Cowboy in the Argentine pampas. Argentine pampa and gaucho. The mysterious pampas of the Southern Hemisphere

An exhibition of sculpture dedicated to the Far West has opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Chamber-sized bronze figurines, which made it possible to replicate the original relatively inexpensively, turned out to be an indispensable part of decent furnishings in American apartments of the 19th century. Each such composition was a tabletop memorial to the West with its Indians, bison, cowboys and freedom to the horizon.

The first cowboys appeared in Texas at the beginning of the 19th century, when there, as indeed now, there were many free pastures for cattle. Experienced riders, usually Mexicans, mulattoes or African Americans, were hired to drive huge herds. For every herd of 2,500, there were a dozen cowboys who led a difficult, nomadic life that seemed romantic only to city dwellers from the East Coast.

At first there was nothing specifically American about the cowboy figure. The same character under similar conditions arose in South America, in the endless pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. These are gaucho shepherds with their colorful folklore and unique attire (poncho, soft boots, bright belt with a vessel for tea-mate fastened to it). Moreover, there were cowboys in the Old World. I saw them on the southern outskirts of France, in the Camargue. In this still sparsely populated area of ​​the salt marshes of the Rhone estuary, wild white horses, direct descendants of the prehistoric horse, have been preserved. These European mustangs are ridden by Provençal riders who call themselves “Guardiens”. They consider themselves the first cowboys to export New World this look along with all its attributes, including the famous blue jeans.

In other words, the unique role of the cowboy myth is connected not with history, but with the psychology of America, which the most famous artist West Frederic Remington. The highlight of all exhibitions is his best job“Bronco Buster.” She became an American icon and earned a seat in the Oval Office of the White House.

In semi-Mexican cowboy slang, “bronco” is a word meaning a horse that has not yet known the bridle. The same can be said about a cowboy riding a stallion. Lean and high cheekbones, they are even similar in appearance. Both are caught by the author in a moment of dynamic equilibrium, which can end in the fall of both.

The awkward pose for a sculpture reveals the hidden meaning of the masterpiece. The Wild West metaphor stands on two legs, both of which are equines. If the bronze Indians are elegiac (the decline of the race), then the cowboys live in a short present, in an intermediate state between reckless will and inevitable civilization. Not surprisingly, the horse reared up.

The horse is one of the most ancient symbols of the unconscious, elemental. Only by curbing this powerful and obstinate principle can a person subjugate the destructive forces both externally and internally. inner world- in yourself. Exceptional geographical circumstances—the youth of American destiny—overthrew the archaic myth into modern history. In its context, the myth of the cowboy plays out in the vastness of the Wild West the mystery of the birth of order from chaos. As every Western fan knows, lonesome cowboys make the best sheriffs.

The myth of the cowboy, embodied in the Hollywood Western, fed the world raw emotion for the second century, but the cowboys themselves did not last long. Railway and barbed wire took away their jobs, except, of course, the ones that show business provided.

The word "rodeo" tends to conjure up images of the Western genre: jeans and lasso, raging bulls and untamed broncos that any decent cowboy must hang on for at least eight seconds. All this is indeed still present in the American version. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared national species sports - Chile, and there it looks completely different.

Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them while moving. The program does not include milking of wild cows, spectacular lasso throws, or other spectacular stunts performed by dashing American cowboys. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances always take place in pairs - must stop a bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guaso - also look more modest: they do not wear pointed boots, jeans or neckerchiefs. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned woven chamanto cape - something between a poncho and a blanket.

In the Chilean rodeo, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off in a round arena using a special fence in which a narrow “loophole” is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take a position that should not change throughout the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. A bull clamped in this way “in a vice” should under no circumstances break out of it. Knocking up clouds of sand, this tightly welded trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the barrier and “roll out” onto the “crescent”.

Next, one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, not allowing it to slow down or go back. The second’s task is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the animal being chased, and then in a certain place point it with its chest directly at the bull, literally throwing it onto a section of the barrier specially designed for this purpose. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That's all, actually. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: “In a Mexican rodeo, such a bull weighing half a ton is “overwhelmed” by pedestrian participants with their bare hands...”

But it's not that simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, but the ability to work “in tandem,” precise precision of movements down to the millimeter and masterful control of the horse. It is not so much the result that is important, but the details of execution. Judges award points (from 0 to 4 per “run”) depending on which part of the bull’s body the horse’s chest hits. The highest score - 4 points - is awarded to participants when a horse knocks a bull down with a blow to the rear of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position the animal has a greater chance of getting ahead and escaping the blow.

