Cabalgando: Riding into the Year of the Horse - Together

Saturday was the annual Cabalgata de la Amistad (Friendship) in La Misión. It falls every February on the Saturday closest to Valentine’s Day; this year, it landed exactly on the day of hearts.

I remember when I first moved to Baja, long before Luna entered my life and before I could truly call myself a horsewoman. I was just beginning to navigate the local horse culture when I first heard the word cabalgata. I remember butchering the spelling, trying to sound it out—it wasn't a word I’d ever encountered in a Spanish textbook.

The word comes from the verb cabalgar: to ride. But in practice, a cabalgata is something more specific. It is the act of riding horses together. While you can be cabalgando alone, a cabalgata is defined by the community. It is a collective movement—each person on their own horse, yet moving as a single, rhythmic body.

I used to compare it to a marathon, where individuals run with others, but that isn't quite right. In a cabalgata, there is no "winning." No one is trying to come in first. There is no hurry, no rush, and no clock to beat. There is only the journey, the shared crossing of open land. We have a destination, of course—this year it was the rodeo grounds for a campestre meal—but the destination is never the point. It is the ultimate expression of the journey being the reward.

This year, there were over 200 riders from all walks of life—Tijuana, Rosarito, Tecate, the Valle de Guadalupe, and the indigenous community of San José de la Zorra. I saw my friend from Tijuana on his beautiful horse, Encino; another friend who lives here locally taking her granddaughter on her very first ride; and my old cabalgata friend Mike, whom I hadn't seen in years. There was an 80-year-old rider—the oldest in the group—who spent the entire day in the saddle, and we had some of the younger riders, David (9) and Carlitos (8), who sat their mares with a grace that suggested they had been born in the saddle. These are all people I have met and know because of horses—because of riding horses together.

I think part of what draws people to the Cabalgata de la Amistad is the terrain of La Misión. We rode through the estuary trails and across the river—which was deep enough that the shorter horses had to pick their way carefully around the hidden holes in the riverbed—and out onto the beach. Some of the "fancier" horses from Tijuana were spooked by the waves, those white, crashing "scary things" they don't see in the stables. From the salt air, we turned toward the mesa, climbing steep single-file switchbacks where the horses showed their power. On the flat top of the mesa, we moved through native chaparral and scrub, eventually crossing the free road (highway) with a police escort. I watched the traffic—people rushing toward Valentine’s lunches in the Valle—as they were forced to stop, wait, and watch us cross the road.

When you move at the speed of a horse, the view changes. You are slower than a car, yet higher than a hiker, granted a perspective that is both grounded and elevated. But there is a deeper layer: you are moving with another being. On this ride, for the first time I remember, I felt a visceral, tangible sense of being a team with Luna. It wasn't just me sitting there on my horse—it was a partnership—one of trust. I felt the shift in her weight as she navigated the steep descent and the way she checked in with me before crossing the water. We were two beings, together moving in one direction.

Today, February 17, marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year: The Year of the Horse. Usually, I don't pay much mind to the shift from the Snake or the Pig. But the Horse? That got my attention.

I find myself wondering: what would it look like to ride into this year cabalgando?

What if we moved through the next year like we moved on Saturday—people from different cultures and languages, different ages and backgrounds, all sharing the same trail? We could have a destination in mind without the "prisa"—the frantic rush—to get there. We could come alongside one another, greeting old friends and making new ones, moving together toward a common goal at a pace that allows us to actually see the world we are traveling through.

It is the Year of the Horse. Let’s ride together.