Every one of the 25 figures in Pamplona’s comparsa has an identity, except six. The zaldikos, the papier mache horses that walk alongside the giants during San Fermín, are the only figures in the entire troupe with no proper name at all. Inside the comparsa they are known only as numbers one through six. Some tourism sites now list six specific names for them, Correketecagas, Zamaltzain, Mala Uva, Zartako, Rompehuesos, and Pottoka, as if that settles the matter. It doesn’t. Those names are real, but they come from a single radio contest in September 1994, and the numbering system they were supposed to replace is still what Pamplona uses today.
That distinction matters because it is the kind of detail that separates a list entry from an actual understanding of the comparsa. Most English-language coverage treats the zaldikos as a footnote to the giants, a line that says "kilikis on horseback" and moves on. That framing erases what makes them genuinely different: their own construction history split across three separate builders and at least two undocumented decades, their own weights and materials, their own physical limitations that keep them walking a different path than the kilikis they are usually grouped with, and one very specific, very real 1994 anecdote that gets flattened into a false claim of official renaming.
This account draws on the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona’s own reference page for the figure, the Spanish-language Wikipedia entry sourced to the reference books Gigantes de Navarra (Lako and Calleja, 2010) and Historias del viejo Pamplona (Martinena Ruiz, 2001), regional Navarra press coverage, and a documentation project built from the Comparsa’s own 1984 official history, co-published by the Ayuntamiento, the Comparsa itself, and Pamplona’s municipal savings bank. Where those sources disagree on details, this article says so rather than picking the more convenient version.
Zaldiko Means Horse, and These Six Are the Comparsa’s Quiet Half
Zaldiko comes from the Basque zaldi, horse, with a diminutive ending that makes it "little horse." Historically the figures were also called caballicos or caballitos in Spanish, the same idea in a different language. Six of them make up roughly a quarter of Pamplona’s 25 figure comparsa, alongside eight gigantes, five cabezudos, and six kilikis, a troupe whose own age claims have needed correcting before, since Pamplona’s comparsa is not actually Spain’s oldest despite a popular claim to the contrary.
Structurally the zaldikos are built the same way as the rest of the troupe, papier mache over an internal frame, but the frame itself is not standardized. According to the Comparsa’s own 1984 reference history, one zaldiko is built on a wicker frame shaped like a large basket, another has a wooden rib structure that looks, from the inside, like an upturned boat, and the remaining three are built on wooden slats. That inconsistency is a direct result of how the six were acquired: not as a matched set, but in pairs, over decades, from different workshops, which is also why a close look shows real stylistic differences between them.
Two of the six were built in 1912 by Benito Escaler in Barcelona and still carry the Pamplona coat of arms on the rump, the same maker responsible for two of the comparsa’s six kilikis, Patata and Napoleón. Two more were built in 1941 at the Talleres Porta Coeli workshop in Valencia. Pamplona’s own municipal archive holds the record of how that second pair was matched to the originals: the city sent a sample kiliki and a sample zaldiko to Valencia so the new figures would look consistent with the older ones already in service. The origin of the remaining two zaldikos has no surviving documentation at all. The Ayuntamiento’s own current reference page simplifies this into a cleaner but less precise account, four built in 1912 and a pair in 1941, which does not leave room for the two undocumented figures the more detailed sources describe. The more granular version, corroborated independently by both the 1984 book and a 2010 reference work, is the one this article follows.
The 1994 Radio Contest That Almost Gave Them Names
Ask most sources whether the zaldikos have names and the honest answer is layered. Multiple independent accounts, Pamplona’s own reference materials, the 2010 book Gigantes de Navarra, and regional Navarra press coverage as recent as 2024, agree on the same fact: the zaldikos are the only figures in the comparsa without an individual name, identified purely by number, one through six.
But there is a real, well-documented exception to that rule, and it explains where the specific names now circulating online actually came from. In September 1994, ahead of that year’s San Fermín de Aldapa, the smaller neighborhood festival Pamplona’s Casco Viejo holds every autumn, the station Radio Pamplona ran a contest, sponsored by a local shopping center, inviting children to submit names for the six zaldikos. From the entries submitted, six names were chosen: Correketecagas for number one, Zamaltzain for number two, Mala Uva for number three, Zartako for number four, Rompehuesos for number five, and Pottoka for number six.