A pair can score a maximum of 13 points for an error-free exit (three runs worth 4 points plus an additional point for the right way out to the arena). In the Chilean rodeo, points are taken off much more readily than they are given: for an incorrect turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the allotted place, and for a thousand other things. So 13 points is rare. However, points began to be counted only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple count of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means “cattle drive”.

Features of national cattle breeding

For a long time, grazing livestock in the vast, poorly developed and very turbulent expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. Special people were engaged in it, who were called differently in different parts of the country: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guaso. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner’s herd to pasture, and then drive it back.

In the summer, the Chilean guazos brought cows from the sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. The clumsy animals continually tried to stray from the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherd riders made it possible to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, towards winter the guasos lowered their herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and complex work awaited them. Having herded the cattle into one place, it was necessary to sort them by owner, put marks on the offspring, and castrate the young calves. This was called rodeo.

On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great lover of horse riding, Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, ordered that the rodeo be held in the main capital square and on strictly certain days - during the holiday in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city gathered to see this spectacle. Guaso's hard work was rewarded popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. Thus, pastoral practice turned into mass holiday, and Governor Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "Father of Chilean Rodeo".

Roughly the same thing happened with our neighbors, and today rodeo in one form or another exists in almost all countries of the South and North America. Moreover, in each of them the shepherds developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground by grabbing it by the tail as it gallops; Mexican riders know how to transfer to an unbroken mare while running; in Cuba and the USA they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.

In the 80s of the 19th century, barbed wire, patented in 1868, began its victorious march across both continents. This invention dramatically changed the American way of life. In the Great Plains, the pampas of South America, and the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures came into use, making traditional pastoral activities unnecessary. Cowboys, gauchos and guazos were left out of work. The decline of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already become firmly established in history and folk culture their states. Over time, in Chile the word “guaso” began to be used to refer to any peasant. And the rodeo festival continued to be a massive and sometimes the only available entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.

About attitude towards horses

A mandatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence was a demonstration of horse dressage. They describe figure eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other “assessment” tricks. Moreover, the criteria for this assessment are special. In the USA, the cowboy riding style even became the basis for independent type equestrian sport - "Western". Chilean riders are not too fond of the American style, contrasting it with their own school. And their horses are also special, their own.

According to local horse breeders, Chilean horses trace their genealogy back to the same 75 individuals of Spanish blood that crossed the Andes with the discoverer of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia. An argument in favor of the purity of this breed is that, unlike other American countries, horses here were never kept in herds, which prevented the mixing of breeds.

However, when in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Chilean guazos made a symbolic journey to the former metropolis to demonstrate the art of rodeo, the Spaniards did not recognize “their” horses. They seemed very small to them: when they were taken away, they seemed to be larger. Indeed, the height of a purebred “Chilean” does not exceed 142 centimeters at the withers (for which in some classifications it is classified as a pony).

Short-legged and broad-chested, Chilean horses are ideally suited for mountain conditions. Thanks to their thick skin, they are not afraid of the cold and are extremely hardy. It is to this endurance that the Chilean cavalry owes its successes during the Pacific War in late XIX century, when she crossed the arid Atacama Desert. Later, scientific and technological progress freed people from the need to use these animals for household and other needs, and the breed was in danger of extinction.

The grateful military saved the Chileans. General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, when he became President of Chile in 1927, included a special clause in the rules of the rodeo: only horses of the Chilean breed must participate in at least two races. Today, the rule of breed purity is even stricter - horses that are not registered in the Chilean rodeo cannot take part at all. National Association horse breeders, which has included all purebred Chileans since 1946.

The publication

At the beginning of the twentieth century, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Chile's independence, celebrated in 1910, the country's leadership was in search of roots and symbols national identity turned to rodeo. The uncouth and rough Guaso was “combed” and released into the arena in the central capital park named after Coucinho (now O’Higgins Park). The townspeople liked the idea, and the rodeo became fashionable, and most importantly, patriotic entertainment. Since 1931, the best rodeo rider (according to the Hill Letailer club) began to be entrusted with the most honorable mission - the opening of the military parade on Independence Day. Moreover, before the troops begin to pass, he personally presents the president of the country with a cow horn filled with chicha.

In the wake of the revival of the glorious rodeo traditions, several dozen arenas were built in the country, the main one in the city of Rancagua in 1942. Since then, it is here that the sports season (from September to April) annually ends with the All-Chilean Rodeo Championship. But they didn’t stop there: on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee, by Decree No. 269, declared rodeo a national sport.

