HORSES OF THE PANTANAL : The Untold Bond Between Cowboys and Nature 🐴🌿 ⎮Documentary - BF

We have to get ready. It's a long journey. Floriano, 24 years old, and Nguino, 17, are no ordinary cowboys. They offer their services wherever needed and accomplish their feats in an environment where no Western-style cowboy would dare attempt them. Look, Nguino, Tuca wants to say goodbye. He could tell we're leaving. Maybe one day we'll meet up again. Ciao, Tuca. I worked with that donkey for four years. I've had enough. It's too much. I dream of having a horse, one that That's a really good Pantanero for working with.. 30,000 acres of grassland and wetlands, 30,000 heads of cattle, animals that generally move freely in a setting that looks like a nature reserve. For any Brazilian cowboy, working for the Fazenda Caiman in the Southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso would be a unique experience, almost a consecration. Fazenda Keiman is the end of a journey for Foriano. For Nguinho, it is the start of a dream. The A teenager is still a poor, inexperienced Tropero, but his dream is to live up to the name of his ancestors by perpetrating a skill and a 300-year-old tradition. His ambition is to become a real Pantanero, a Pantanal cowboy, proud of his heritage. Hi, cowboy. How's things? He's lucky, Tropero. That's a good herd. This is César, who manages the fazenda. He is the decision-maker. The When theomberos respect him, they know he will not tolerate the slightest deviation from the honor of their profession. He understands their merits and the difficulty of their task. And this young'un? Oh, this young'un is my companion. Does he cry for his mother when she's far away? Sometimes he cries. Now, a living legend comes into Nguinho's life. So is Aldino, a Tarina Indian. Forty years old, he is the leader of the main group of Camperos at the Fazenda. There is not an inch of ground he has not explored, nor a tale he does not know, nor any glorious act he has not performed. Nguinho has longed for this moment for years. In a few minutes, Soizordino will present him with his first competition horse. His companion Floriano, the lasso champion, is also waiting for this most important moment. For the Pantanal cowboys do not own their horses, they ride and work with the animal as each has been assigned. This horse is for you. For me? That's great. His name is pagoda. And this mare is for you. She's called Andorina. I'd like you to meet two guys, Floriano and Nguinho. They'll be part of the lasso team. Now we'll saddle up the horses and start training for the lassoing competition. . I love to take part in a last minute competition outside the homestead with my horse. A competition with a good party to follow. Today, Nguinho and Floriano meet the horses belonging to the fazenda. The enterprise would be impossible without them in this region made up of almost limitless wetlands. The Pantanal horse is a race that was reared here. It's the only horse that can stand up to the Pantanal. Of all the other horses, it's the only one that can endure the warm, humid climate of this region. The other races can't cope with it. We really tried, but it was impossible. And if you want the horses to stay healthy, you have to take care of them, give them lots of baths, and always have several amounts. Every rider here has to have five or six horses. When you're on your horse, you have to go around over there. Over there? Yes, that's right. As every A cowboy has to change horses many times each day, a group of relay horses has to be kept at hand. These are called the tropa. That is Nguinho's job, keeping the reserve horses together and at the right location. At Caiman, there are about 100 horses. The first to rise and the last to go to bed, Nguinho has to take them each day to the place where they will be needed before the cowboys arrive. It may seem like a humble task, but it is a vital one. First of all, you are a cowboy. Then you take care of the cattle. And after that, the boss will tell me to go and lasso. And if that goes well, you'll ask someone else to take my place, and I shall be a campero. I'm looking forward to the time when I shall be really good with a lasso, when I shall be able to gallop through the woods. Then he'll give my place to another cowboy. They're coming in, they're running, they're in the forest, and they're going to put another in their place. Macca's, egrets, jabirus, the hundreds of birds making the Pantanal an exceptional ornithological reserve take refuge one after another under the veil of night. For them, as for Naguinho, the boy who wants to be a Campero tomorrow can wait. While he is just a simple Tropero, Naguinho rides ordinary horses. But when his ambition is realized, he will be united in Fame with his Campero ancestors. Then he will mount the beautiful Andorinha. She will become his friend and ally