The contest happened. The names are documented, with a date, a sponsor, and a source that traces directly back to the Comparsa’s own institutional archive project. What the contest did not do is stick. The same documentation that records the 1994 contest introduces it by first restating that the zaldikos are, and remain, the comparsa’s only unnamed figures, framing the naming contest explicitly as a one-time curiosity rather than an adopted identity. Three decades later, city references and press coverage of the comparsa still describe the zaldikos by number, not by the names a radio station handed out for one September. Pamplona’s fiesta calendar has more than one tradition that turns out younger, or shorter-lived, than it first appears, the same way the morning Dianas march traces back to a newspaper’s 1876 invention rather than any deeper folk origin.
Built for Weight, Not for Speed
The six zaldikos are not identical in weight. According to the Comparsa’s own reference figures, numbers two, three, four, and five each weigh 25 kilograms, while numbers one and six, the original 1912 pair, weigh 30 kilograms each. That extra weight on the oldest pair tracks with a separate piece of documentation: in July 2012, the Ayuntamiento held a joint centenary tribute for kilikis Napoleón and Patata alongside zaldikos one and six specifically, confirming that this particular pair, and not the rest of the set, shares the 1912 build year and the heavier frame.
That weight, combined with the rigid internal structure, is also why zaldikos move differently than kilikis. A kiliki’s frame leaves the bearer’s legs relatively free, which is part of why kilikis can dart after children through the crowd. A zaldiko’s frame does not. The horse’s body sits low and close around the bearer’s legs, leaving little room to extend a stride, so a bearer trying to move faster than a walk typically has a shin strike the horse’s lower front edge. As a result, zaldikos mostly stay close to or directly in front of the giants during the procession rather than ranging independently through the crowd the way kilikis do. Two bearers per zaldiko trade off partway through each San Fermín morning, part of the roughly 58 people it takes to move the full 25 figure comparsa through Pamplona’s streets each day of the festival.
Like the kilikis, each zaldiko carries a foam club, called a verga or botana, used to swat at spectators, especially children, who crowd close enough to reach. The club was historically made of leather or a cured, inflated animal bladder before foam replaced both. The zaldikos’ visible manes and tails invite a different kind of attention: spectators tug at them often enough that Comparsa handlers have to reglue a zaldiko’s tail on a regular basis, a small, specific maintenance detail that rarely makes it into general accounts of the tradition.
The Zaldikos’ Role in San Fermín’s Closing Ritual
The zaldikos appear at every one of the comparsa’s nine outings during San Fermín, from the evening of July 6 through the festival’s close on July 14, alongside the giants, cabezudos, and kilikis, and again later in the year for the Privilegio de la Unión on September 8, San Fermín de Aldapa in late September, and the feast of San Saturnino, Pamplona’s actual patron saint, on November 29.
Their most emotionally loaded appearance comes on the last day. After nine days of swatting spectators with foam clubs, the cabezudos, kilikis, and zaldikos take part in the comparsa’s closing despedida in the Plaza Consistorial, where they reverse roles entirely and throw candy to the same children they spent the festival chasing, an informal peace offering staged as the fiesta ends. Kiliki "El Barbas" traditionally acts as an unofficial master of ceremonies for that farewell, while the giants are lowered low enough for children to kiss before the whole troupe disappears until the following July.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does zaldiko mean?
Zaldiko comes from the Basque word zaldi, meaning horse, with a diminutive ending, so it translates roughly to "little horse." The figures were historically also called caballicos or caballitos in Spanish.
Do the zaldikos in San Fermín have names?
No. Multiple independent sources, including Pamplona’s own city reference materials and regional press as recent as 2024, agree the zaldikos are the only figures in the 25 figure comparsa without individual names. They are identified only by number, one through six.
Why do some websites list names for the zaldikos?
Those names, Correketecagas, Zamaltzain, Mala Uva, Zartako, Rompehuesos, and Pottoka, come from a real September 1994 radio contest run by Radio Pamplona ahead of that year’s San Fermín de Aldapa. The names were chosen but never replaced the numbering system, which is still how the zaldikos are identified today.
How much do the zaldikos weigh?
According to the Comparsa’s own reference figures, zaldikos two, three, four, and five each weigh 25 kilograms, while zaldikos one and six, the original pair built in 1912, weigh 30 kilograms each.
Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.