At the same time, rodeo was strictly regulated and, for reasons of political correctness, women were allowed to participate in it. And if until recently female participation was limited to the “Queen of the Rodeo” beauty contest, then in 2009, for the first time in history, rider Elia Alvarez, performing in tandem with a man, won the title of champion.

The appearance of women in rodeo has given the masculine national sport some glamor - the riders’ costumes for the championship were designed by the famous Chilean fashion designer Millaray Palma, whose outfits are worn by local TV presenters and beauty pageant participants. And men's chamantos became national clothes par excellance, which is now customary to present as a souvenir to distinguished guests.

However, chamantos still look most appropriate on broad-shouldered guaso in combination with a straw hat, a red wide belt, knee-length leather leggings and long shiny spurs. Even Darwin was so impressed in his time that he wrote: “ The main pride The guaso is made up of his absurdly large spurs. I measured one, and it turned out that the wheel was 6 inches in diameter, and there were over 30 spikes on the wheel itself. The stirrups are of the same scale; each carved from a rectangular piece of wood, hollowed out, but still weighing 4 pounds (about 1.5 kg).” Massive wooden stirrups, similar to shoes without heels and covered with highly artistic carvings, are still the pride of the guaso. But there are problems with Spurs. This attribute causes protests from animal rights activists: horses suffer greatly from it. But, despite all the protests, rodeo is not losing, but only gaining supporters. IN last years it attracts even more attention in its homeland than traditionally the most spectacular view sport - football.

“Unconditional sincerity at all times is one of the signs of true art. And maximum perfection!” - said Mukhina.

Sofia Rudneva

The word "rodeo" tends to conjure up images of the Western genre: jeans and lasso, raging bulls and untamed broncos that any decent cowboy must hang on for at least eight seconds. All this is indeed still present in the American version. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks completely different.

Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them while moving. The program does not include milking of wild cows, spectacular lasso throws, or other spectacular stunts performed by dashing American cowboys. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances always take place in pairs - must stop a bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guaso - also look more modest: they do not wear pointed boots, jeans or neckerchiefs. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned woven chamanto cape - something between a poncho and a blanket.

The crescent-shaped barrier of the Chilean rodeo arena along which the bull is run is often painted in the colors of the national flag.

In the Chilean rodeo, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off in a round arena using a special fence in which a narrow “loophole” is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take a position that should not change throughout the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. A bull clamped in this way “in a vice” should under no circumstances break out of it. Knocking up clouds of sand, this tightly welded trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the barrier and “roll out” onto the “crescent”.

Next, one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, not allowing it to slow down or go back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the animal being chased, and then at a certain place point it with its chest directly at the bull, literally throwing it onto a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That's all, actually. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: “In a Mexican rodeo, such a bull weighing half a ton is “overwhelmed” by pedestrian participants with their bare hands...”

But it's not that simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, but the ability to work “in tandem,” precise precision of movements down to the millimeter and masterful control of the horse. It is not so much the result that is important, but the details of execution. Judges award points (from 0 to 4 per “run”) depending on which part of the bull’s body the horse’s chest hits. Participants receive the highest score - 4 points - when a horse knocks a bull down with a blow to the rear of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position the animal has a greater chance of getting ahead and escaping the blow.

A pair can score a maximum of 13 points for a clean exit (three runs worth 4 points plus an additional point for entering the arena correctly). In the Chilean rodeo, points are taken off much more readily than they are given: for an incorrect turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the allotted place, and for a thousand other things. So 13 points is rare. However, points began to be counted only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple count of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means “cattle drive”.

Features of national cattle breeding

For a long time, grazing livestock in the vast, poorly developed and very turbulent expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. Special people were engaged in it, who were called differently in different parts of the country: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guaso. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner’s herd to pasture, and then drive it back.

Riders who are not wearing clothing cannot take part in official competitions. traditional costume: chamanto and felt hat, replaced by a straw hat in summer

In the summer, the Chilean guazos brought cows from the sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. The clumsy animals continually tried to stray from the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherd riders made it possible to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, towards winter the guasos lowered their herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and complex work awaited them. Having herded the cattle into one place, it was necessary to sort them by owner, put marks on the offspring, and castrate the young calves. This was called rodeo.

On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great lover of horse riding, Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, ordered that the rodeo be held in the main capital square and on strictly certain days - during the holiday in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city gathered to see this spectacle. The hard work of the guaso was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. Thus, the practice of cattle breeding turned into a mass celebration, and Governor Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of “father of the Chilean rodeo.”

