MY TRIP to PORTUGAL and SPAIN

Summer 2002

by Terry Polk,

What a wonderful trip! I don't know how many of you have ever been to the beautiful country of Portugal.....but if you haven't......you are missing something! My reason for going was to visit my boyfriend, Joao SerraCoehlo of Portugal and watch him Bullfight on horseback. WOW! Now this was something unimaginable. I should probably tell you how I met my "Bullfighter". Last summer I was working a young colt out in the 105 degree hot sun, when this truck pulled up with a friend of mine driving, and out the other door Joao appeared. I thought I was seeing a mirage - something not real! He was training bullfighting horses of mixed breeds here in California at the time, and he asked to see the Arabian who was the grandsire of his favorite horses. Which was our *SIDI-BRAHIM! Joao is a true horseman, and fell in love with *SIDI-BRAHIM, and our other horses. He visited again, and asked if he could ride JULLIETTE, the mare I was training that day. I have never seen a rider sit a horse more beautifully, and train a horse with so much patience and understanding - WOW!

Now, back to Portugal. First of all, Portugal is one historical country. Everything from the incredible capital Lisbon, to the dinosaur footprints, to the 1500's castles, to the wild bulls roaming the country, to the religious spiritual town of "Fatima", to the small villages and beautiful mountain country sides where Joao, his family, and his horses live - is just breathtaking. Each weekend Joao and I would ride in his large 6 horse truck and van to different bullfights in Portugal. This brought back so many wonderful memories of growing up and riding with my father, Paul Polk, along with our huge happy family! (He drove the big truck pulling the huge yellow and white 10 horse van all over the United States and Canada hauling many special horses). Joao would first drive sometimes many hours through the night, then arrive early in the morning to unload his horses, bathe the horses, then he braids each horse (this taking over an hour per horse!). Then by evening Joao and his stallions are prepared for the bullfight! In Portugal, the bull is not killed. The performance is a spectacular sight for the audience to see. So much cheering from the crowd! I loved every second of the fights - but my favorite part is when Joao is finished. We also made trips to Spain for bullfights. Spain has different traditions in the arena than Portugal, in fact in Spain the bull is killed at the end. One of the times he fought in an old castle on top of a hill overlooking Spain. The arena reminded me of the movie Gladiator! This was incredible to watch too. So much beauty in these fights........the horse, the rider, and the bull.

One of our trips to Spain we rented a "normal" car. No horse van, just a normal car! We visited my family's good friend, Don Diego Mendez Moreno, and also visited with the Domecq's of Spain. Diego is the breeder and original owner of our great Spanish gentleman, *SIDI-BRAHIM. Diego told me he wanted to give me and my mother a special gift.......a colt! So thanks to Diego we now have a beautiful tall grey yearling colt! The colt will first go to Joao's in Portugal and become a bullfighting horse, then eventually come here to LOS ACRES to be our breeding stallion. This is so exciting! We then drove on to the Domecq's ranch and saw more top beautiful Spanish Arabian horses. The Domecq family are wonderful people, and breed beauties too! We had to get back to Portugal after 4 fun days in Spain because Joao had to prepare for another bullfight. This was just a 6 hour drive back to Joao's home, so we drove all night through old towns on a road with many turns and twists seeing so many beautiful castles in each town. The small towns throughout Spain and Portugal are very quiet and quaint with people sitting on chairs near the streets talking among themselves and enjoying life so slowly. Being in these two special countries was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.

On my flight home, I could not stop thinking of all the memories. I was then given the "choice" of choosing a movie to watch from 7 different movies. I chose the movie, "SPIRIT", over and over again. Well..........this is a beautiful animated movie written about a wild horse living in the Old West, and loving every second of his freedom in our special land of America. This movie made me so homesick for America and my horses! This movie also made me remember how lucky we all are as Americans to live in the United States, even though visiting Portugal and Spain was so romantic and special. I really believe it is important as an American while travelling foreign countries to be a proud American - but still respect the way of living each country enjoys. We all love our American flag, but each country loves their flag too. We should all enjoy each day of our life, and be thankful for what we have. Us "horse" lovers are indeed blessed because we are able to live our lives with the animal we love - the HORSE. Each day we wake up and look out and see our horses, we are indeed very lucky people.

PS - I really DID loose my passport in Portugal. After three trips to the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, we now have new friends and a LOS ACRES brochure hanging in the office of the Embassy! They loved seeing the American flag with my little nephew Josef Polk on its cover.