Rain in Spain is a bullfighting pain
20-02-2010 The Gibraltar Chronicle, Gibraltar
View of a flooded farm near Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, yesterday. Heavy rains in the country’s southwest cut off road, rail and air access to the city of Jerez, authorities said yesterday.
They fear the bulls will be underweight, tender-footed, aching and even sporting longer hair. It has rained nearly every day for two months in Andalusia and Extremadura, the southern regions where most of the country’s fighting bull ranches are situated.
The ground is soaked and so are the bulls, heralding an odd and unpredictable start to the bullfighting calendar.
Among other problems, all that water causes the bulls’ hooves to swell and soften, and makes their joints sensitive, sapping their mobility.
“You try it. Spend two months with your feet in water and see how they end up, even if you have your shoes on,” said Alfonso Vazquez, foreman at Fuente Ymbro, a ranch in Cadiz province.
Furthermore, bulls will not eat wet feed pellets, and because of the chilly weather they spend more energy just keeping warm - meaning the first ones to head into the ring this year will be a bit lighter.
“Right now, we are worried,” Mr Vazquez said. “As we get through the first bullfights of the season, we’ll see what state the animals are in and how they perform.”
Meanwhile the southern city of Jerez was virtually cut off today by floods brought on by the rain.
The airport was closed and 24 scheduled flights cancelled.
The AP-4 autoroute linking the city and the surrounding sherry wine-making region to the rest of the country was also shut and rail lines between Jerez and the port city of Cadiz were unusable.
(Bron: http://www.chronicle.gi/)
(Bron foto: Gibraltar Chronicle)
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