Much the same thing happened with our neighbors, and today rodeo in one form or another exists in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them the shepherds developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground by grabbing it by the tail as it gallops; Mexican riders know how to transfer to an unbroken mare while running; in Cuba and the USA they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.

In the 80s of the 19th century, barbed wire, patented in 1868, began its victorious march across both continents. This invention dramatically changed the American way of life. In the Great Plains, the pampas of South America, and the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures came into use, making traditional pastoral activities unnecessary. Cowboys, gauchos and guazos were left out of work. The decline of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile the word “guaso” began to be used to refer to any peasant. And the rodeo festival continued to be a massive and sometimes the only available entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.

A regular rodeo lasts

like a good wedding

two full days -

Saturday and Sunday.

Hardy Spectators

spend on their

places for 8 hours

About attitude towards horses

A mandatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence was a demonstration of horse dressage. They describe figure eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other “assessment” tricks. Moreover, the criteria for this assessment are special. In the USA, the cowboy riding style even became the basis for an independent type of equestrian sport - “western”. Chilean riders are not too fond of the American style, contrasting it with their own school. And their horses are also special, their own.

It was meat, not gold and silver, that brought wealth to Argentina. Moreover, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe there was even a saying: “rich as an Argentinean.” Argentina ranks sixth in the world in terms of cattle population, fifth in meat production per capita and first in its consumption.
The pampas stretch in all directions from Buenos Aires for a hundred kilometers. The pampas are fertile steppes in which the country's wealth is forged, where gauchos, descendants of Spanish conquistadors and Indian women, work on farms, and they are called estancias in Argentina.

Estancia El Calibri

The word estancia means “stop.” In Russian it corresponds to the village. That is, it is an estate with adjacent land. They played an important role in the history of Argentina. Farming has always been profitable in Argentina. The Spanish Empire, not finding the expected gold here, relied on agriculture. Initially, the first settlers were given large tracts of land on the condition that they would grow crops on this land near the capital or livestock far from it. Farmers were required to report to the Spanish crown results achieved, taking a professional aptitude exam. Those who were successful received land ownership. The losers ended up homeless. However, if you had money, in Argentina you could always buy both estancia and respect.

Nowadays, estancias are initially built as hotels. Twelve years ago, the owner of the estancia El Calibri went to Argentina to hunt, and in the sight of his gun he saw a completely different target - which he told his wife about. He said - let's move to Argentina. First, the husband left Europe with three dogs, then the wife arrived with three children. There was a strange decision to leave Europe not for California, but for the outback of Argentina, in the pampas. It is believed that Argentina has a difficult climate: hot summers and cold winters.

The owner of the estancia explains her decision this way: “We have noticeably improved the quality of life here. Here, in nature, it is better to raise children. In Courchevel and St. Tropez, where we lived, it was, of course, beautiful, but it is difficult to instill in children the right values. To have a holiday like we live now, you have to work a lot in Courchevel. What open spaces there are in Argentina! Another country, another mentality. We do not work on the farm ourselves, but hire people. But you also need to be able to do this.
In the past, when buying an estancia, the owners worked together with the gaucho. But it didn't last long. It should be noted that initially there were no livestock in Argentina. Therefore, it was brought on ships. Farmers quickly got on their feet and allowed themselves to rent out the estancia and live for six months in London and Paris. They bought racehorses there and bred them in the pampas. The trip to Europe was long, and they took chickens and pigs with them to eat their own, Argentinean, homemade food. The local Indians got used to the horses, which had not been there before, and became better riders than the Spaniards themselves. They began to steal cattle from farmers. Estancia owners began to build special towers around the perimeter of their farms and hire gauchos who looked out for enemies and protected the farms from attacks.

The meat in Argentina is good and famous all over the world. Farmers explain this fact by good genetics, excellent herbs, and the absence of chemicals. The most popular products for production and consumption are liver, rib meat, fillet and rump. The main characters of the pampas are gauchos. Three centuries ago they were vagabonds who brought fear to people. But having received a permanent job, they became “hard workers.” On any farm, horses are the kings of all animals. Argentine horses are called Creoles here and are national pride countries. They are cared for and loved more than any other pet. A popular pastime for Argentine aristocrats is polo on horseback. It attracts thousands of spectators not only from aristocratic circles, but also from residents of numerous estancias.

