Puigcerdà Horse Fair 2026: Contest Returns With 700 Horses, Nov 7–8

Puigcerdà horse fair 2026: what's happening this weekend

The Puigcerdà horse fair is back in full on Saturday, November 7, 2026, when the 44th Concurs de Cavalls (horse contest) runs at the town's Recinte Firal (fairground) from about 9:45 to 15:00. Organizers expect around 700 horses, mostly from farms in the Cerdanya, the high Pyrenean valley on the Catalan side of the French border.

It's a comeback. In 2025 the contest was suspended under Catalan government measures against lumpy skin disease (dermatosi nodular contagiosa), while the town's multisector street fair still went ahead.

The weekend runs Saturday and Sunday, November 7–8. Local press reports past editions drawing 20,000 to 30,000 visitors.

Why lumpy skin disease stopped a horse show

Lumpy skin disease is not a horse disease. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), it affects cattle and water buffalo, spreads mainly through biting insects and the movement of infected livestock, and is no threat to people.

Spain's first outbreak was confirmed on a cattle farm in Girona province in October 2025. Catalonia's agriculture department then cancelled livestock fairs as a containment measure, and that's what shut down the 2025 contest. Horses weren't the problem; the fairground gathering was.

If you keep cattle and notice skin nodules, fever or a drop in milk, call your vet right away. It is a notifiable disease, so don't try to diagnose or treat it yourself.

The full Saturday schedule and the seven classes

The contest is a livestock breeding show. Horses are judged in hand by age and sex, not ridden. Here's the published program (organizers note times can shift):

From 10:00 there's also a best Cerdanya livestock award for breeding farms, in two groups:

• Category A: a lot of 6 mares with foals, 2 young breeding females and 1 stallion
• Category B: a lot of 3 mares with foals, 1 young breeding female and 1 stallion

The Catalan age words, decoded

These are traditional Catalan livestock terms for young horses by age:

• Sobrany / sobranya: a colt or filly in its second year, here born in 2025
• Terçó / terçona: a young horse in its third year, up to about 2½
• Quartó: a young male in its fourth year, under 4
• Pollí: a foal. Eugues amb pollí means mares with foals at foot
• Semental: a breeding stallion

If you know English show terms, sobranys are roughly long yearlings and terçons are two-year-olds. Our glossary covers more general horse vocabulary.

How a livestock horse contest is judged

This isn't dressage or jumping. Judges at livestock shows like this look at the horse as a breeding animal. These horses aren't raised for riding or draft work: breeders say meat is now almost the sector's only outlet (more on that below). They walk the line, then watch each horse led at a walk and often a trot.

What judges typically weigh:

• Type: does the horse look like a good example of what local breeders want?
• Conformation: straight, strong legs, good feet, a deep body and a well-set neck. Our anatomy guide shows the parts they look at.
• Muscling and condition: healthy weight and development for the horse's age
• Movement: a clean, even, ground-covering walk and trot
• For mares with foals: how well the mare is raising her foal, and the foal's quality
• For farm lots: how uniform and consistent the group is, which shows a breeder's program, not one lucky horse

The livestream is useful here. You can rewatch a class to see why one colt beat another.

A note on breeds: the published program lists classes by age and sex, not by breed. The press does link the contest to the local heavy breed: Pirineus Digital's 2026 preview captions a contest photo as a horse of the native Pyrenean breed, and in 2024 the Puigcerdà winners went on to the national Catalan Pyrenean horse contest (Cavall Pirinenc Català). Neither the town nor the press gives a breed count for the roughly 700 horses, so we won't guess at one. If you're curious about Spain's heavy mountain horses in general, read our guide to the Hispano-Breton horse.

Beyond the ring: stalls, tractors and kids' workshops

The contest sits inside a much bigger town fair:

• About 300 stall requests for the multisector fair, stretching from the town center toward the lake area
• Around 60 local shops offering weekend deals, marked with red balloons
• A contest for the best-decorated stalls and live street music
• Vintage tractors: a parade through town on Saturday afternoon and a display around the lake on Sunday
• Kids' workshops on Sunday, 10:00–14:00, in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament (town hall square)
• A livestock fair at the Recinte Firal on Sunday, 9:45–15:00

Entry is free, according to local tourism listings.

Visiting tips: shuttle, timing and manners around horses

Getting there

• A free shuttle bus runs between Carrer del Coronel Molera and the fairground.
• Local press mentions parking at the fairground and at Camí d'Ur. Expect busy roads, and check road conditions before you drive up.
• If your family wants a specific class, arrive 20–30 minutes early. Livestock schedules slip.
• Book lunch if you want a long sit-down meal; it's a big weekend for a small town.

Etiquette around stallions and mares with foals

Breeding horses at a fair are handled by experienced breeders, but they're still big animals in a noisy, crowded place. A few rules keep everyone safe:

1. Never walk behind a horse or squeeze between two tied horses.
2. Give stallions extra room. They can react to mares nearby, so don't stand in their path or between them and other horses.
3. Keep away from mares with foals unless the owner invites you over. A protective mare can kick or bite fast.
4. Ask before touching. Many young horses have little handling. Let the breeder say yes or no.
5. Don't feed anything. Treats cause nipping and can upset a horse's stomach.
6. Hold kids' hands in the livestock area, and keep strollers and dogs out of the walkways.
7. Stay off the working lanes where horses are led in and out of the ring.

Our safety page and behavior guide explain how to read a horse's ears, tail and stance before you get close.

The business side: why breeders want this fair

The contest started 44 years ago to revive the fair, and it's still partly a market. At the 2026 presentation, the president of the Cerdanya horse breeders' association said selling horses keeps getting harder, because with new technology many sales now happen from home.

Pirineus Digital reports that the price of a foal has fallen to roughly €600–700 per animal, and the association's president said meat is almost the sector's only outlet. That's a hard number for families raising horses in the mountains. The mayor said the fair's future needs support beyond the breeders, which helps explain why the town is bringing local shops into the weekend.

That doesn't mean the sector is collapsing. It means a contest win, a good photo and a buyer's handshake on the fairground still count.

What to watch next

• Saturday morning: the young stock classes. Then the 11:30 mares with foals, often the most photogenic class.
• 13:45: the stallion class, the last one on the program.
• Results: we'll only know the winners after Saturday. Watch the livestream or the town council's channels.
• Sunday: the livestock fair and the kids' workshops.

Want more of Spain's autumn horse fairs? See As San Lucas in Mondoñedo and the Marcilla horse fair, or browse more trends.