Sabucedo Wild Horse Shearing FestivalRapa das Bestas de Sabucedo

An annual celebration dating to the 15th century, Rapa das Bestas in Sabucedo involves villagers pursuing and rounding up wild horses in the mountains and bringing them to the village to cut their manes 1. It culminates in a day of skilled horse-handling and a feast. The event is a symbolic confrontation between humans and nature, followed by communal music, food and wine 2.

This rural festival has its roots in an old Galician pastoral tradition of controlling wild horse herds for communal benefit. Men of Sabucedo still gather at dawn to round up the horses, reflecting historic agrarian and Celtiberian heritage of horse culture in Galicia 1. The shearings are part of a cycle of events with deep significance to the local community.