La Venus

 

Translated from Mi Vida en El Mundo de los Caballos by Fabio Ochoa Restrepo (Translated by Juan Carlos Bossa with special permission of Juan David Ochoa)

(Pages 120-124 of the Small Book by Fabio Ochoa)

 

The mare Venus and her offspring: When La Venus arrived at La Margarita, around 1920, she was sold to my grandfather by don Pepo Londoño from Girardota (a town in Antioquia) in $1,000 pesos, she was the best mare of those times, very fine. When dad saw a fine beast, he would always say: “just like La Venus”.

Here’s an anecdote: When my dad and my grandfather bought La Venus, there was a lot of noise and they showed her at the Berrio park: people got together to see the mare that had cost $1,000 pesos; a man from the region said: “the mare Rochela, from Sopetran (another town in Antioquia) is as good as this one and maybe even better”. My grandfather inquired about her and went to Sopetran on a mule and also bought her. He called her “La Gaviota” and she was the one my grandmother, mama Maria, rode on. This way Resorte I, La Venus and La Gaviota get together at La Margarita to produce that great herd we have nowadays. When La Venus arrived to La Margarita she was pregnant, and produced El Mico, who was gelded, and that was a great mistake, because with La Canaria he produced the famous Café, Don Danilo’s grand dam, one of the best mares there were at La Margarita.

Her second daughter was the great Gasolina, out of Resorte I, as good as La Venus but with Resorte’s beauty. Third daughter, La Favorita, out of Resorte I, dark bay, big, beautiful, and very fino. Fourth son, Jazmin, out of Resorte I, as beautiful as his sire, grey and fino, just like his dam, a great stallion, sire of Gaucho. Her fifth offspring was Morgan a very good trochador out of Carey, he was sold to Mr. Alberto and Pascual Jaramillo, who took him to the area of Santa Rosa. He left very good offspring in that area. Her sixth offspring was Atahualpa, out of a Pirata owned by my uncle Roberto Restrepo, the mare got pregnant accidentally at an outing. Atahualpa had a unique kind of beauty, he looked like his half sister La Favorita, but was not as good. He was sold by my father to some visitors from Aguadas, Vicente Patiño and Benjamin Estrada for $250, this was about 55 years ago, I was 5 years old and I recorded this history for my eternal memory: a few days later, the news arrived that Atahualpa had been sold for $2,000, a fortune, to the Gutierrez brothers from Cali, don Roberto, don Carlos and don Alberto, a great fan and who managed the herd of mares.

Several years after, I saw Atahualpa once again, he was already old, and I got to know infinity of his offspring as beautiful he was, not as good because in those times the broodmares were no good in the Valle del Cauca. Her seventh son was Plumaje, the great monster and complete paso fino horse, out of Pielroja; a great stallion, he was “just” the grandsire of Bochica and Resorte III. He was sold as a colt by my grandfather to Hacienda San Isidro, owned by don Gonzalo Muñoz, brother in law to master Valencia, in Popayan for $900, where they sold him to Bernardo Noreña (R.I.P.) who enjoys him and shows the public this paso fino monster. Bernardo sold him to Popayan’s farm. Before leaving Salgar, he left a filly bought by don Urbano Arango who shows her at a fair in Medellin, what a show! The next day, being taken to Ayacucho stalls, her tail got tangled in an electricity wire and she was killed.

I wrote a letter to Carlos Ochoa telling her about the filly out of Plumaje who just got killed and recommending him to get some products out of Plumaje who was wasting his time ate the Popayan farm. Carlos owned his adored, and was right to adore him, Gaucho, but he listens to me and sends La Celosa, mother of Guala, Resorte III’s dam, to Plumaje for live cover. It’s too bad he didn’t listen well, he should’ve at least gotten 10 offspring out of him with those great broodmares he owned. Carlos gets Plumaje when he was already 25 years old and sends him to don Eugenio Castro who gets some, not many, very good offspring out him: La Odalisca, La Galicia, La Sevillana, etc. And here is where I finally caught up with him. I get an offspring out of Odalisca, 22 years of age, and Resorte IV, I called her La Minerva, she’s 26 months old and her steps are very similar to Plumaje’s. I also got a very good colt out of odalisca and Rescate who I called Gallardo.

