Wild Horses in Galicia: The Rapa das Bestas, One of Europe's Most Extraordinary Traditions

Aug 11
4 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

In the mountains above the tiny village of Sabucedo in Galicia, around 10,000 wild horses roam free across more than 200 square kilometers of hillside. They are a Celtic breed, the Galician Mountain Horse, and they have lived semi-wild here for centuries. Once a year, on the first weekend of July, the village rounds them up. This is the land of la España vaciada: wild, old, nearly forgotten by the modern world.

The Rapa das Bestas

The Rapa das Bestas, which translates roughly as the Shearing of the Beasts, is one of the oldest and most dramatic living traditions in Spain. At half past six on the first Friday morning of July, the church bells ring and firecrackers go off. The village wakes and heads into the mountains on foot. Groups of locals, called aloitadores, spread out through the hills, find the wild horse herds, surround them, and drive them down from the mountains into an enclosure in the village called a curro.

Then comes the part that is unlike anything else in Europe. Men enter the curro with the horses and wrestle them to a standstill with their bare hands, no ropes, no tools, no saddles. The horses are held still long enough to have their manes and tails cut, to be checked for parasites, and to be microchipped for identification. Then they are released back to the mountains. The whole thing is managed without any equipment other than human bodies and centuries of inherited knowledge.

The festival runs across the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the first full weekend of July. It has been declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest by the Spanish government and draws visitors from across Europe. The oral tradition traces it back to a plague in the 16th century; written records confirm it as a social festival from the 18th century. Scholars believe the practice of gathering wild horses from the mountains of Galicia goes back to the Bronze Age.

Why it is worth going

This is genuinely unlike anything you can see anywhere else. Wild horses, an actual wild herd that has spent the year in the mountains, being rounded up by people on foot and wrestled by hand in a village enclosure. The spectacle is intense and physical and real. It is not a performance and not a re-enactment. The horses are truly wild, the aloitadores are genuinely wrestling them, and the outcome is not predetermined.

For the other pastoral cattle traditions of the north: the Vaqueiros of Asturias and the Pasiegos of Cantabria — two living traditions rooted in the same ancient relationship between people and their animals.

The wild horses year-round

The horses are in the mountains all year. You can hike into the hill country above Sabucedo and the surrounding area at any time and have a real chance of encountering the herds in their natural habitat, which is a different and quieter experience than the festival. The first weekend of July is the spectacle; the rest of the year is the encounter.

Is it good with kids?

The festival itself is intense and the enclosure can get crowded and loud. Younger children may find the wrestling confronting. Older children with an interest in horses or tradition will find it extraordinary. The year-round mountain hike to see the horses in the wild is a calmer and very good experience for any age.

Getting There and Where to Stay

Sabucedo is a tiny village in the municipality of A Estrada in Pontevedra province, about 40 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela. It is most easily reached by car — there is no direct public transport to the village itself. Santiago de Compostela is the most practical base: about 40 minutes by car, with its own UNESCO old city, the cathedral, and the end of the Camino de Santiago making it well worth a longer stay. Closer to Sabucedo, A Estrada has small hotels and rural accommodation and puts you right on the doorstep. Book well ahead if you are going for the festival weekend — it draws serious numbers. Here are places to stay:

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