during the important events, the gatherings, the lasso competitions, the festivities. With her help, he will shine and show off in front of the other cowboys together. They will become a single entity. For Nguinho, winning a lasso competition as stride Andorinha is a secret dream. The fazendas give a great deal of importance to these competitions. They add to their reputation. The cowboys take the training seriously. Muginho's companion, Floriano, is already a famous champion, and that is one of the reasons why he has taken on. Now, when you're far enough away, you turn your horse's head to one side and throw your lasso. Okay. Watch that guy over there. He's caught the cow's leg. He didn't move his horse far enough away. The rules of the contest are simple. When the referee waves a white flag, that means the animal has been correctly roped. With fully-grown cattle, the lasso must encircle the horns alone. The red flag signals a failed attempt. . I'm very happy, really pleased. Andorina is the first mare I have ridden, so I'm really very happy. It is time for Nguinho to take up his new work rhythm. In the loneliness of the very early dawn, he has to leave before the real Camperos who will He will only arrive when everything is ready for them. He envies them, but he knows where his duty lies. He will have to earn his place in the Pantanal and prove throughout the long months ahead that he is worthy of it. The cowboy is always alone. He leaves at dawn to look for the herd. The others can go ahead of us, and the boss tells the cowboy where he ought to find them. Once he gets there, he has to wait for a long time until the others arrive. Then the boss sends me somewhere else to where they will change horses, and off I go. Nguinho will become inured to his lowly task. The Pantanal is demanding and only accepts seasoned men who are capable of standing up to its rigors. The Pantanal spreads over 200,000 square kilometers of marshland. Located in the West center of Brazil, it is regarded by UNESCO as one of the treasures of humanity, one of the most luxuriant and diversified reserves of the biosphere. There is danger everywhere here for men and horses alike under the green mirror of the water-saturated land where lurk the anaconda, the caiman, the leech, and the uneven terrain where people can be lost. In this region, water is everywhere. It is part of life, infiltrating, corroding, irritating, and prolonging wounds and infection. But it also attracts the fabulous sub-Amazonian fauna. The horses of the tropa are there right on time. On his first working morning, Naguinho loses no marks. Each cowboy chooses a horse. He will change horses four or even five times in the course of the day. Each comparo is in charge of five or six horses that he trains and for which he is completely responsible, even though he does not own them. He is intimately aware of their qualities and their limits. He can unairingly assess their capacity for enduring this hostile environment. The men's movements are precise and stylized, paired down by centuries of practice. In the last 200 years, very little has changed in the way the Campero's work. Above all, everything depends on the intensity of their relationship with their horses. Scarcely have the Campero set off to find the herd before Nguinho must round up the reserve horses to lead them to the next rendezvous. It will take all day and well into the night to move herds of several thousand heads of cattle across marsh and floodland. Bath time is devoted to the intimacy between the horses and the cowboys. The animals have a chance to wash away their sweat, relax their muscles as the water splashes over their bodies and they cool down. This is when the horses are checked for any harmful lesions. Life has continued thus unchanging for many generations. Time and marsh have fashioned tough men, very like their Indian ancestors, and Naguinho longs only to be like them. Indians feed on what the land provides. They make their own tools and leather harnesses. They are content with the prairie for home. Staying out in the wild for a month at a time, they accompany herds numbering 2,000 or 3,000 on their seasonal migration to northern pastures where grass is easier to find in the rainy season. A change of horses. This is the time when horses exhausted after their morning's work are replaced by fresh mounds. A human environment provides good grazing for both steer and horses. Pantanal grass, with the addition of many aquatic plants available, is of unequaled nutritious value. This diet contributes to the high fertility rate of the horses and ensures the future of their race. For the cowboys of the Pantanal, water is like the air they breathe. Both are inescapable elements. Wet, chilled to the bone, thoroughly drenched, Nguinho gradually changes, as a real comparo must, into a molecule of water, a translucid