This event takes place on the same day each year, Sainte Catherine’s Day, November 25th, and reunites “pottock” breeders (the pottock is a small Basque trail horse) to make for a lively day in the village’s magnificent square.

The show also takes place inside local restaurants, where the atmosphere is warm and rustic as large numbers of Basque farmers sit down together to converse in their language and share a bottle of wine. Outdoors, the horses are attached to metal rings on the house walls that line the village square.

Transactions take place in Basque, and are at times, spirited, colourful verbal operettas. The prices of the animals are never announced, but relayed by code through a type of sign language transmitted by palm between the buyer and seller.

One should arrive around 10:00 a.m. to soak in the ambiance and to reserve a table in one of the village’s restaurants thus fully taking in this traditional fair’s atmosphere- one of the last of its kind in Basque Country – where breeders and locals join together to share a moment of good cheer and their love of horses.