Readers of books about the bulls will be aware that the most significant routes by which modern bulls are descended from the earliest herds are through the bloodlines of Saltillo, Murube, Parladé and Santa Coloma. It is hoped that some day detailed consideration of each of the most important modern ranches will be possible in La Divisa. Before that, it might be useful to look at each of the important intermediate bloodlines. My information is taken from two sources, the same handbook of the Asociación National de Ganaderías de Lidia used to prepare the bulk of the article on the foundational ranches and that excellent primer on the bullfight, Cómo ver una corrida de toros by José Antonio del Moral. As I have translated the material, I have left all of the terms referring to the appearance of the bulls in Spanish and appended a glossary at the end. The terms are used again and again in discussion of how bulls look.
Archetype of the Saltillo Bloodline
Don Antonio Ruedo Quintanilla, Marqués de Saltillo, founded his ranch in 1850, by purchasing the very famous one of José Picavea de Lesaca Montemayor, a herd which José’s father, Pedro José, had acquired from Ignacio Martín, one of the two principal branches of the Vistahermosa trunk and the popularity of which his widow, Isabel Montemayor, was able to raise higher than it had been in her husband’s lifetime.
The Marqués de Saltillo not only conserved all of the good qualities of the herd but made it different from all of the others of the same bloodline which existed during the thirty years in which he enjoyed ownership of it. His widow, Da Francisca Osborne continued with the same enthusiasm as her husband had shown until she handed direction of the herd over to her son, Rafael Rueda Osborne in the dying years of the last century. He sold it to Felix Moreno Ardanuy in 1918.
These bulls are of such fine conformation that it seems that they are merely middle-sized. Indeed, in the times of the immeasurable Rafael Guerra, Guerrita, they were called "the sweetmeats of Saltillo" Perhaps the intention was to molest the man who had been an exceptional banderillero for eight years with Sr Fernando El Gallo in all of the corridas of the Marqués which he killed.
The classic type of the Saltillo bull has been of very fine conformity and very fine skin. Hair colour is generally negro, entrepelado, and cárdeno, with the latter predominating. Their faces have lively and aggressive eyes and narrow muzzles (they have been called rat-muzzled). They have well-folded dewlaps, straight backs, and tend to be "tocado de pitones", a term meaning half way between cornivuelto and cornipaso. They have fine hooves and small fetlocks. They are bulls of considerable breeding, great temperament and courage. Their qualities have been transmitted to all of the herds bred from or based upon them totally or in part. Examples are San Mateo in Mexico, from which proceed the majority of the most popular ranches in that country, and, in Spain, that of the Marqués de Albaserrada, today Victorino Martín and Santa Coloma, not from the Ibarra part of the early days of the line but from that which came later on the union with the Saltillo line, from which has come a distinctive animal which could be defined mathematically as Ibarra + Saltillo = Santa Coloma.
Archetype of the Murube Bloodline
This very famous ganadería dates its foundation from 1851 at the purchase of cattle, both male and female, made from the ranchers Manuel Suárez Jiménez and later, in 1863, from the son-in-law of the "Barber of Utrera", ("El Barbero de Utrera") José Arias de Saavedra, by Da Dolores Monge, the widow of Murube.
The two ganaderías came in a direct line from the foundational ranch of the Counts of Vistahermosa, being the two principal branches of the five into which their herd had been divided in 1822 and which have been conserved pure without any type of cross.
The type of bull created in this ganadería is of very beautiful lines and, it is curious to observe, it is thrown up in two distinct types.
The explanation which can be advanced for this is that there were two ganaderías used in its foundation: "lesaqueñas" and "saavedreños". The Suárez bulls were given their name in their time since they came from Pedro José Picavea de Lesaca, bulls which acquired great fame when they were in the hands of his widow. The name Saavedra stems from the great fame acquired during the 28 years that he successfully ran the ranch.
The "lesaqueño" type of bulls are not similar to others. They have a "no se qué" which is difficult to describe but which makes them different and unmistakable. Their horns are lightly "acodados" and cornillanos, and have the point of the horn at the same level as the mazorca, this being one of their most characteristic features. They are wide of the skeleton, bajos de "agujas" flat-muzzled and have well-developed morillos which make them seem short in the neck.
