Discovery of the Provençal ganaderia of Turquay, the French Buendia

magictr | September 20, 2024 | Health | No Comments

Breeder Manu Turquay and his bulls for the next temporadas. Midi Libre – Stéphan Guin

Passionate about the Buendia caste, Manu Turquay continues the work of his father who created the ganaderia located in Eyguières in the heart of Provence. He is one of the rare owners in France of the « little gray mice ».
During a long meeting in the enclosures of his ganaderia, a determined man, determined on the qualities he seeks in his bulls, took stock of the situation of his ganaderia and his plans for the future.

You are going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Turquay ganaderia. Could you give us a history of this great adventure ?

My father started breeding bulls with two enthusiasts in the 70s when he previously had a Camargue horse farm. He gradually abandoned it to devote himself entirely to fighting bulls. They had cattle of different origins with Pourquier, Gallon and Ricard but they had a different vision of the bull they were looking for.

My father recovered his share in 1976 and bought a few cows. The ganaderia took a turn in the mid-80s when he had the opportunity to acquire a Guardiola bull. In the family, we are bull aficionados and this breeding costs a lot of money. So you might as well have fun raising what you love and have fun. He brought out his first novillada piquée in Saint-Gilles in 1986. They were very heavy and complicated novillos that exceeded 500 kg from this Guardiola line.

Pablo Mayoral's choice of Santa Coloma

In 1996, a health problem led to a change in your breeding ?

Our livestock was affected by leukemia and we had the opportunity to buy the ganaderia « El Siete » from a Béziers aficionado, Didier Pignan. So we bounced back with some Santa Coloma encaste that my father really liked. These are livestock from Pablo Mayoral and our friend Hervé Galtier and the « practicos » bought almost the entire lot from us every other year. We were already uncompromising on the selection and thus we kept two founding sementals for the ganaderia. When a bull comes out very good with « practicos » and they are even better with professional bullfighters.

What are the results since this choice of Santa Coloma ?

We went out twice to Rieumes in non-piqué novillada at the beginning of the 2010s. With our friends from Nîmes including Joe Gabourdes, we realized that nothing was missing to have a major breeding operation. We had the breed, the nobility and we just needed the transmission to be at the top. So, in the mid-2010s, we refreshed with Buendia and since then, we have gained in regularity and engine. The results are there.

What are your greatest satisfactions ?

We made our presentation in a swoop on this line last year in Orthez with four bulls with our only shoe on display. It worked very well. We had some good novillos before that we released in isolation in Saint-Gilles or Vauvert at the Printemps des aficionados. This year, we released two important novillos out of three for the Feria de Boujan.

Even if we felt frustration that the novilleros did not fully use them with a last minute change and the other who was returning from a serious injury. Last year, we also released a very good five-year-old bull in Riscles in bullfighting. We are moving forward slowly but surely with a hundred cows (35% of which are pure Buendías) and four stallions, three of which are pure Buendías and one crossbred from our selection with Pablo Mayoral.

“I like Damaso Gonzalez's bullfighting”

You are a romantic ganadero who goes against the current trend where we look for « bullfighting ». Why ?

I don't recognize myself in the current bullfights where we pardon bulls with a lot of engine but who go « a menos » and are limited in breed. The transmission is incredible but I prefer a bull that charges in slow motion with class with its mouth closed and that supports the pikes rather than one that takes fifty series stupidly. That's not what I'm looking for in a bull. I like the bullfighting of Damaso Gonzalez, the « king of the temple ». Today, it is in the Buendia where I find the most class.

This choice of selection is not fashionable…

I know that by concentrating breeding on the little mice of Buendia, we will have difficulty opening the doors of the first category arenas because by respecting their morphotype, they lack volume and armor. I do not denigrate our Pablo Mayoral branch which is brave with the pike, more imposing and has a lot of nobility. The two castes complement each other well, as Los Maños proves, having made this choice for a decade with us.

“A novillada in 2026 for our 50th anniversary”

How are the next temporadas shaping up ?

Covid has limited our births and we are eliminating all the bulls that are not in the type and we are taking them out at two years old. We only keep the cattle that are likely to go out in a piqué or in a bullfight. I have some « erales » that will be three years old next June, but I plan to take them out in piquée at the limit of four years old in 2026 for the 50th anniversary of the ganaderia. It is a lot that I like very much.

In the medium term, the career rhythm will be one piquée novillada per year, one desafio (novillada with two breedings) and one whole non-piquée. And fight a pair of bulls in competition bullfights. We obtain better results in piquée than in non-piquée because the novilleros are more seasoned.