It is easy to forget how much Tenerife has changed.
Today, tourism means airports, hotels, holiday apartments and traffic queues heading towards the coast. But back in the 1960s, attracting visitors sometimes involved much simpler ideas.
Like bringing a few horses down to Bajamar for the summer.
From Los Rodeos to the coast
The story goes back to a riding school operating near Los Rodeos, where the author spent two afternoons a week riding during the 1960s.
His favourite horse was Canario, an old Army horse. Becoming a serious show jumper was never really on the cards, partly because of time and partly because horses, as anyone who has ever been involved with them knows, are not exactly a budget hobby.
One summer, riding instructor Carmelo, together with Miguel Álvarez Cambreleng and Manolo Simó, moved several horses from the Franchy stables in El Portezuelo to a new riding school in Bajamar.
The horses included Feo, Aguilucho, Sabrina, Mora and Colirum.
They became, in effect, some of the first horses to spend the summer in Bajamar.
Tourism was changing Bajamar
At the time, Bajamar was beginning to develop as a tourist destination. The growing number of visitors, particularly foreign tourists, created demand for things to do beyond sitting by the sea.
The answer was a new riding centre in the La Vernetta development, on the slopes around Isogue.
The project was promoted by Manolo Simó and Miguel Álvarez Cambreleng, with the aim of adding another leisure activity to the area.
Horse riding gave visitors the chance to explore the landscape in a rather different way. No hire car, no coach excursion, just a horse and hopefully a reasonably cooperative one.
A small but interesting piece of local history
The arrival of those horses was more than just a summer story.
It reflected the way tourism was beginning to shape parts of Tenerife during that period. Resorts and coastal developments were looking for ways to attract visitors, and activities such as horse riding became part of the experience.
Feo, Aguilucho, Sabrina, Mora and Colirum probably had no idea they were contributing to the early tourism story of Bajamar.
They simply swapped the fields around Los Rodeos for the hills above the coast.
But looking back now, it is another small reminder of how Tenerife’s tourism industry developed. Long before the island became packed with hotels, holiday rentals and people trying to reserve a sunbed before breakfast, there were horses heading down to Bajamar for the summer.
Sometimes local history is found in the big events.
And sometimes it is five horses on the back of a lorry.