Prick (bullfight)

Presentation

The purpose of the spade is to show the bravery of the bull (or its absence of bravery), to reduce its force, to calm it and lead it to lower its head to allow the good progress of the third tercio .

The bravery of the bull appears according to the way in which it charges the picador. The brave bull must spring by far: one estimates that the braver it is, the more the distance of which it springs will be high. For this purpose, on the ground two concentric circles are traced: the first with seven meters of the barrier, the second with three meters of the first. When it quotes (“calls”) the bull, the picador must place its horse in the vicinity immediate of the external circle, the Matador and his peones having to immobilize the bull inside the internal circle. If the bull does not charge, the picador can then move and the matador can make move the bull, by hoping that in another point of the track, this one will charge. In the event of new failure, one makes a third attempt. In the event of third failure, it is not taken any more account of the circles. The bull which one is obliged to prick under these conditions shows a lack of bravery which would condemn it to the black Banderilles… if they were used as they would owe the being.

The distance of three meters delimited by the two circles is a distance minimum. The really brave bull will spring with the first call of the picador, since a largely higher distance. One sees sometimes bulls ruer on the horse since the other end of the track.

The bravery of the bull also appears in its manner of pushing the horse: in “putting the kidneys” (i.e. while pushing “of only one block”), without “making sing the clamp” (without agitating the head upwards or from right to left, thus making noise by knocking its horns against the clamp).

The picador must apply the spade to the base of the morillo (fleshy bump located at the base of the neck), without boring, beginning again themselves.

When the bull charged the picador and pushes the horse, the peones and the matador intervene with the quite : they move away the bull from the horse. The matador makes then some master keys of hoods , in order to check the effect of the last spade on the bull. At the time of the quites the matadors intervene each one their turn: that the bull is brave and strong, that the matadors are inspired, that the public is receptive, then the quites become true “contests” between the three matadors, those trying to carry out the master keys of hoods most beautiful, most elegant, most spectacular…

In theory, there is applied two spades minimum (it is no maximum), but in the event of weak bull, the president can reduce this number to only one. When by chance, the bull shows an exceptional bravery, an additional spade is sometimes given with the regatón : the picador takes its spade with back, and “pricks” with the end of the handle, the regatón , and not with the puya .

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