Join the Gaucho Club

Head back, bracing South American air in my face, and feeling more than a little like Butch Cassidy, I rode through the Sierras Chicas mountain range near Córdoba, just an hour’s plane ride from Buenos Aires. I’d picked the area for its undulating hills, babbling streams and wide blue skies.

It is now 30 years since the Falklands conflict, but tempers still flare over the territory and emotions can run high on both sides. However, away from the conflict, Argentinians and Brits still get on, united by a love of horses. The annual summer influx of Argentine polo players into the UK causes palpitations among the girls of many a posh English market town — it’s pure Jilly Cooper — but we were heading south in the off season, in search of the country’s beautiful horses and tumbling escarpments.

I was staying at Los Potreros, a 6,500-acre estancia and cattle farm. The closest thing in the UK is a country-house hotel, but nothing I’ve experienced over here compares to the hospitality of the owners, husband-and-wife team Kevin and Louisa Begg. The vibe is cosy and anything but grandiose. You can wear what you like, when you like, and are encouraged to help yourself to a cold beer at the end of a hard day in the saddle. There’s a chef on hand for either Western or Argentine cuisine (the beef here is exceptional). After dinner, guests exchange riding stories over a bottle of Malbec, with evenings often descending into charades or Scrabble. All this, and geese and hens clacking about in the background. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was a family home tucked away at the end of a dusty driveway. Pure bliss.

Kevin and Louisa grew up in Argentina but were educated in England. The estancia has remained in the Beggs’ Anglo-Argentine family for four generations and they are still active farmers. Aside from their 130-odd Peruvian and Argentine horses, they breed Aberdeen Angus cattle — more than a thousand head.

On my first day, after the obligatory siesta, I mounted my Peruvian pony, a breed known as the Paso, famous for its good temperament, dainty gait and endurance. Louisa and Kevin saw us off, Louisa giving some valuable advice: ‘The less you do, the better the horse will respond.’ As with most polo ponies, only one hand was needed to control the reins, and with two verbal ‘click, clicks’, the horse was on its way.

The animals knew the job so well that there was no pulling, tugging or shouting commands and I didn’t once worry about falling off. For the next five days I rode different Argentinian horses as we cantered over the dusty hills and fertile grasslands. The only problem was what to do with my spare hand. Let it dangle on the side? Or place it proudly on my hip, with all the gaucho swagger of a local?

We were four in our group, all competent riders; this kind of holiday isn’t suitable for novices. We had a gaucho upfront, tanned and leathery, with his poncho and baggy riding trousers known as bombachas, and knee-high leather boots, and an English guide sweeping up at the back. Being allocated a new horse for every journey was a real pleasure. I would barely get used to the name of my steed, let alone learn how to pronounce it, when I would be handed the reins to another.

Everyone knows that the Argentinians are the best polo players in the world, but when Kevin announced on the last day that we would be meeting at the polo field, my heart sank. My only experience of polo was on an army ground in Tidworth, Wiltshire, about ten years ago and it wasn’t something I thought I should repeat. But I quickly found that you don’t have to be Prince Harry to enjoy the game. We played two chukkas and the adrenaline flowed. Kevin asked me to captain a team and I was dumbstruck when we won. Admittedly, we did have a gaucho on our side. Jilly Cooper would have been proud.

CHECK IN

Los Potreros can be booked for stays of three to ten nights. A seven-night stay in low season (August) costs from £1,415pp (under-16s get a 20 per cent discount) with Ride Worldwide (01837 82544; rideworldwide.com). British Airways flies direct from London to Buenos Aires from £1,055 (britishairways.com). Onward flights to Córdoba with Aerolineas Argentinas cost from £190 return (aerolineas.com.ar)