My 2nd great grand uncle Marcos Forster may have learned his trait of genteel hospitality from his father-in-law Juan "El Rico" Avila. Whether that was the case or something more in his nature, Marcos Forster was known up and down the coast for rodeos and barbeques held on the old Santa Margarita Rancho (now Camp Pendleton).
The annual rodeo of 1873 was well recorded in the newspapers of the day and we are indebted to the unnamed reporter of the San Diego World who left a detailed and enthusiastic account.
Now the real vaqueros of southern California had a much more dangerous and thrilling method of bull throwing than what we see at rodeos today. Their methods, after all, were in a time less coddled by over-concerns for safety of men or animals, for example.
As the World reporter recounts firstly, four vaqueros separated a likely large and fierce bull and goaded it into a chase, then two riders broke off and left the bull thrower on his own.
"At last," the reporter said, "the right moment came. Putting spurs to his gallant steed...every moment gaining on the flying bull. At last, the horse's neck laps the bull's rump. This is the supreme moment. A nervous arm is thrust quickly forth, the spectator knows rather than fully sees that the bull's tail has been quickly curled round the vaquero's hand and both tail and hand are the next instant between the saddle and the vaquero's knee."
The vaquero quirts his horse to a forward bolt and the bull's rear hooves are lifted high enough to flip him over in a forward somersault to the ground. Tail over horns. Amazing....but then these were the same vaqueros who used to rope grizzly bears for sport and fun, as well as meat.
A tip of the sombrero to the old vaqueros of San Juan.
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