Their exist some...which the toreros have always called "high mounted" and which have seemed very good-looking to those not well-versed in such matters, because they are in the habit of being short-horned and having the agreeable face so common in this ganadería, but which, by having the head held high on a short neck, can be difficult and disagreeable for the torero because they do not lower their heads.
The other type of bull which we mentioned above, the "saavedreño" is different from that just described. Some examples have a bigger head on a neck arched upwards somewhat like a sheep’s and others have curly hair; they have a larger muzzle; better developed horns with a tendency to be corniapretados, swept upwards; lean bellys; fine extremities to their small hooves; longer necks and tails. They are usually brave and noble in both types and the hair of both types is black (with bragado, entrepelado, listón and meano occurring accidentally Ed).
Archetype of the Parladé Bloodline
The Parladé bloodline has come to be one of the most famous of those proceeding from Vistahermosa. Drawn with Murube, Santa Coloma and Saltillo from the whole pack of ganaderías they have formed that hand of aces from which all of today’s important ganaderías have sprung.
The most highly determined morphological features are: alto de cruz or agujas; well proportioned neck; pronounced lionesque dewlap and thereby the appearance of being somewhat low in the hind quarters.
The colour of the horns is what with a very brilliant black tip. They are well-armed and in general terms they have well developed defences.
Their hair can be varied: negro, listón, chorreado, colorado in all of its distinct varieties, and salpicado in the rear lower regions going as far as being burraco. There is also an exclusive characteristic in some examples, above all in the salpicados, they are ZARCOS in one or both eyes. This consists in having a small white spot close to the tear duct which sometimes confuses people not much steeped with the material into thinking that there is a defect in the eye.
There are some ganaderías of Parladé descent which have changed the conformations of their herds in a variety of ways. Some have made them finer; others have reduced the size of their heads; others have shortened the lower forelegs so that, looking at them from head on, the base of the tail can be seen, as in those called "uncovered"; there are also those with a short neck, rough, etc. Sometimes avatism or reversion to an earlier type occurs so that we have heard it said that, "this one has taken a backward step". Fortunately, some ganaderías which changed the archetype in answer to circumstances and went into decay have returned to the right track and sought again for the standard characteristics of the bloodline.
From the beginning of this short outline and referring to one of the most noticeable characteristics of this bloodline, which is "alto de cruz y agujas" it could be interpreted erroneously that because of this the bull must be difficult for the torero and ugly in appearance. In my modest opinion they have a most pleasing conformation of any fighting bull. The beauty of head and neck, in a word the forequarters (those which are very rounded in the rear end are like Charrolais), if the bull is of good class, as the Parladé has always been, allow the neck to be stretched and the muzzle to be drawn along the sand when it is trying to catch a lure. Whatever conformation they have they need not necessarily be disagreeable. What happens is that, since their size is usually the same as that of other bulls, their being somewhat low of the rear quarters makes them seem higher in the agujas.
Archetype of the Santa Coloma Bloodline
In 1905, the Count of Santa Coloma bought from Manuel Fernández Peña the ganadería which he had acquired the previous year when the partition of the herd of D Eduardo Ibarra took place.
This ganadería came to enjoy an extraordinary reputation in the 27 years during which the Count was its proprietor. The public were enthusiastic with the bravery and good class of these bulls and there was no feria or corrida of category in which they did not figure. They were the favourites of the colossus of toreo José Gómez Ortega Gallito, killed in Talavera de la Reina in 1920 by a bull of the Widow of Ortega whose ranch was created with Veragua cows and stud bulls of Santa Coloma.
Many ganaderías have been created using these cattle, innumerable stud bulls having been sold, giving magnificent results in the crossings and refreshments of blood in ranches which have degenerated with the passage of time. This herd is an excellent medium, because of its great bravery, from which to draw breeding animals to sustain and elevate those herds of low quality and lacking in brave caste.
As we have been able to see, this ganadería is half of that of "Ibarra": if in the part corresponding to Parladé the hair colours colorado, castaño, chorreado and melocotón emerge with profusion, it is different with this part from which such hair colours are absent because the Count of Santa Coloma eliminated all of such colour, retaining only the black and the grey, it not being strange to see some luceros and girones.
These are bulls of great liveliness. They have intelligent-looking faces, bulging eyes and well-horned heads, with many which are gacho. They are lightly saddle-backed and have well-proportioned lines.
