Garrocha

The Royal Lusitano
Saint Charles, Illinois

Garrocha

"Garrocha"
Jill McCrae & Quebec
McCrae Farms November 2007

If you ask Jill McCrae at what point did she envision herself boarding and training horses and instructing the people who ride them as a job, or after a visit to her farm and training facility you comment on how lucky she is to be doing this for a living, her initial response to the former would be “it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle” and “luck had absolutely nothing to do with it” to the later.

At the impressionable age of five, Jill recalls her first encounter with horses, an event that left an indelible impression on her and her destiny; “I could hardly stay seated as the entourage of performers and animals paraded past me at the very first circus my father took me to. It was their graceful movement and regal stature that captivated me. I knew then I wanted horses to be a part of my life and that I would never be apart from them.”

From the age of fourteen to the present, Jill has devoted herself to classical dressage. Primarily influenced by the French internationally renowned trainer and author Dominique Barbier, she has spent the last three decades under his tutelage.

In the past few years, Jill’s pursuits have focused more toward the baroque style presentation, thus directing her interest to the Lusitano breed of horses. It was upon her first visit to Brazil and to the illustrious breeding farms that Jill rode and purchased the rambunctious buckskin stallion upon which she will be performing on tonight; Quebec dos Pinhais, aka, “Quebec”.

This evening Jill and Quebec will be performing a garrocha routine. The garrocha is traditionally used by the vaqueros (Spanish cowboy), as a tool used for sorting bulls in the fields. At some point in time maneuvers with the garrocha combined with classical equitation evolved into the art form we experience today.

a Jilly Bean Production