Last of Spain’s great horseback bullfighters
Rejoneadore worked with movie stars
Angel Peralta was, with his brother Rafael, one of the greatest rejoneadores, or horseback bullfighters; on one occasion he taught the sport to Ava Gardner, while many years later he was an unlikely body double for the glamorous film star Bo Derek.
Peralta has died at age 93. The Peralta brothers were pioneers in popularizing rejoneo beyond Portugal, its historic birthplace, although they faced hostility from Spanish traditionalists who felt that matadors should face the bulls eyeball to eyeball in the sand.
Peralta’s horsemanship and bravery won him roles in several movies, including Bolero (1984) in which he was the body-double for Bo Derek. The actress did not need a double for most of the film, in which she usually appeared naked and having sex. But during the horseback bullfighting scenes Peralta’s services were called upon when her wealthy American character was trying to be a rejoneadora.
Peralta’s younger brother was the horseback double for Bo Derek’s co-star, the Italian actor Andrea Occhipinti, yet neither they nor Bo Derek’s physical attributes could save the movie from becoming a flop and winning a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture of the Year.
Other Hollywood stars visited the Peralta family at Rancho del Rocio, near Seville, including Geraldine Chaplin and Ava Gardner.
In 1957 Peralta, who was also a gifted writer, had written a script for Ava Gardner titled El Centauro de las Marismas (“The Centaur of the Marshes”). It was based on a man and a horse as one, riding through the marshlands of southern Spain.
Peralta “taught” Ava Gardner to bullfight, but when she was asked to prick the bull with the traditional banderillas to weaken the animal — it was, in fact, a cow with fake horns — she fell off her horse, bruising her face. With another film scheduled for that year, she pulled out of the project.
The Spanish media suggested that Peralta and Ava Gardner had an affair, and Peralta later wrote: “It was not an idyll but a brief relationship, which ended with the most beautiful animal in the world alone, naked and abandoned in a hotel room.”
Peralta loved women almost as much as his horses, “The horse is my life: without him, I don’t exist. With him, I find myself,” he once said.
Rejoneo is a ballet of sorts, and Peralta bred bulls to fight, not to die humiliated in a slaughterhouse — which is why the Spanish call them toros bravos (brave bulls). He would take his unpadded horse to within touching distance of the bull’s horns and he would often touch those horns as his horse twisted, sidestepped or even backstepped to confuse its rival. He mastered the art of riding “no hands”, using his thighs, knees and feet to free his hands for the darts and the final blade.
Peralta trained horses to outwit bulls, but in the process he lost countless horses, including his beloved Cabrio, who was gored when Peralta was riding him in a small ring with a half-tonne bull.
Angel Peralta Pineda was born in La Puebla del Rio, near Seville, on March 18 1925, to a family of cattle ranchers, horse breeders and
IT’S PROBABLY FAIR TO SAY ... WHEN HE INVENTED HIS LASER IN 1962, HALL COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED THE USES TO WHICH IT WOULD ONE DAY BE PUT, FOR HE WAS NOT A CONSUMER PRODUCT DEVELOPER. HE WAS AN EXPERIMENTER ...
THE HORSE IS MY LIFE: WITHOUT HIM, I DON’T EXIST.
trainers. Against the backdrop of sunflower and cotton fields and olive, lemon and orange groves, he and Rafael learned to ride soon after they could walk.
In retirement, Peralta and his brother maintained Rancho del Rocio, which remains a horse and bullbreeding farm but is now also a resort-style getaway for those who are interested in horses, bulls or nature in general. One of Peralta’s great prides was mentoring a young French rejoneadora, Lea Vicens from Nimes, now the best-known female horseback bullfighter.
Angel Peralta is survived by his wife, Marien, two sons and a daughter, and by his brother.