There are other examples with little dewlap and horns which are "astillados", that is, between cornivuelto and cornipaso; those come from the mixture which the Count created with animals he bought from the Marqués de Saltillo and the greater part of which he ceded in later years to his brother the Marqués de Albaserrada.
The bulls of this ganadería have always had great bravery and much temperament. They continue to be called Santa Coloma, but they belong to Buendia. The Count, as we have seen at the beginning, had the ganaderia for 27 years. D. Joaquín Buendia has been its proprietor since 1957. He has proceeded to model the bulls to his taste: a more reduced skeleton; comfortable, beautiful and drawn-in heads; made them more commercial, as bulls with the appropriate bravery and temperament are now called. In all ways they are bulls for good toreros. Their charges must be judged exactly if they are not to catch the lure, because they seek attentively to catch. So as not to stifle them it is appropriate to move back from them at the end of the pases because they are in the habit of paying attention to what they have left behind them. They are bulls which have collaborated greatly in the success of the torero precisely because they charge repeatedly and give the public the sensation of that true danger inherent in the true toro bravo.
The above discussion, interestingly, pays on attention to the bloodlines which flowed down from the Vázquez foundational ranch. Since there is still Vázquez blood around, it deserves some treatment. To find it I have turned to José Antonio del Moral’s Como ver una corrida de toros, a book which I have no hesitation in recommending to aficionados whether they read Spanish or not. José Antonio deals with the Vistahermosa lines in a manner not radically different from that of the Asociación Nacional de Ganaderías de Lidia. But first he deals with Miuras, Pablo Romeros and the Vázquez line. The first two of these will best be dealt with by themselves, so I will merely deal with the Vázquez line here.
The Vázquez Bloodline
"The most famous ganadería of the caste was that of the Duke of Veragua, acquired in its totality by Juan Pedro Domecq de Villavicencio in 1930 and of which only remains the hierro, now the property of Juan Pedro Domecq Solis who brands his cattle of Vistahermosa origin with it. Of the Veragua line their exists and are fought bulls of Tomás Prieto de la Cal. Almost all of the rest are reminiscences or light consaguineous relationships which palpitate in the ganaderías of Torrestrella, Maria Carmen Camacho, Jandilla and all of the ganaderías which flow out of them. There is another very well known herd in which the Veragua blood has more presence, the anciently famous one of Concha y Sierra which is now bred and cared for by Miguel Baez Spuny, Litri in his ranch in Huelva [I believe that Litri no longer owns the ranch, but do not know who now does - I will find out in due course and amend this statement. Ed] And in the part which he owns that was originally formed with vazqueña and vistahermosa cattle there is also that of Benítez Cubero.
The variety of hair and types of vázquez bulls are evidence of the great diversity of their origins. The line as created by the utrerano Gregorio Vázquez with cattle of unknown procedence mixed with animals from Cabrera and Raso del Portillo, later crossed with cows and seed bulls of Vistahermosa.
agujas. Literally, the ribs; the high point at the meeting of the ribs
with the backbone.
astillado.Horns which are splintered at the ends.
bragado. With a white area on the belly.
cárdeno. Grey
castaño. chestnut.
chorreado. With vertical bands of a darker colour on the skin.
colorado. Red.
corniapretados. Horns which grow inwards towards each other and rise at
an angle of 45o at their ends.
cornillanos. Horns which are parallel with the ground.
cornipaso. Growing upwards and outwards and finally backwards in the
shape of a lyre.
cornivuelto. Horns with scarcely any upwards bend, horizontal horns.
cruz. The highest part of the back where the ribs meet the backbone,
synonymous with agujas.
degollado. Shortened or cut off.
entrepelado. With dark and light coloured hairs mixed.
gacho. Horns which point downwards towards the ground.
giron. Dark coloured with a white patch on the lower rear quarters.
listón. With a distinct line of a colour other than the main colouration
along the dorsal spine.
lucero. With a large white mark on the forehead.
mazorca. The lower part of the horn where it exits from the head.
meano. Of any colour other than white or berrendo, that is white with
large areas of another colour, with a white covering of the foreskin.
melocotón. Peach coloured
negro. Black
papada. The dewlap.
salpicado. Dark coloured with white areas of various sizes as if the
skin had been splashed with the white colour.