Photo Gallery

Canada – B.C. – Douglas Lake Cattle Ranch – Stirrups made of wood, high-heeled boots, imposing spores wheels

The gear gauchos use in the Argentinean pampa includes the typical hat, boleadoras or Tres Marias (small balls, fixed to the end of a long leather strip, thrown to hunt rheas), a lasso, a whip, a belt with the indispensable facón (a knife), a stirrup, spurs, and the traditional bombilla (a metal straw used to drink mate tea from a hollowed colocynth pumpkin).

The gaucho spends most of his life on horseback. He watches over the huge herds of sheep in Patagonia. When he rests from his long journeys across the pampas, he devotes himself to handicrafts. He makes admirable leather whips and takes special care in the manufacture of his stirrups, which are an important part of the mount. The horse of Delphin Rodríguez, the farrier in the previous photo, has stirrups decorated with beautifully crafted wooden pieces. - 1973

Luxuriously harnessed, the gaucho's horse carries on its saddle something to face the elements: knife (“facón”), “boleadoras”, hobbel straps, lasso. The spurs can be wood, leather or chiseled silver. - Estancia Santa María, Ayacucho, Province Buenos Aires - 1975

Luxuriously harnessed, the gaucho's horse carries on its saddle something to face the elements: knife (“facón”), “boleadoras”, hobbel straps, lasso. The spurs can be wood, leather or chiseled silver.- Estancia La Luciana, Ayacucho, Province Buenos Aires - 1975

Luxuriously harnessed, the gaucho's horse carries on its saddle something to face the elements: knife (“facón”), “boleadoras”, hobbel straps, lasso. The spurs can be wood, leather or chiseled silver. - Criadero Helvecia, Chile - 1975

Luxuriously harnessed, the gaucho's horse carries on its saddle something to face the elements: knife (“facón”), “boleadoras”, hobbel straps, lasso. The spurs can be wood, leather or chiseled silver. - Estancia Santa María, Ayacucho, Province Buenos Aires - 1975