Toros y salsa 2025 in Dax: the last paseo of Yannick Boutet, the alguazil of the arenas
The alguazil, who has been officiating for forty-three seasons, will make his "despedida" on the occasion of the closing bullfight of the 2025 bullfighting season, on Sunday, September 14.
" Being the first to enter a bullring, even before the bullfighters enter the ring, forces you to strive for perfection, for excellence." A regular at the bullrings of Dax and many other plazas in France, Yannick Boutet doesn't just open the bullfight. He prepares the audience for what will happen next.
Mounted on his horse, he trains the contradictory emotions then felt. He learns the hope of the "successful spectacle," shows "the solemnity of the moment" in its details and shares his "empathy for the bullfighters" as much as his "admiration for the fighting bull."
One last time, he will lead the way, at 5:30 p.m. this Sunday, September 14, when he will precede Daniel Luque and Clemente, their cuadrillas, the train d'arrastre and the areneros in the ring for this closing bullfight of the 2025 Dax bullfighting season. After forty-three years of service, Yannick Boutet has in fact decided to do what is called, in bullfighting circles, his "despedida".
Load transmission"A little in conflict with [his] body," forced to give up a riding practiced since childhood, he nevertheless leaves with peace of mind. For some time now, Yannick Boutet has begun to take a step back, certain that one of his children, Volodia, will take over from him and officiate with the same vision of the charge: "To be alguazil, you have to have a lot of aficion and know how to remain in awe of the bullfighters... Without ever becoming a groupie."
Pascal Bats Archives / SO
Yannick Boutet has been applying this morality since his first paseo, at the August 1982 feria, alongside François Péhau. Red and white had not yet become the colors of the festivals. Many cigar smokes and the scent of old-fashioned perfumes still rose from the stands. Women vied with each other in elegance, wearing their finest attire. "The president of the bullfighting commission at the time, Pierre Molas, gave me the opportunity to exercise a function that combined my two passions: horses and bullfighting."
“Being the first to enter a bullring, even before the bullfighters enter the ring, forces you to strive for perfection, for excellence.”
Yannick Boutet would not have reached "almost 500 paseos in the Dax arenas and more than 1,600 in total" if his grandparents and parents, Jacques and Jeanne, had not been riders before him. "At the beginning, there was the horse. I've always had them around me since childhood." Born in Bordeaux on May 9, 1950, he arrived in Montfort-en-Chalosse at the time of "learning to read and write." He owes his first riding lessons to "Mr. Dupart, a rider on the pre-war French team," in Tartas.
“Bringer of happiness”"The horse is a friend, it's a bringer of happiness," confides Yannick Boutet. At 75, he remains in daily contact with his "three paseo horses and two Percherons for the arrastre train" who occupy the stables on his property in the countryside of Herm. From his first paseos, "to do it properly," he paraded with his own Spanish-bred horses. The outfit, saddle, horse harness, and dressage are also carefully considered for the duo he formed with "25 alguazils," including the most loyal, Franck Bouquet and Denis Coll, and three of his children.
Philippe Salvat / SO
Having become a fan of the sport as a teenager, while also playing rugby and exploring the finer points of life, this former gas station attendant – "oiler on the wrong side of the pump" – and then craftsman, admits to having been "bewitched by the bull" from his first bullfights. "The enigmatic side of bullfighters" then prompted Yannick Boutet to apply as an alguazil.
This great mystery of the man willing to put his life on the line against a fighting bull continues to captivate Yannick Boutet four decades later. "The psychology of a bullfighter intrigues me, with personalities that change between the times they are in the ring, in the callejon, and outside the arena: these people are not the same."
CartelBecause he knows all the fears and anxieties of the men behind him, Yannick Boutet is not the type to look back. "I had started a notebook where I noted the cartels and the trophies... But I stopped at the first bullfight," he smiles.
“To be an alguazil, you have to have a lot of afición and know how to remain in awe of the bullfighters… without ever becoming a groupie.”
He has plenty of anecdotes and adventures to tell. But, more than memories, we preferred to ask the alguazil which bullfighters belong to his inner circle: "Paco Ojeda, that great man who greeted our horses. César Rincon, for his humanity. And Daniel Luque: we think he's unfriendly when he's just focused, in his own world."
