Are you wanting to get off the same old tourist path while you are in Spain? Jerez de la Frontera is a hidden gem, one you will thoroughly love!
Jerez de la Frontera, a beautiful city in the far south of Spain, is well-known for two things: sherry and horses. This was our second trip to Jerez, and the first time we headed for the sherry caves and watching traditional flamenco. We had a great time, but on this day it was all about the horses.
They are both well worth the trip, too. After arriving in the beautiful city in the morning, many people go straight to the Real Escuela to marvel at the precise horse routines. We did the same.
Conveniently you can book your seats online, but it’s not really necessary unless you have limited time in Spain. We entered the grounds and found horses being trained. There was a single horse in the excercise ring, making sure to keep up his pace so he didn’t get a little shock. Quite the motivator, I’d say. Then we also saw plenty of training in the outdoor rink. There were single riders putting the horses through their paces as well as one horse pulling a buggy.
After watching this for a little while, we wandered into the tack shop where a man was working on the side panel of a saddle. He was surrounded by horse knowledge. I loved this diagram of a horse on the blackboard.
Finally we went into the main show ring. Pictured below is the king’s box. The school doesn’t allow any photography during the show, so as not to spook the horses, but they do sell a video at the end.
The horses and their trainers were amazing! We were mesmerized the entire time. It was beautiful.
Afterwards we walked around the city a bit more, grabbing a scrumptious lunch of tapas and cervezas, then it was off to the beach.
Author Bio: Corinne Vail is a travel photographer, food lover, and a perpetual traveler who has been travel writing for over 14 years. For many years she lived overseas in Germany, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, and the Netherlands teaching the children of the US. military. She’s visited over 90 countries, and she’s not stopping anytime soon.
Have you ever been to Jerez de la Frontera before? What did you think?
