Guillermo García Palma
Veterinary Graduate from Cordoba University
“Mijas’Racecourse”
October 2021
Built in the 90s, it was a complete success at the beginning. Horse races in the “Costa del Sol” with the lively collaboration of summer visitors. The years went by and, for some reason, it was excluded from bets and it lost its main funding. A time of decadence came to the races’ stables and the Turf went to other locations such as Madrid or Dos Hermanas.
But not everything was horses for races. At the main ring, a local equestrian worked for the international horseman of the Olympic discipline of obstacle jumping, Samuel Oliva, where the also horseman from Mijas and two times Olympic in classical dressing Daniel Martín, also turned to, there he formed horses and horsemen and it was considered an equestrian school for all the beginners in the area.
Furthermore, there were activities such as football or athletics and a municipal school for hippotherapy for children with motor or psycho-neurological disabilities was also running, and something really good suddenly happened, a private initiative invested and transformed the racetracks into high quality jumping tracks. The obstacle jumping “Mijas Equestrian Tour” was created. For four months a year, being those in winter, this tour was consolidated for five consecutive editions and international Olympian horsemen from different countries like Germany, Holland, England, Sweden, USA, Japan, Brazil, Belgium and of course, also the best of Spain, were all regulars in this competition.
más fuerte y difícil)
Aprender a “montar mejor”, a sentarse mejor, más ergonómico ( geniales enseñanzas de J.M Sales Pons sobre la “Mochila inteligente”), a hacer las ayudas más claras y fáciles, comprensibles, a entender la mente del otro, en definitiva a comunicarse mejor con la otra parte, que es el caballo, hace que el punto de acuerdo suceda antes.
This revitalised the racecourse and a lot of sectors in a period of the year when tourism is normally low, breaking thus with the seasonality (as the politicians say in the programs they want to “sell”). Economical possibilities and especially cultural and work exchange were highly incremented. This work exchange was incremented especially at the local service sector. It offered the possibility to any kid who was interested in horses to be trained, work and travel to the most important equestrian countries, besides the increment of sales in businesses such as restaurants or even the optician’s shop at La Cala de Mijas was highly benefited, it sold more glasses in one month than during the whole year.
But suddenly, and when it most worked, it happens that there is a change in the government and the new ones in power decide that due to the land register irregularities that the racecourse carried from the beginning (more than twenty years before) licenses for these activities, that were finally working and that were clearly beneficial for the community, must be denied. The investors saw their project cut short and all this period of real development was also frustrated, the new municipal responsible claiming “legal” reasons. A councilor even argued that “the horse is elitist”. We can observe that he doesn’t know the vast amount of cultural and economic possibilities that the horse brings and that the Mijas-Fuengirola region was always joined to the horse.
Nowadays, the racecourse is totally abandoned, its building vandalized. The equestrian activity survives thanks to the determination of Samuel Oliva and his clients or because of the ones responsible for hippotherapy. The veterinary clinic, which offered services to all those international competition horses, is also resisting. Talking about the municipal who are responsible, we don’t know what they want nor their future projects for something that belongs to the citizens, and that has been awfully managed. By their acts we can say that they want to let it die, or that, maybe, they can feint some “radical change” of great budget, of course, the type of projects that the politicians use to undertake when they try to destroy everything in which they are not promoters.
Something was good and it worked. It was good for everyone, not only for the village’s equestrian sector (which is more than significant). But maybe politicians want the horse to be low-cost, just a handful of fair and romeria horsemen that don`t progress much, especially if they are in control, if it requires an extra effort to help the real development, important development, as this village deserves because of its potential trajectory and global position.
Mijas and Fuengirola were ready. If a Jumping International would have been consolidated, as it has happened before, with the place being 20 minutes from the airport a great lodging offer and close restoration (different from Monteenmedio) it would have been a worldwide referent. In the last edition there were 700 horses and many of the athletes that have competed in Tokyo. They have destroyed it. That responsibility should be assumed by the corresponding party.
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