For reference: The horse was and remains not only a means of transportation in Argentine culture, and even more so in the pampas. She is a companion and friend. The gaucho or Argentine cowboy is a romantic symbol for the people of Argentina. He represents the Argentine tradition and stands against corruption. The gauchos always had a freedom that the inhabitants of the cities who lived within the walls of buildings and laws never had. The gauchos were nomads and roamed throughout rural areas Argentina. They had their own laws, and instead of a roof over their heads, they had stars. But most of all in life they loved and love horses, which they treat as their close friends. The horse has become a symbol of the gauchos themselves, because the Criollo breed is mixed, like the blood of the Argentine cowboys themselves. Therefore, the rider and the horse are one in the Argentinean Pampas culture.

Material taken from the program “Planet without Prejudice. Travel with Irina Bazhanova"
Photo: Frazer, Hugh'sBlog, SarahBoland, as well as from the Internet. For questions about authorship, please contact our company office

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The unique role of the cowboy myth is connected not with history, but with the psychology of America, which Remington was able to portray. His best work became an American icon and earned a place in the Oval Office.

The America where Chekhov’s Chechevitsyn dreamed of escaping was a country where “they drink gin instead of tea,” where “the earth trembles when a herd of bison runs through the pampas,” where “mustangs kick and neigh.”

Mine Reed revealed all this to Russian children, and Westerns to American adults. Long before they appeared not only in movies, but even in books, artists, or rather sculptors, took up the image of the Wild West. Bronze Age Western, which predated paper and celluloid, and became the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Unlike the monumental sculpture that decorates (or intimidates) squares and gardens, bronze figurines were chamber-sized. Allowing the original to be replicated relatively inexpensively, they turned out to be an indispensable part of decent furnishings in American apartments of the 19th century. Like birds in a cage, such sculptures lived not outside, but inside, representing a domesticated part of virgin nature. Each composition served as a tabletop memorial to the West with its Indians, bison, cowboys and freedom to the horizon.

This myth differed from Chechevitsyn’s America in that it more or less corresponded to reality. That is why it was so difficult for people from the Old World to capture it. The masters who had gone through the European (usually Italian) school did not know a language suitable for describing the fresh, not yet trampled by art, reality of another continent that seemed to have fallen from the sky. Faced with a new challenge, the artists were forced to retreat into the distant past and dress up the Wild West in antique attire.

“Having discovered America,” art declared, “we went back along own history. The Far West is a tunnel into the past. Through it we can fall to the origins of our world. The Indians are the Achaeans of the Iliad. Powerful, fearless and sad, like everyone else epic heroes, they again leave the arena of history. Task American artist- the same as Homer’s: to capture the appearance of a disappearing world for the edification of future generations. It must be admitted that the sculpture failed to cope with this task. Its Indians are more often reminiscent of museums than of the prairies. Perfect like ancient gods, they have their hair combed in Renaissance fashion, shoot like Apollo, hunt like Artemis, fight like Achilles, and die like Hector.

European sculptors were better than the natives at the animals of the New World, especially bison. And it’s clear why: they amazed the imagination. One day, while driving through the northern reaches of New York State, I happened to see steep snow-covered hills along the fence of a farm that was trying to raise them for meat. Up close and in the open air, the bison looked like prehistoric creatures. Like dinosaurs in a barn, they didn't fit into agriculture. This is exactly how the sculpture depicted them. Discarding the smooth antique models, the artist created an expressionist portrait of the Indian West, for which the shaggy mountains of bison served as a temple and idol.

Only after exterminating Native America did the country discover new heroes - cowboys. The most famous of them was Theodore Roosevelt, although few were less suited to this role. Coming from an old Dutch family, the future president was born in New York, on 14th Street. In this house, which has become a museum, everything reveals an established, respectable, completely bourgeois everyday life: crystal, a piano, a bust of Plato. Roosevelt, however, furthering his political ambitions, went West and started a ranch. A stranger in this environment, he suffered from ridicule: because of his glasses, he was called the “four-eyed cowboy.” Defending his dignity, Roosevelt took part in cowboy duels. But even having achieved recognition in the West, he carefully guarded the secret of the 20-kilogram chest where he kept his favorite books. It is unlikely that real cowboys would approve of the habit of reading the same “Iliad” at night.

Having carefully chosen his mask, Roosevelt fell in love with it. One of the first to create literary westerns, he declared that it is in cowboys that ideal character American: independence of behavior, independence in judgment, stubborn persistence in achieving goals, the ability to survive, relying only on oneself.

