Tuesday 22nd September - Camargue Horses and Bulls

Camargue horses are world renouned as the white horses. The horses are not white when they are born but a variety of browns, fawns, greys and beige and they don't acquire their white coats until about their fifth year. They shed their rough winter coats in the spring and grow a fine silky hair and this process gets them their lighter whiter coats. They are hardy as they live in an area that is flat and the ground is sandy and salty so nothing of much nourishment grows and it very windy in the winter.
On the boat trip we were lucky enough to see a group of about 6 of these lovely horses.

Camargue Bulls are not very big animals at only about 300kgs but their horns are huge and sort of stick straight up.
They are still used for Bull fights and unlike the Spanish Bullfights the Camargue bulls are never killed but have little tassles plaited into the hair between the horns or attached to the horns themselves and the object for the "raseteurs", young bullfighters, is to try to take as many of the tassles as they can and a rewarded with money as to the number of tassles they have after the 15minute bullfight.
The bulls start their bullfighting carriers at aged 3 or 4 and are retired after they reach 10 - 12 years.