Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Goodbye to ‘Las Chicas’

We said a fond farewell to Astrid and Sophie this week, who both joined us for a few months to help us through the busy season. Aside from bringing a touch of glamour and youthfulness to the estancia (so we were told by guests . . .Lou & Kevin are trying not to be too offended!) we would particularly like to thank Sophie for her work with the young foals and Astrid for some superb photos of the estancia - coming to a picturebook near you soon! (You can see more of Astrid`s work at www.astridharrisson.com)

Many thanks to you both, and best wishes from us all at Los Pots!

 

Posted by Lou & Kevin at 16:36:55 | Permalink | Comments Off

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Glorious in defeat! Or did we win?

Last week, Los Potreros proudly entered a team into a ‘Polo three’s’ tournament, held over a long weekend at a nearby polo estancia called ´Pompeya’. The awesome threesome consisted of (left to right), Humi ‘if we don’t win I´ll eat my hat’ Pizarro, Kevin ‘if we don’t win I´ll make Humi eat his hat’ Begg, and Plomo ‘everyone else will eat my hat because I can’t control my horses’!!

The first round went extremely well, with a resounding win for the Los Pots Hotties! Kevin returned wondering whether Cambiaso would like to come for a training session with him to pick up a few tips, after scoring 3 goals. The second round on Friday was a little more sobering, when their opposition (Humi’s retired uncle and a twelve year old) took their team to a 5-4 win against our local heroes.

Unfortunately after that, rain stopped play, and the remaining game in the qualifying rounds was decided on penalties against some strange handicapping system, that meant that our team returned crestfallen, having not reached the finals. Humi is still convinced that our team won though, so that is good enough for us!

A particular mention of thanks and applause to our lovely and very patient horses, who took all of this in their stride (literally), but were extremely happy to get back home to their green fields and our happy-go-lucky weekly polo amongst friends, watched only by a couple of hopeful vultures . . . 

Posted by Lou & Kevin at 14:08:02 | Permalink | Comments Off

Saturday, October 27, 2007

And Little Joe?

No - we haven’t got any idea either!

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Friday, September 28, 2007

School´s in

With our round corral nearly finished, our new horse-breaker has wasted no time putting some of our youngsters through their paces.

Luis joined us several months ago to primarily focus on our young horses (we have about 12 ready for breaking in!). Luis is a keen advocate, like Humi, of ‘Doma Racional’, or natural horsemanship as it has become more widely known. We have built a viewing platform on our round pen and Luis is excited about sharing some of his skills and knowledge with our guests.

The horse he is riding here is called ‘China’ (pronounced cheena) which is the Argentine term for the girlfriend of a gaucho. She is the last to be bred from one of our great mares, Dina, who has produced the most fabulous horses on the farm over her lifespan. She is now happily retired and munching grass out in one of our fields. This was China’s first outing with someone on her back, and Luis tells me she was the perfect student . . .which is lucky as Kevin has his eye on her as his next riding horse!

Posted by Lou & Kevin at 16:23:37 | Permalink | No Comments »

Monday, September 17, 2007

And goodbye to Gorgeous!

We were very sad to say goodbye this weekend to Sam (aka ‘precioso’). Sam joined us for 3 months as a guide, having originally visited us as a guest some 5 years ago. Despite trying his best to kill Kevin on the polo field several times, Sam was a huge success with guests and staff alike . . .in particular the girls in the kitchen!

We would like to thank him for his hard work and humour, not to mention all the fires he kept going, and we wish him well for his final year at university. Good luck Sam!

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Friday, September 7, 2007

It´s a tough life . . .

Kevin, out on his favourite horse, Negro El Once, bringing in the foals at sunset . . .

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Goodbye to Gordon and Tracy!

We were sorry to say goodbye this week to Gordon and Tracy, two of our volunteer guides, who have headed off on their continuing travels this week. ‘Gordo y Crazy’ as they were affectionately known, were with us for 6 weeks as part of an epic (but rather belated given their age!) gap year. We were very lucky that they came by us on their way round to help us out, and we would like to thank them and wish them all the best for their adventures from all of us here.
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Los Potreros welcomes ‘Humi’

Estancia Los Potreros is delighted to welcome Juan Manuel Pizarro, ‘Humi’, to our full-time team as horse manager and resident polo professional.

Like many Argentines, Humi has spent a lifetime around horses. He has worked both in England and more latterly in Kenya as yard manager, whilst pursuing his passion for both polo and horses in general. On the birth of his young son, Humi returned to Rio Ceballos, his local town, with his family, where he started working with us in 2006 providing guest tuition during our polo-focused weeks. Humi currently plays polo off a 3 handicap, and more recently has also taken up the exciting native sport of ‘Pato’ and is a regular participant at local competitions. Humi is a keen advocate of natural horsmanship methods, known as ´Doma Racional´ in Argentina, and his first project has been to build a round corral for his work with the horses.

We are thrilled to have Humi with us, and to benefit from his significant experience with horses - now his only challenge remains to teach Lou and Kevin to play polo properly!

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