José Olivencia, from Almería, is not your most charismatic of matadors. However, his serious nature came out in his work, which was not helped by his bulls, either. Nevertheless, it was he who put the whole show together, including the bullring, which he owns and hires out. This probably means he is close to cutting off his coleta (the ‘tail’ of hair that active bullfighters wear on the back of their head – cortarse la coleta, cutting it off, means he retires from the ring) to become an empresario (yes, same as ‘impresario’) or an apoderado, i.e. bullfighter manager.
Olivencia had one frightening incident, when it appeared he had been gored. In fact, he was clever enough to hang on to the horns to place himself out of reach of the sharp business end of the horns (well, sharpish for the horns had been shaved, as is customary at this bottom end of the bullfighting scene), for which he was painfully tossed in the end. His cuadrilla came to the rescue to move the bull away, and the man got up to go in for the kill.

Joao Moura Caetano had a very hard day of it. His bulls (especially the last one, with the horns aiming at the floor, known as gacho), were the worst of a bad lot (the reasons for this are explained in an earlier posting). But he did very well and was awarded two ears in all, plus the appreciation of the crowd, who applauded his enormous efforts.
Moura’s horses were magnificent. As with all rejoneadores, each horse has a speciality. The dun in the top three photos was used for longer work, to lead the bull around the ring and to place it for shorter work. He used the gray for this in a strenuous show of man-and-horse compatibility.
The splendid dark chestnut in the bottom picture was full of nerve and verve, which he used for the kill.
Alas, Prospero was not seated well to get any decent photos of a great deal of movement. And anyway, he needs a better camera…

One of the reasons El Cordobés is so popular is the kind of bravado he displays in the ring. Whether that has anything to do with other things he displays is open to conjecture, though it is said that he does have un par de cojones (‘a pair of balls’). To fight a bull on one’s knees requires a substantial amount of the aforesaid accoutrements, even if all bullfighters wrap them (carefully) in swaddling for protection.

Four more elements of the bullfight: the picador (top picture) uses his pica to lower the bull’s head, without which the matador could not eventually go in for the kill; the banderillas (second picture), which are placed by a banderillero (a member of the bullfighter’s cuadrilla, or team) or by the torero himself.
The muleta (third) is the shorter version of the capote and which requires a much more subtle handling. This is the tercio (the fight is divided into three parts, or tercios) that shows the bullfighter’s mettle, and will decide his value.
The estoque (lower) is the sword with which the bull is killed, more or less cleanly, depending on a host of circumstances but specially on the dexterity of the matador, or ‘killer’.