drop of moisture that is inseparable from the surrounding marsh. Back at the fazenda, Nguinho's only thought is to find Andorinha. Look, a horse bidded here. A bite? Just now, look. Yeah, he bidded today. It's still moist. Let's go. We're late. Later, perhaps, Nguinho will regret that he did not pay more attention to this incident. But for the moment, he is impatient for his friend Floriano to return and give him a lasso lesson. I'm going to show you how to hold your lasso in a championship. You throw your lasso, the whole thing, and the four loops must be thrown or it won't be counted. You don't hold anything back. This is a lesson to Ruiña will remember, learning to be at one with his imaginary lasso as well as with Androinia. He will memorize every movement vividly in its absolute purity, finding once more the instinct of the Guaranis, the Guayacurus, the Terenas, house, to become one day a dancer on the watery stage in which truth is reflected. There is to be a rodeo at the end of the season. This will be an unexpected occasion for Nguinho to show his worth. But while his friends are in training, the young man has to face a terrible disappointment. His friend, Andorinha, his indispensable companion, is showing signs of weakness observed by Suizoldino and Floriano. While we wait, we'll let her rest, so that she'll be well for the day of the competition. She's a good mare. I'm already used to her. She's tired, Naguilio. She's got a lot thinner. Nguinho has no choice. He has to let Andorinha rest. They will pretend they do not suspect she has an infectious anemia, a dreadful disease that first appeared in the '50s, and that particularly affects the Pantanal horses, first exhausting and then killing them. Obsessed by an anxiety he dare not express, Nguinho must continue his training on another horse, Socrates, in honor of Andorinha. I'm not very good on this horse. I don't know it very well. I'm used to lassoing with Andorina. As she If it's not well, I've had to take this one to train on, but I can't manage to lasso right. I was already used to Andorina. I don't know this horse, so I can't lasso properly. I. It's a bad day. Nothing can distract Nguinho, not even the highly charged atmosphere around him caused by Truco, a card game in which bets are shouted and that the Camperos delight in when their day's work is done. The following day, Nguinho decides to behave as if it is just an ordinary day. He prepares the tropa and pretends that he is thinking of nothing but his work. Yes, I fell several times. I was on a badly trained horse, and it bucked, then I fell. As he does every morning, Liginho takes to the trail while the other comparos are still clinging to the last of their dreams. He He knows that life in the Pantanale blooms quickly and can just as quickly fade. Andorinha may be dead when he returns. However, there is no excuse for missing a day of work. Here, the only horses that count are the live ones, the ones that quiver and thrilt the first caress of the day. For the Camperos, they are the real heroes. Their ancestors arrived in the region back in the 16th century. The conquistadors brought barb and Andalusian thoroughbreds with them from Spain. During the conquest, some of the horses escaped into the Pantanale plains. They returned to the wild, and in the course of several for centuries of evolution, produced a unique race. At the Galpao, the place where the men go to prepare their equipment and to drink Terere, they often recount the legend of the original Pantaneros, the exceptional horses that could withstand rain and draw alike, resist the bite of the jaguar and the voracious leaches. Struck by disease, infested by parasites, only the strong survive. This is how their principle characteristics developed. They are never more than a meter 40 tall, barrel chested with small tough hooves, a strong neck, full and elastic nostrils, and thus they are perfectly adapted for working in the marshes. Nguinho has no wish to pay heat to this legend today. For For them, Andorinha's glorious pass is of no interest if a simple infection can carry her off. From the tropa that Naguinho has corralled, each man chooses his mount as usual. The task today is to try to find the unruly bulls that have stray from the herd. With the passing of time, they become rebellious and sometimes dangerous. The operation is a tricky one, but it gives the burrows one of those magic moments during which rider and horse turn into a centaur. Neither tiredness, danger, nor wounds can stop a true comparo from rounding up straight cattle. I chased after a bull that had gone wild and left the herd a very long time ago. I lassoed it, but it got away. When I touched its tail trying to get my lasso back, it turned on me and charged the horse head on. We all went down. The bull and the horse fell on me. I hurt my shoulder badly. The other soon