On Saturday, May 14, the twentieth edition of the Equine Fair of La Culata de Tejeda will be held within the framework of the festivities of Our Lady of Fatima.
The only fair on the islands that specializes in donkeys (also mules, and with the participation of horses) is La Culata, founded by Fernando G. Alba together with a group of residents of this Tejeda mountain range.
The equine cattle will be exposed in the square and in the nearby orchard starting at 10 in the morning. The owners of the horses will be able to register them in a contest from which the best specimens will be chosen, the prize of which will be a trophy, prioritizing the participation of donkeys and mules, which in addition to the trophy will receive a sack of food for the cattle.
At noon attendees will be offered a lunch where they can taste a tasty menu based on typical Canarian dishes, culminating with a magnificent Frangollo for dessert.
In the afternoon there will be a "branch" that will tour the streets of the town accompanied by a music band, providing healthy entertainment for the public of all ages.
For some editions now, students from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the ULPGC have been assisting in the development of the Fair. The future veterinarians help in the registration of the animals participating in the contest and in various organizational tasks. They assist the professional veterinarian to inspect each animal to choose the best specimens, according to general technical criteria. Various departments of the Faculty support the Association during the rest of the year, contributing to the care and health control of the animals.
With the Leader I programme, a European project for the development of the most deprived populations in rural areas, the I La Culata Livestock Fair was born. In that first edition, they already opted to recover animals in danger of extinction such as the donkey and the mule, used for hauling and, on occasions, plowing, given the complexity of our geography and cultivation on terraces, sometimes only accessible to these animals. And let us not forget his important work in laying out the construction of the island's road network, now once again recovered and frequented by numerous hikers from the island and abroad.
The La Culata Equine Association was established in 2002 as a non-profit association. The Donkey Recovery Center was launched, located in what was projected and conditioned at the time as the Livestock Breeds Improvement Center on the Pez and Pargana plains (Tejeda).
The Equine Association of La Culata, which for years has been fighting for the survival of the Majorero donkey, an endangered species, survives thanks to the generous participation of the La Culata Festival Commission, as well as the Tejeda City Council.
In this edition it has the collaboration of La Caixa, which contributes with a financial contribution and the competition cups. The Capisa livestock feed company contributes with its contribution of bags of feed and food mixtures for the animals, which are distributed among the attending farmers.
The participation of other public institutions is increasingly scarce. When the small aid runs out, the contributions of the association's members are withdrawn and the good heart of the people is always appealed with the purchase of tickets for a raffle, etc.