The Bullfighter’s Team

Three bullfighters usually kill six bulls. According law bulls must be four or five years old, without physical defects, and armed with pointed horns. Before the show a veterinarian examines them in order to see if all of them meet the legal requirements. The men in charge to kill bulls are called “Madadores”. Each “Matador” have a Cuadrilla, a team of five or six men. Three of them help him using the cape and jabbing the bull with Banderillas. The other two are called Picadores and they always fight on horse back. The main objective of the Stage of “Banderillas” is to revive the bull without reducing its strength in order to prepare it for the next stage: The Stage of Muleta (Suerte de Muleta). Three bullfighters’ assistants or sometimes the bullfighter him or herself jab the bull’s back with three pairs of “Banderillas”. The bull feels a sharp pain when the “Banderillas” have pierced its back.
Bullfighting with the “Muleta” requires bleeding the bull of its strength, brought on by the actual bleeding that occurs when the lance punctures the bull’s back. The Stage of Varas is the phase in which the bull is lanced by the Picador in order to weaken it and prepare it for the Stage of Muleta (Suerte de Muleta). The bleeding that depletes the bull of its energy must not be excessive but just enough to calm its frenetic reactions. The Stage of Varas is also a sort of test to gauge the fierceness of the bull. Only two Picadores can be present in the bullring at the same time.
Two white circles painted on the sand in the ring create a boundary within which the “Picadores” must remain.