juan David Ochoa.

This great stallion, that has such a close relationship with the famous horses of nowadays, existed approximately from 1940 to 1965. He was bred by my uncle Libardo (R.I.P.) in his farm La Argelia, near La Margarita, a son of a big brown mare called La Campana, believed to be from Bogotá or La Sabana. My uncle bought her when he was getting married, from Doctor Pedro Nel Ospina, a Colombian ex-president; I met her when she was old and used to ride her bareback when I visited my cousins.

Gaucho’s sire was Jazmin, a son of Resorte I and La Venus, “just those two”, my father would say. When Gaucho was weaned he was sent with some other colts of my dad’s to be raised at La Mansa, a farm in Carmen de Atrato. Later on, my dad sent me and my brother Raul with Felix Durán (RIP), to pick the colts up and bring them to La Margarita. There were 8 to 10 colts and fillies that would all be famous later on. A road had already been made from Bolívar to Carmen de Atrato, and when we were bringing them down the road, they would get scared and begin running up and down that road every time a car went by; we finally got on the small path that led to La Margarita and arrived there around midnight, with the poor animals walking on their noses, since their little hoofs hurt so much. When dad saw them he said: “you nearly killed them”, so they started to treat them with lemon and animal’s grease and whatever other rubbing substance you could find in those days and they were finally cured. Some days afterwards, being Gaucho around 15 months old, my uncle Libardo sold him to his cousin Carlos Ochoa to be taken to Popayán, where he had recently settled down, for around $130 pesos.

The voyage was made by land from Salgar to La Pintada, where the train was caught. The colt was taken on a halter and shod, mixed with about 100 white-blackeared calves, which Carlos took for trade in Popayán; all this roundup of cattle and colt was done by walking men. After the first day, one of the men returned with the bad news that the colt, Gaucho, had rolled down a cliff and was standing on a stone, about to fall into the rumbling San Juan River. Carlos went off immediately with my father and a group of friends on horseback to try and save the colt. With ropes and sacks they could wrap the colt up and carry him back up to the road, safe and sound. He continued his trip and arrived in Popayán to Carlos’s home, as if he were another son. He grew up fine there and Carlos himself trained him. To Salgar arrived Gaucho’s fame, he was just on the bit. Unfortunately, in those days, Carlos had to turn to Gaucho so he could raise some money, so he made little tickets, 100 of them, sold them at $5 pesos a piece, to make $500 and made a raffle. Jose Ochoa Pulido was in charge of this so he went all around Cauca and Valle with Gaucho, selling the tickets. A man from Buga won the raffle and began to drink booze on Gaucho, turning him into a “coleador” (coleador is a term used to describe a horse who is constantly moving his tail in signal of discomfort and anger) horse. Carlos did what he could to get him back, and finally took him back to Popayán where he lived for 20 years in the house’s kitchen. Beatriz (R.I.P.), Carlos’s gentle wife, would talk to him all day long while she cooked the food.

Carlos and everyone from Popayán got good sons out of him, to name a few: Desvelo, Castalia and Divina (Gaucho with Cabinera). The OK (Oka), who was a white mare that Carlos exchanged in Cartago (Valle) with Martín Londoño for a goat from El Dauro, that Martín said to be of the Cabuyero, the one from La Esmeralda of the Ocampo from Manizales, bloodlines. Anyway, Carlos said she showed some class, I never saw her under saddle. This couple, Gaucho and OK (Oka), produced some 10 famous offspring, some of them were: La Celosa, La Sombra, La Tuerta, Caribe, etc.

Note: Celosa was Resorte III and Bochica’s grand dam, from there what follows and that we all know so well, Resorte III’s descendants such as: Resorte IV, Rescate, Capuchino, Castellano, Anfitrión, Caperucita, Castalia I and II, Bahía, Arrogancia, La Chunga, Emperatriz, Jibarito, India Catalina, Linda Morena, Aristocracia, Plebeyo, Cerezo, La Rosa, Rosalinda, Retorno, Nevado, Maitamá, etc.,etc., and a thousand more, all of them Gaucho’s descendants.

Gaucho was of a dark burned brown color, not very tall but very robust, proud, nice ears and face, very fino, like his grandma, La Venus. When Gaucho was already old, Carlos gave him away to a friend of his, Don Eugenio Castro, my dear compadre, he had him in Guacarí (Valle) making good use of him with very good mares, and getting an infinity of important offspring out of him.

Don Eugenio lent him for a couple of years to Martin Emilio Velez O., to take to El Retiro in Titiribi, there he gave all the Velez Ochoa good horses, at the moment I own three Gaucho daughters, all of them around 25 years old, one of them about to give birth out of Rescate.

Fabio Ochoa Restrepo

Note from PasoPedigree.com: In my studies of the X factor theory this stallion consistently shows up in the pedigrees of some of the very best reproductors in Paso Fino History. To have Gaucho in your horses female line on their X factor means you have many years of history in your bloodlines. Gaucho is one of the most important lines found on the females side of the pedigree.

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