Together with The Blessing of The Horses, participating in the Feast of San Martin Horseback Ride in Guanajuato, México have been two of the most memorable experiences of my life…💞
Early Morning Departure
The early morning car ride from San Miguel de Allende to Banda where I would saddle up to ride in the Feast of Saint Martin was interesting and adventurous in and of itself!
Hitching a ride with my buddies Mario and Rodo in their weathered, two-seater truck, sandwiched sideways in between the two of them with Mario having to navigate the gear stick around the three of us–we chatted and laughed our away out to the ranch where we would begin our all-day ride to San Martín for yet another, larger-scale blessing of the horses event.

Arrival out to the campo is always a transformative experience for me, going from the narrow, colonial cobblestone streets of Centro–saturated with restaurants, stores and houses–to open green space populated with burros, dogs and horses that come greeting me with slobbery love, brays and kisses.


Today’s ride was to take part in the annual honoring of Saint Martin of Tours, as he is known in France—and San Martín Caballero here in Mexico, the patron saint of those who hope strangers will help them. St. Martín has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian Saints and is honored in the Roman Catholic Church on November 11th of each year.
In San Miguel de Allende, shop owners display his image on candles, tapestries and all sorts of hand-crafted relics. The Saint Martín horseshoe, in contrast to the Irish tradition of hanging it with its ends pointed upward, has the ends pointing down as a way of soliciting good fortune.

In Central Mexico, St. Martín’s Feast is an annual religious celebration and pilgrimage of thousands on horseback, bike and foot coming from all four corners of the state of Guanajuato as well as the neighboring states to receive special blessings after the long trek. On our six-hour horseback ride we passed hundreds of people making their long journey to the small village of San Martín, about 45 minutes outside of San Miguel de Allende, in the municipality of Dolores Hidalgo.
The conservation and honoring of traditions and the demonstrations of faith are many and palpable here in our beloved, adopted country of Mexico. We are grateful to call this land home.

We were saddled up and on the trails (and often times no trails at all) by nine in the morning–a cool, cloudy morning that held the potential, if not promise, of rain.

And rain it did! By the middle and throughout the rest of the ride, we were shivering and soaked to the bones, but not without ear-to-ear grins and a fair share of shenanigans and laughs along the way!
Sights on Saint Martin!
Emerging from the dense rain clouds and expansive countryside, we at long last had San Martín within sight.

From a distance we could see the “tent-town” that was being erected in this normally small rural village of less than 700 people, complete with a full outdoor mercado, families setting up camp with mattresses, stoves, and even makeshift cradles for the little ones–talk about ingenuity and resourcefulness! Mexico, I love you.

Heading up through the sea of people, cars, trucks, bikes and horses, we entered the market–a complete smorgasbord of almost every imaginable food and hand-made trinket from this region and a few other random offerings and sightings that just make you marvel.


Some experiences are designed to see what you are made of. Those couple of hours of cold, hard, relentless rain in the wide-open country with no end in sight definitely pushed me to dig deep and “suck it up buttercup”. And that I did, grateful for every moment of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
When the sun made her appearance and our friends showed up with the horse trailer and a bottle of chardonnay, I was nearly giddy with delight!

We enjoyed some delicious hot-off-the-grill carnitas tacos, loaded up the horses and headed back to the ranch in Banda. This was the view that sent us off with a most extraordinary farewell and lasting impression of our adventurous day:

I will forever hold the memory of this Feast of San Martín ride in my heart. I am so blessed to have been able to participate in something so truly magical.

Gracias, mi Querido México, cómo te quiero.
And thank you, Guerrero, for being my guiding light and gentle giant on these two, never-to-forget rides throughout the Central Highlands of Mexico! My heart will smile for all eternity at the memory of them both.

~Katie
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That really touched me.
The central highlands are truly beautiful country.
Thank you Paco,
It was an exquisite and magical experience…
What a grand adventure! I love hearing your stories and seeing the beautiful pictures! The picture “Mexico Skies” would be beautiful blown up and framed in my house 🙂 Glad you are having so wonderful experiences!!!
Thank you Dianne!
Come see them for yourself and get a signed copy of that pic!
We have space at the Inn!
🙂
Katie
Great story as always Katie. Your stories are so well written, and your photos always give me a sense of what it was to be there for the event. Well done. Hope you don’t mind that I retweeted :-).
Randy.
Thank you so much Randy for the positive feedback~truly appreciate it!
And thank you for retweeting it…happy to share our story with any that are interested!
🙂
Cheers,
Katie
Great post. I love the picture of Killer the pup at the ranch. Do you agree that in general dogs are well treated? That’s been my experience. Not so much in some other expat countries I hear.
Very nice character study of Mario & Rodo. I like how one of the shirts is halfway tucked in the picture; that’s how I usually look in photos, except I’m a few years older.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the feedback and comments!
Yes, Killer is a sweetie and is one of 6 pups on the ranch~the majority are adopted. She came to her new owners malnourished but is well looked after, happy and healthy along with all of the other ones there.
There are many animals here in SMA looking for their forever home. There are groups and individuals, like Cuddle Bugs and Rescue San Miguel that are very active in pooch protection. Their pages can be found on Facebook.
Mario & Rodo, they are just class acts and I am grateful to have crossed life paths with them.
Katie 🙂
Finally got to read your post. And loved it. I am holding the image of you looking into the distance as you ride your horse….
I am glad you are getting to be with animals. I love it. The picture of Killer with the rainbow behind him is so great. I get to be with a lot of animals here, on the ranch, so I can appreciate your experience. We have 3 horses that have grazing rights in our yard, 3 dogs, 20 chickens, 1 pigeon, and a pond on the property that attracts herons, cranes, ducks of all sorts, egrets, and so many hawks it’s amazing to witness…! Thanks for sharing. love you
Hi Monnica,
Yes, there is something so stabilizing, if you will, and centering about being out in the vast desert plains under cotton candy clouds, hanging with all the animals—something special for sure.
So happy to know that you too are being surrounded by Mother Nature.
Love you too,
😉
I love this! When we are in Salamanca we love to watch the crowds on there pilgramege to San Martin. Its so moving.My husband is from the state of GTO and we participate in several of the events but havent in this one yet. Thanks for this great post
Hi Linda,
It was truly such a magical day for me.
That and The Blessing of the Horses Ride that I did the month before to the Parroquía here in San Miguel de Allende, were just such life-enhancing experiences for me that I shall always hold dearly in my heart and memory.
Thank you for your kind words regarding the piece!
Cheers,
Katie 🙂