came up and tied up the bull and pulled the horse off me and took me to the hospital. In order to bring these animals, weighing almost 800 kilos, back to the fold, they handcuffed them as it were to a docile here, a water, so that it will never stray from the herd. This action takes place far away from Nguinho, who is already on his way to the next meeting place. He, too, would like to take part in the fun, but alone on the plane, he never forgets that he is traveling every day through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I like living here in the Pantanal. When I go into town, it's strange. I don't like the town. I prefer the homestead. It's quieter here. On this particular day, when Isoldino, Floriano, and some of the others come to join him, Nguinho is in a dream world. He dreams that he is a fully-fledged comparo, capable of stopping a recalcitrant bull in full run. Good morning, Bobby. That's a problem, you guys. That's a problem. That's a problem. That's a problem. That's a problem. And so, hearing no more than the beating of his own heart, he in his turn twirls his lasso just as Floriano taught him to do. Stop. Nguinho, just now you chased after the calf, but you shouldn't do that. You're not a good You're not ready enough compañero yet. When you're ready, you will be a compañero, but don't do that. Your place is with the herd, okay? Yes, sir. Nguinho is sorely disappointed. He imagined that he would be praised rather than have to submit to Soizoldino's fury. But here, nothing is ever done that might endanger a bull or a calf. Brought back into line like a straight bull, Nguinho goes back to his own job of gathering the reserve horses and taking them where they have to go. A simple task, but very frustrating for an ambitious young man. Having arrived a few hours earlier, the fazenda cook has prepared dinner for the Camperos, cooking over the embers of the campfire. The cowboys will sleep out in the prairie as they are used to. The work of assembling a herd of a thousand heads of cattle and bringing them to the fazenda takes two or three days. The men only rarely dismount in that time, so the evening meal has a festive quality for them. A chance to hear once more stories they have heard a thousand times before about horses, anacondas, or jaguars that make up the great legend of the Pantanal. One day, my uncle was walking along the road when all at once he saw a jaguar hidden just nearby. He wasn't armed, so he laid down on the ground and played dead. When the jaguar came over and sniffed his head, he felt its mustache tickle his nose. He couldn't stop himself sneezing. The jaguar jumped back and hit its head on a piece of wood, and he got up and he ran off as fast as he could. When they came back, the jaguar was still out for the count. Since then, they call that place the Jaguar Clearing. Is it in reality or only in Nguinho's dreams that the sky crashes into the marsh. The young man cannot ignore what that might mean for Andorinha. Tomorrow, he will return to the fazenda, and he does not know whether or not she will still be on her feet. Hi. Hi. Hi. How's things? Is Endarina all right? No, she's not doing too well. She'll have to have a blood test to see if she's anemic. Anemia. The word is pronounced for the first time. Nguinho knows what that might mean. Probably death or Andorinha. Only a blood test can establish an exact diagnosis. It is his last hope. She won't be anemic, Nguinho. You'll see. She looks very tired. We'll have to wait for the results of the examination to know how she is. This disease has been around for a long time in the Pantanel. At present, there is no cure for it. So if a horse is anemic, it has to be kept away from the healthy herd. You can't leave it with the horses that have healthy blood. The Camperos are awarded a few hours of rest. Some of them take the opportunity to teach their competition horses a little equestrian choreography. Andorina would be hard put to do as much. The vet has difficulty in making her stand up. You can see how she's trembling. Yes, she's trembling. And she can hardly stand up. The parasite has spread throughout this part of the body. That's why she can't stand up. Hello. Hello. She can't stand anymore. Do you think it's anemia? I don't think so. I think it's a kidney disease. Kidney disease, also known as trypanosumosis. This is good news because unlike chronic infectious anemia, this formerly fatal disease can now be cured with a simple antibiotic treatment. But Nguinho is worried that the vet is only saying this to allay his fears. Today, they have to count, vaccinate, and brand the cattle that the Camperos have brought back to the fazenda. This operation is carried out in a festive air that everyone enjoys. The adults are sorted, vaccinated with an injection gun, and the tuft of hair on the end of the tail is cut off to prevent the