Spend the Day with a Catalan Cowboy
Meet David Sandoval, an avid equestrian — and Airbnb Experience host — who leads guests on horseback rides through Catalonia.
Photographs by Bego Antón
When David Sandoval left his Barcelona apartment for a centuries-old stone house in a tiny village, it was more than a change of pace and scenery — it was also a homecoming of sorts. The former concert organizer and band promoter spent his childhood summers in a small rural enclave with his grandparents, riding horses and helping his grandfather work the farm.
“I was always trying to come back to the countryside, and when I turned 40, I thought to myself, I need to live where I can have my own horses.” He settled on a 15th-century house in the hilly farming village of L’Ametlla de Segarra at the base of the Pyrenees mountains.
L’Ametlla de Segarra is only a two-hour bus ride from Barcelona, but it feels worlds away from the packed sidewalk cafes of Catalonia’s cosmopolitan capital. Sandoval’s few neighbors — currently 20 people live in the village — are all farmers whose families have lived off the land for generations. Ametlla is the Catalan word for almond, and the landscape is dotted with orchards.
When you’re on a horse, you have a special perspective. You’re part of nature. You get a feeling of discovery, taking in every single detail around you.
His own house was owned for five centuries by the prominent Perello family, then served as a military hospital before lying vacant for 60 years. “Everyone thought this house was going to finish in ruins,” he said. Instead, he restored it and moved in with his four Spanish horses and five Arabian ones who live in the original stables downstairs.
Apart from modern lighting and plumbing, much of the home remains the way it was centuries ago. “You can feel the soul of the house. You can feel that a lot of people were living here and moving around the house.” Today the house is alive with visitors from all over the world. David rents two rooms on the property to guests looking for a tranquil escape.
He also leads an Airbnb Experience for visitors who come for the day, offering horseback rides through the the surrounding villages and countryside. “We get an early-morning start, riding horses through the villages, meeting farmers and tasting products they are growing here — almonds, figs, grapes — along the way. When they ride through the villages, they can see people working in the fields as they have for centuries.”
These trail rides are peaceful and punctuated with frequent stops for local olive oil, wine, beer, and even his own honey, which he produces from approximately 100 beehives he’s scattered around the village. “Most guests are beginners, so we are just walking and trotting.” For those with more experience and time, he leads overnight rides to the Santa Maria de Vallbona monastery, where Cistercian nuns have lived continuously for 850 years. He’s spent the past 20 years learning every square meter of the landscape. “Traveling with a horse allows you to take in details you’d miss on a hike or a motorbike ride.”
A day or two with David is as much a history lesson as it is an equestrian adventure. “I’m a Middle Ages lover, and in this place you can imagine how people were living 500 years ago,” he said. He talks about historic battles waged here, and the region’s agricultural significance. Its wheat and barley fields once made it the breadbasket of Spain. David calls riding through the villages on horseback a “trip to the past.”
After a day in the saddle, David’s guests are invited to spend the afternoon relaxing and indulging back at the house, which he named Cal Perello after its former inhabitants. “Guests who like to cook join me in the kitchen to prepare a paella lunch, or if they are musicians, they play my old piano before we eat.” During the summer, they can swim in the natural pool and wander around the gardens he maintains with pride. “The funniest moments happen when they try to drink wine from my porró, which is a weird kind of bottle Catalans pass around to share wine.”
David feels a connection with the people who go out of their way to visit him, calling them “more travelers than tourists.” While there are plenty of horseback rides closer to Barcelona, some people make the trek to L’Ametlla de Segarra to experience a different way of life. “What I want for guests is what I like to get from trips: to know the real soul of a place and learn how the people live,” David said. “If you come here and experience it, and taste what we make in the village, you can get everything about us and take that with you when you leave.”
About the author: Marguerite McNeal Carter is a writer and editor based in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in EdSurge, Wired, and Marketing News. She’s currently a creative at Airbnb.
