Course Landaise, or 'Cow Dancing'

Another post with Jean Barrère (see yesterday's post on wood pigeon hunting), animal related too, but this time no killing is involved: it's dancing with cows!

Jean demonstrates how to feint a jump with one foot to one side, bring it back and turn your back against the cow.

Course Landaise is a humane form of Bull fighting that has major differences to the not so nice Spanish, Portuguese and other French variants.

A special bike with cow horns, to give an inkling of idea of what it feels like to be in front of an attacking cow. Like a cow, Jean can turn the wheel at the very last moment

Wild cows live in herds with a strong hierarchy. The bulls defy each other to define who the leader bull is. They all define themselves against the other members of the herd, so they are born with an instinct to define a territory and protect it. The female cows have a similar behaviour, but act a bit differently. Her instinct is more based on the protection of her babies, so she will not give up. She will continue attacking relentlessly - while a male bull will rather try to go away, admit he is beaten. This is the reason to use the cows instead of the bulls.

A cow that enters an arena will attack instantly. The space is too small for her to accept anybody else.