Montería (hunt)
A number of "rehalas" (packs of hounds) along with their respective "rehaleros" (unarmed beaters) will stir up an area of forest with the aim of forcing the game to move around and into the shooting pegs, where hunters will be able to fire.
Modern monterías in the Spanish sense are the result of around 300 years of evolution from the most primitive hunts that were common in the Middle Ages.
Advocates of monterías view it as an intrinsic part of rural economies, as well as necessary for conservation and population controls, whereas opponents argue on the grounds of animal cruelty and lack of necessity (the collected meat is nonetheless taken advantage of fully, and provides a sustainable and natural free range food source).
[10][11][12] The first exhaustive works on hunting date back to the Late Middle Ages, when different royal houses and European nobles of Castile, Portugal, France, Germany etc.
To launch the animal towards the hunting pegs, the bed was approached with hounds and chased by hunters on foot and on horseback to try and catch the game.
This type of hunt, much larger in extent, is carried out mainly in the centre and south of the Iberian Peninsula, including the entirety of Portugal, where it has been adopted more recently.
[16] In a forest or patch of several hundred hectares a series of so-called "armadas" or lines of positions with shooting pegs, are arranged to surround and cover the mancha.
Depending on their particular location in it, the armadas are called by various names ("cuerda" is the highest; "sopié" the lowest; "traviesa" is the one that crosses or is generally found in the middle of the area).
[21][22][23][24] After breakfast, the owner of the grounds or captain of the montería gives a speech where he provides detailed information on the game quotas, species, genders and characteristics (age, quality) of animals that can be shot, as well as explaining the safety procedures and timings etc.
Ideally, an identifying tag on the harvested animal(s) and/or on a nearby tree or bush will be placed as a visible sign, so that the "arrieros" and their mules can easily find it.
[30] During the afternoon, the harvested animals begin to arrive to the house or meeting point, where the hunters will be able to appreciate them collectively and will normally take photographs.
Veterinaries and butchers will then proceed to extract the healthy animals' meat, which is, together with the trophies, almost always the owner's property, although the latter are usually given away for the hunter to keep as a token.
Once this friendly act is finished, some participants of the hunt will rub the animal's blood and guts against the hunter's face, similar to what happens in other European countries.
Essentially, Spanish goods and garments predominate, although British country clothing, Tyrolean hats and Austrian jankers are also prevalent.
[40][41][42] The types of garments worn at Spanish monterías vary, but these are significantly more strict and thus noticeable at high-end hunts, or those attended by the traditional elites.
In this regard, zahones (either in leather or Grazalema cloth) are the most iconic piece of equipment of a montería, and are used both by the beaters and the huntsmen, although they have suffered an abandoning in the last decades on behalf of the latter.
Spanish monterías by invitation, which tend to be those at well-established fincas, whose ownership is often associated to the aristocracy or peerage, are almost exceptionally a formal event.
Women can wear waistcoats or standard or fur gilets on top, and either tweed blazers or Austrian jankers in feminine cuts (Tebas are mostly a masculine garment).
Bottoms can be skirts and baggys in country fabrics, breeks, or simple corduroys or chinos, usually not too fitted; bell-bottoms being common.
Due to the traditional passive role of women in hunts as mere observers or companions of men, their clothes have evolved to be more 'flamboyant' and less practical.
Similar to men, women at more humble rural hunts and monterías norteñas will dismiss formality and the dress criteria will be function over form (reflective and synthetic fibres etc.).
Contrary to Spanish monterías, only wild boars are shot here, with the exception of foxes or occasionally one Iberian wolf per hunt.
In the early hours of the morning each beater goes out with his hound dog tied to a long leash called a "traílla" to look for the trail of wild boars.
Once a trace of the previous night has been found, the beater, aided by the nose and ability of his hound, will follow the nocturnal footsteps of the animal, often for many kilometres until he finds the place where he is bedridden, resting during the day.
It is a hunt that requires great knowledge of the signals and customs of the different forest animals and a good physical condition, as well as well-trained dogs.