proliferation of ticks. .. When he leaves the work at hand for a few moments, Nguinho finds Andorinha on her eat for the very first time in many days. The mare still seems to be exhausted. Every movement is an effort, but at least she is not stretched out on the ground. Even the trembling seems to have stopped. But the young man knows very well that infectious anemia like other killer diseases, is often marked with periods of remission that give false hopes of a cure. Work starts again. The calves have to be marked with the number of the month of their birth and the prestigious Fazenda Caiman brand. . Hey, Nguinho. I've got good news for you. And Dorina isn't anemic. Thank you. I was very worried. . She needs to be treated now. I'll take care of her. All right. Good night, everybody. Go, go, go, go, go, go, Now that Andorinho is cured, Nguinho does not hesitate in joining in one of the most pleasant offense in the life of a Campero, the horse's bath. Once a week, the cowboys take their companions for a swim in the lakes that form during the rainy season. The physical exercise helps the animals to sharpen their reflexes under the water and the men to share a moment of real euphoria with them. After bathing, Nguinho prepares to collect the reserve horses. This might be just any ordinary day, starting like so many others in the golden dust of the stampede. But what the young man does not know is that today is a red-letter day, as red as the dust on Andorinha's coat. Nguinho, today you are not going to follow us with the herd. You are going to work with as a Campero. Yes, sir. I'll leave the herd with young Marcelo. He's going to become the new Tropero. Today, we're going to hunt the toro. Very good. I'll go into the forest with you. I'm a Campeado now. I'm happy for you. Will there be no bull to catch? If he doesn't catch it, then I'll go back to being a simple Tropeyro. God help me. With every passing day, the great event that they are all waiting for gets a little nearer, the annual rodeo and lasso competition. Nguinho has not been able to train with Andorinha as much as he should have, and he must make up for lost time. Now that we know Andarina's blood is all right, I'm really happy because I shall be able to ride with her in the last wing competition. If she had been anemic, I wouldn't have been able to train with her. I was very worried. At night, I wondered whether the result would be negative or positive. Luckily, her blood is all right, and I shall be able to lasso with her again. Shout loud and throw the cards down with enough force to split the table. Those are the rules of the comparo's traditional card game. Naguinho feels lighter and hard and also stronger. Henceforth, he will be one of the real cowboys. Having waited as patiently as he could, he is at last one of the Pantanal Camperos. Like the others, he will learn to shout louder than his rivals. But he knows now that he belongs to the infinity of the marshlands, that he will found a family, and that perhaps his children, like their father, will become comparos for the love of horses. The day of the competition dawns. Like Naguino, Floriano, and the others, cowboys from all over Brazil will be there, ready to represent their home fazenda. Today, Naguino and his friends will defend the honor of the fazenda caiman. He needs to size up the most dangerous of his rivals, assess the animals that have to be lassoed, judge the state of the ground. Nguinho does not miss a second of the spectacle that he will share in for the first time in his life. Andorina is in good health. I'm brushing her because we shall be going soon. I won't give her a bath now for fear of weakening her. I'll wait till the sun's a bit warmer, and then I'll give her a bath because she's been rolling in the red earth and she's covered in dirt. The cowboys from a rival fazenda are the first to enter the ring. Before long, another fazenda takes the lead. The The competition is strong, perhaps too strong. Nguinho and his friends from the Caiman clan feel nervous, but in spite of the talent shown by the other teams, they must still keep their spirits up. God willing, we should win this trophy. If we have the luck to have good cows to rope, we shall be sure of has been well placed. At last, the time comes for the riders from the Fazenda Caiman to enter the arena. The earlier part of the competition is to their advantage. But everything remains undecided. No one can tell which team will carry the prestige of victory away with them to savor for a whole year. As Nguinho, the apprentice Campero, enters the scene on his still convalescent Andorinha, who would think he could change anything at all in the result of the competition? Victory is there at last. Like a dream come true for a young man who's only thought was to experience a love story with a white horse in the sacred wetlands of his ancestors.