The deal of Plumaje for San Isidro was made through Jose Ochoa (Pulido) who was don Gonzalo Muñoz’s farm helper. During the trip from Salgar to Popayan, by land, on a truck and by train, Plumaje threw himself off the truck and almost killed himself. Her eighth daughter, La Traviata, was out of Califa, she was brown with a marked back, she was good, but not as outstanding as her sisters were, she was sold to Aguadas. Her ninth offspring, when crossed with Cometa, was the great Minerva, tall, pretty like Cometa, light bay, fine, proud, a phenomenon. There’s nothing like Minerva nowadays. Her tenth offspring, with Cometa, was La Luna, roan, black mane, a good an elegant one, the most expensive mare of those times. My wife, doña Margot, passed her honeymoon at Hacienda Los Micos, owned today by my loved relative Lui Felipe Velez Ochoa, in Titiribi, on her. La Luna left two famous male offspring with El Mago, one of them was gelded for his use by don Jose Pizano, he was better than any stallion; and El Pastor, sire of Pastorcito. Papa abelardo gave Carlos Ochoa La Venus as a gift when she was already 25, to see if he could get an offspring from her and Gaucho, her grandson; it would’ve been a treasure, but couldn’t be done.

An anecdote about La Favorita: She was born in El Dauro, when she was ten months old, she was bigger than her mother. My grandfather and his farm manager, Pedro Luis Ochoa, who was his half brother, would bring, as something outstanding to show, La Venus’s beautiful filly, until one good day, when I was very young, just 6 years old, they organized a picnic to El Dauro, three hours away from La Margarita, with all of the family, some friends and some fanatic horse breeders, it was a great trail ride that looked like a bishop’s procession. We arrived to El Dauro, to the plot of land called El Oso, a piece of land with micay (a type of grass that grows in the tropics) grass that grew so tall it would cover the horses. Suddenly La Venus and her wild filly showed up to see the trail of horses going by. We caught the mare and the filly would prance around proudly. What a show! We stayed there, dumbfounded and happy, and there we called her “La Favorita”.

My grandfather patted the mare, brushed hairs and dust off of her, put a bit on her and rode her bareback with his zamarros on (old freak); he walked her around and we admired her with her filly trailing behind. That happy picture never left my mind. Then they undid several packages at the river shore, and we tasted a great meal that mama Maria and aunt Raquel, who was also with us, had prepared. Wrapped in plantain leaves were: cooked hen, smoked beef, pork loin, fried pork rinds, sausages, hard boiled eggs, ground beef, slices of ripe plantain, yucca, cooked potatoes, arepas, guava bisquits, cake, Dauro cheese and cool and crystal water from the Dauro river. La Favorita was trained by Don Daniel Echavarria and we always discussed who would be better, La Favorita or La Gasolina. Carlos Ochoa would say La Favorita was better.

When my aunts Libia and Estela were single, and they were even pretty, wouldn’t get off that pair of mares in their trips and outings. There were only two offspring out of La Favorita, such a belly was wasted; the first one with the Delirio from Fredonia, owned by don Santiago Escobar, a colt just like her (this would be the promised messiah), but he moved a lot, his croup rocked when ridden, he was half trained and then sold to a taparero ( a horse dealer) called Culebro, under one condition: to take him far away and not say where he came from, so the 8 would not be discredited. He took him away and sold him to a priest from a far away town called el Socorro (Antioquia); he had been gelded. 4 or 5 years later, an elegant priest wearing zamarros, poncho and a white hat appeared in Salgar on market day, riding the best gelding in the world, called Desvelo he said he had bought him from a man they called Culebro, taken from don Abelardo.

