The Curious Incident of the Bull and the Pit Bull at the Rodeo

In 1831, a man by the name of José Tomás Ovalle died of Tuberculosis. Then some people named a town after him. Just like that, sans most details, Ovalle was born!  To pay homage to its 186th year of existence, the city held various activities, shows, concerts, carnivals and cultural events throughout the week. The streets were littered with haphazardly assembled booths occupied by eager vendors selling anything from artisanal wine to handcrafted trinkets. I bought an overpriced beer bottle opener. Classes were cancelled for many of the festivities, including a dramatic reenactment of the settlement of Ovalle and a parade I was forced to participate in.

Look at me go. Wondering why I didn’t record this in landscape? ME TOO.

The highly anticipated Ovalle rodeo was on Saturday afternoon. Now, I don't ever condone testicle yanking for entertainment purposes, but I figured it would be interesting from an anthropological standpoint (my questionable go-to excuse when I attempt to validate my curiosity) to see how this barbaric pastime translates in Chile. 

From what I gathered, there are several teams of two people on horseback wearing matching traditional Chilean garb.

Based on the explanation given to me by an intoxicated man who spoke a slurred language that has yet to be deciphered by modern linguists, the objective is to agitate the bull in the pen and then let it loose in the arena to run along the enclosed dirt area with a team member on either side of the enraged animal.  They then chase the SENTIENT BEING around until an opportunity to ram it into the wall arises. There's a point system based on which body part hits the wall first, but I was never able to figure out. The announcer boomed over the loudspeaker every time a point was gained or lost. I suspected he was making it up as he went. What’s worse, any time an exhausted bull laid down to catch a break, a scrawny man would crawl out from under the bleachers in the same contorted manner as Sumara from The Ring with a taser to force him back on his feet. To complement the vibe of this spectacle, there were two women sitting in a box office singing folkloric songs as all of this was happening. What kind of nightmare had I walked into?

Captured for the sole purpose of recording the women singing.

But wait—the nightmare had only just begun… 

An exceptionally haggard looking pit bull slinked it’s way into the rodeo to scavenge for food scraps near the concession area. The poor pup had a massive gash above his eye and matted hair that only partially covered his protruding ribs. Instead of horsing around at the rodeo, a more lucrative use of his time should have been auditioning for a Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial. We were sitting on old wooden bleachers and, unbeknownst to any of us, directly above the bulls awaiting their turn to get unceremoniously pummeled. Their holding spot wasn’t brought to my attention until I heard a dramatic shriek from down below. Confused, I looked under my seat and discovered the hungry pit bull had viciously latched onto a bull’s chest. Yes, the pit bull was acting out of hunger, but it didn’t make the situation any less terrifying and profoundly upsetting. All anyone could do was watch in shock and pray they weren’t next. The bull violently swung his body back and forth in between cries and kicked the dog relentlessly to no avail. This newly acquired appendage to its body was evidently there to stay. Everyone gasped as the bull continued his losing battle. But, not all was lost…

Out of nowhere, the town drunkard came running up with a giant 7-foot wooden pole and started beating the dog over the head. Allow me to paint the picture:

1. The town drunkard swings at the pit bull with a wooden pole. Where the hell did he get a wooden pole?!?!?!?

2. The pit bull gets beaten by said town drunkard and is completely unfazed.

Meanwhile, the bull is over here in insane amounts of pain.

And everyone else is like...

Long story short, the dog finally let go only to immediately run to its next victim up ahead. At some point, he must have been beaten to the point it was no longer worth the fight and finally surrendered to a group of disgruntled men, including taser boy and the booze hound turned hero. They tied the dog up with rope and left him there panting and bloody. Mark my words—I will never attend a rodeo again. Yee-haw.