The first cowboys appeared in Texas at the beginning of the 19th century, when there, as indeed now, there were many free pastures for cattle. Experienced riders, usually Mexicans, mulattoes or blacks, were hired to drive huge herds. For every herd of 2,500, there were a dozen cowboys who led a difficult, nomadic life that seemed romantic only to city dwellers from the East Coast.

At first there was nothing specifically American about the cowboy figure. The same character, under similar conditions, arose in South America, in the endless pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. These are gaucho shepherds with their colorful folklore and unique attire (poncho, soft boots, bright belt with a vessel for mate tea fastened to it). Moreover, there were cowboys in the Old World. I saw them on the southern outskirts of France, in the Camargue. In this still sparsely populated area of ​​the salt marshes of the Rhone estuary, wild white horses, direct descendants of the prehistoric horse, have been preserved. These European mustangs are ridden by Provençal riders who call themselves “Guardiens.” They consider themselves the first cowboys to export this look, along with all its attributes, including the famous blue jeans, to the New World.

In other words, the unique role of the cowboy myth is connected not with history, but with the psychology of America, which the most famous artist of the West, Frederic Remington, was able to depict in textbook sculptures. His best work became an American icon and earned him a place in the Oval Office of the White House.

Most of all, Ronald Reagan liked this half-meter composition. An excellent horseman, he knew how to appreciate the bronze dance of a man with a horse, which the artist himself called “Bronco Buster.” In semi-Mexican cowboy slang, “bronco” is a word for a horse that has not yet known the bridle. The same can be said about a cowboy riding a stallion. Lean and high cheekbones, they are even similar in appearance. Both are caught by the author at a moment of dynamic equilibrium, which can end in the fall of both.

The awkward pose for a sculpture reveals the hidden meaning of the masterpiece. The Wild West metaphor stands on two legs, both of which are horses. If the bronze Indians are elegiac (the decline of the race), then the cowboys live in a short present, in an intermediate state between reckless will and inevitable civilization. Not surprisingly, the horse reared up.

The horse is one of the most ancient symbols of the unconscious, elemental. Only by curbing this powerful and obstinate principle, a person subjugates the destructive forces both in the external and in the internal world - in himself. Exceptional geographical circumstances—the youth of American destiny—overturned an archaic myth into modern history. In its context, the myth of the cowboy plays out in the vastness of the Wild West the mystery of the birth of order from chaos. As every Western fan knows, lonesome cowboys make the best sheriffs.

But in addition to the historiosophical interpretation, the plot of the “man in the saddle” also has a very specific, everyday meaning. The sculpture by Remington, who studied the lives of cowboys in Montana and Kansas, tells everything you wanted to know about horseback riding but didn't dare experience.

I realized this only after getting acquainted with the Icelandic mustangs. Introduced 1000 years ago by the Vikings, they have never left the islands. In the summer, Icelandic horses live unattended in the mountains, in the winter they languish in the stables and are happy to get out for a walk - on their own terms, not ours. Unaware of all this, I climbed into the saddle for the first time and immediately regretted it. From the outside and on the screen, it seems to you that you can hold on to the reins, controlling the animal like a bicycle. In fact, the harness is needed in order to connect the person with the beast, rather through an electrical or telepathic connection. It allows the rider to transmit impulses, which in my case were limited to fear. Instantly realizing this, the horse galloped into the river, which was not frozen only because of the furious current. Enjoying their freedom, both did not pay attention to me and did the right thing, because I still did not manage to find out how to intervene in the process, let alone stop it. Left to my own devices, I tried to just sit in the saddle. It was as difficult as dancing in a canoe. Any movement caused an unforeseen reaction with equally dangerous consequences. Through the horror (and thanks to it!) it dawned on me that horse riding is not violence, but a symbiosis of two wills. The parity of a person with a horse is not harmony, but a unifying struggle, like poles in a magnet.

The moment of truth brought me back alive to the stable and helped me deal with the bronze western.

A cowboy needs an unbroken horse to harness the energy of freedom, and a sculptor needs to capture the zenith of the West. Still wild, he attracted those who civilized and killed him. A short respite from progress gave us a chance to relive the excitement of a prehistoric battle with nature. A cowboy on a horse, like a matador without spectators, fights with her alone and on an equal footing.

The excitement of this fight has been feeding the world with raw emotions for the second century. But if the myth of the cowboys turned out to be long-lasting, then they themselves did not last long. The railroad and barbed wire took away their jobs, except, of course, the ones that show business provided.