Conclusion: “when beasts have good boodlines, you must wait”. My father used to say: “breed with good bloodlines, manage and wait “.

That horse and that name were in my memory forever, 35 years after, I baptized Desvelo, very good, but nothing like priest Vargas’s gelding. I bought Desvelo from Don Pacho Madriñan, who had received him as a gift from Carlos Ochoa, a son of Gaucho and Cabinera, what about that … Desvelo was the sire of La Chunga, Anfitrion and Cerezo among others. Dad took La Favorita, in foal from Cometa, to some carnival parties at Titiribi where she was given away for $800, a fortune in those days (my father never gambled). Don Avelino Mesa from Bolivar, Antioquia took her, after that she was owned by don Alfonso Alvarez in whose hands she died.

The daughter she had with Cometa was exactly like La Gaviota, Cometa’s dam, and we called her like that. She was dam to Revuelo, Malagueña, Galicia (the best) and another Gaviota who was dam to the great Maria Rosa, a daughter of Resorte III. Maria Rosa hasn’t been well used in reproduction. She produced a no good son with Danes, with Humberto Garrido’s Pirata, she produced a very good filly bred by don Alberto Posada; with El Arco she gave a very good one: Fedayin. Her last offspring, with Pincel, was a filly I gave to Carlos Arturo Posada as a reward for having helped me to buy her from don Alberto Posada.

Now I await for the promised messiah out her and Resorte IV, it was a filly they say is very pretty. I sold Maria Rosa to don Guillermo Santaella from Caracas when she was already 22 years old. January 7, 1986 I just bought the filly and sent “Cuatro Pelos” (Four Hairs) to bring her from Caracas to La Loma. LA GASOLINA:I would never stop talking of this phenomenon, to write a whole book about her wouldn’t be enough. The best one there is today isn’t even close to what she was. She had 19 offspring, I could say they were all good and all of them out of different stallions.

1st. With Cometa she had El Conde, very good, gray, she went to don Gilberto Escobar’s Hacienda Miraflores in Popayan. Due to a badly applied shot he was given, his neck was twisted forever. He didn’t have good offspring because he didn’t get good mares. He produced La Fantasia, owned by our great friend and all time breeder, Luis Enrique Posada. This was the dam, with Caribe, of the great Inca, owned by don Luis Silva Valderrama, who in turn was the sire of the famous Apolo, owned by don Luis Caicedo from Cali, who wasted him not using good mares.

2nd. With Tarzan, a work horse my father Abelardo owned, she gave El Chivo (The Ram), very fino but wagged his tail a lot, he wagged it more than a ram sucking from his mom. He was gelded and turned out to be a very good working horse.

3rd. With Califa she produced el Plateado, a very nice but average horse sold to don Aicardo Tenorio (R.I.P.) from Palmira.

4th. With Califa she had a very famous mare that was sold to father Gomez from Jerico.

5th. With Monarca she produced the famous Diana, her replacement, she imitates her in everything she does. She was taken to Cali by Pacho Lopez, the great critic and trainer, he says she’s the best mare in the world, and he’s ridden the best of the best. I took her to Girardot where she makes a lot of noise. I sold her to the Sanin from Pereira in $2,000. I recovered her 20 years after, but she was no good for reproduction, what a pity. I’ve had her for 5 years with the best veterinarians, but it’s been no use.

6th. La Popea, with Fidias, very good.

7th. La Marina, with Marino, from Cartagena.

8th. La Gioconda, with the great Chucho.

9th. With Consul she produces La Española.

10th. With Canario de Andes she produced a very pretty and fino gray horse, but he had bad character, he was sold to don Chepe Posada to go to Monteria.

11th. With Carnaval Palomo she produced don Eugenio Castro’s La Pecadora. A great mare, Odalisca’s dam (Minerva II’s dam).

12th. With Carnaval she produced El Jibado, as good as his mother.

