Sport: Mexico’s Five Horsemen

The Mexicans, who rode off with horsemanship honors at last summer’s Olympics, jogged confidently into the arena at Madison Square Garden last week. Only two nations—France and Canada—bothered to compete against them* in the military events of the National Horse Show, the World Series of the horsy set. Shrugged one member of Canada’s four-man team: “We just came to do the best we can. But the Mexicans, it is their whole life.”

When the scarlet-coated ringmaster blew his horn, a Mexican was first to try the tricky H-course. His horse seemed to glide over the first barrier (gate & towers), then the hedge and the cannon (a wooden cannon, 3 ft. 9 in. high). The rider was completely relaxed. The French got off to a humiliating start—their first horse refused to take the first jump—and looked tense and hesitant in the saddle. The Canadians made no bones about the fact that they were trying to copy the fluid riding style of the Mexicans. By week’s end, the Mexicans had won eight of ten military events.

The man responsible for the sweep is a 35-year-old Mexican colonel, Humberto Mariles, who works at his job as systematically as any football coach. Born on a ranch and a seasoned charro (cowboy) by the time he was 13, Humberto was sent to a Mexico City military academy, where he got acquainted with the English saddle. At 17, he became a 2nd lieutenant of cavalry. Now he has his pick each year of 1,500 Mexican army horses and the 15 best of 15,000 army cavalrymen to put through his finishing school in horsemanship.

Of the 15 riders, he selects four to train for competition. Says he: “I tell my men what to do once. If they disobey me twice I tell them, ‘You are very good friend but you are no good—go somewhere else.’ ” His men get up at 6 a.m. to start the day in the saddle; they also study the anatomy of the horse, the foreign riding styles (especially Italian, French and German), keep fit with fencing, basketball and swimming. But no matter how hard they try, the pupils never excel the teacher.

In the Olympics, Maestro Mariles was easily the best horseman of the prize-winning Mexicans. In Manhattan last week, he won the West Point Challenge Trophy on his pet 18-year-old jumper, Resorte. He rode a horse like a champion —without seeming to work at it. The big secret of Mexican riding is controlling the horse’s movements almost entirely through the rider’s legs—not his hands. Says Mariles: “The motor of the horse is in back, not in front. A horse is not an automobile; you don’t drive him by his nose.”

* The U.S. Army, which has mechanized its cavalry, disbanded its team one month after the Olympics.