13th. El Overo, who died prematurely.

14th. El Morito, a son of el Mico.

15th. El Dolar, out of Atila.

16th. A marbled male mule.

17th. A horse called Plumaje, out of consul.

18th. No data available.

19th. The last one, who she left orphaned, La Cabinera, white, with El Mico, a son of Otelo and La Colombiana.

18 offspring dispersed all over Colombia, spreading the seed of that incomparable mare. La Gasolina was owned by my uncle Nestor, my beloved godfather, who received his great wife Delfina on her the day of their wedding., to take her from El Barroso to La Margarita. Nestor was very fond of her and also enjoyed her a lot in parties that lasted for four or five days. She was trained by the famous don Daniel Echavarria at La Margarita in Salgar; after that they took her to Medellin to Ramoncito Gomez’s stalls to finish her training process for the exposition of 1932. Papa Abelardo, dad and many more went to see her. Don Daniel showed her off very fine, with great handling, that kind of trainer hasn’t been born again either. Papa Abelardo told him: “Daniel, she’s very good in paso fino, but I want her to do the trocha so I can go to Salgar on her”. Don Daniel made a slight movement and said: “here she is Abelardo, listen to her, a very collected trocha, not like the trotty trochadores Don Danilo invented”. The good trocha is the exquisite, collected trocha that comes from the paso fino, like the one of the mare Margarita.

Another memory I have of the mare La Gasolina was one time she was bought by my uncle Libardo and took her to his sugar mill in La Argelia. We went to see her with Carlos Ochoa, he had her in a stall behind the place where they kept the debris of the sugar cane process on the shore of the Liboriana river; she was eating corn and had kernels spread all over the floor because every time she took a mouthful she would turn in the stall to look at birds and everything that surrounded her, she showed the liveliness stallions show. When the first doctor graduated in Salgar, doctor Ernesto Uribe Cadavid, a son of the great doctor, don Julian Uribe, who founded the town and brought us all into this world, the doctor had had a lot to drink and papa Abelardo, who was an enemy of drinking, was in his office in the town’s central square and to celebrate the young doctor’s graduation, he sent him La Gasolina with her saddle on to the saloon; as soon as the mare felt her rider was tipsy she began to fino very quickly in the square and the whole town began enjoying her.

To go from Medellin to Salgar, you had to catch the 6:00 a.m. train, you would arrive in Bolombolo around 11 or 12 noon, there on a car for a half hour to La Guineo, and from there, on horseback, 3 or 4 hours to Salgar My aunt Libia had her boyfriend and future husband in Medellin, Tomas Arango T., who we would call Tomasito; he owned a store of articles for men for a long time on Junin and Colombia Street. He called and said he was coming and papa Abelardo sent La Gasolina on a halter to him with Toñito Taborda, his errand boy, who rode the horse Barquero, the best work, endurance and racing gelding there was in Salgar. Tomasito arrived to La Guineo, Toñito fixed the mare up for him and Tomasito took off running up the hill while toñito fixed up his horse, he never saw tomasito again.

At 1:30 p.m., when they were going out of the 12 o’clock mass (the short ones father Idarraga used to say), Tomas showed up on the mare with a long gallop and washed in sweat. They were surprised he had arrived so early and he said: “you don’t know how to ride around here”. They asked him for Toñito and he said: “I haven’t seen him since La Guineo”. Toñito arrived on the tired Barquero a while later. Papa Abelardo called him to the side and told him: “you almost let him kill that mare; Tomas, who’s from Medellin doesn’t know how to ride, why didn’t you tell him to go slowly?”. Toñito answered: “ while I was fixing my horse up, he took off and I would ask in the houses along the road if they had seen niña Libia’s boyfriend go by and they would tell him he had raced by on a white mare and my horse had tired”. And then they say paso horses are only good for competition.

Note: There aren’t a horse and a mare nowadays who can produce a Gasolina.

 

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