The Americans | Episode 4: Nino | Robin de Puy

Robin de Puy, de Volkskrant, November 21, 2022

America is a country of great ambitions but even greater divisions. Reason enough for photographer and filmmaker Robin de Puy to look for 'the American'. Who is that? Who represents this country? Episode 4: Nino: "Yeah I scoop them up".

"Yeah, I scoop them up."
"What are you scooping up?" I ask him. 
"The people on the bull!"

 

My dazed look reveals that I have no clue what he is talking about. His cousins Christian and Stephan elaborate: "In bull riding, cowboys try to stay on a wild bull or bucking horse for eight seconds. Once those eight seconds are over, my uncle scoops them up, ideally before they hit the ground." His uncle confirms the story with a southern yeah. "I used to be really good at it, at bull riding. But now I'm too old. Usually, you give up bull riding in your 30s. By then you're pretty beat up."

The scooping up, it turns out, is not just something Nino does with bull riders. For example, there's Twinn (the crazy one), whom he met about thirty years ago. Twinn also rode horses but had no place to board his horse. So one day, Twinn brought his horse to Nino who, without hesitation, shared his self-built stables with him. A friendship developed that is still ongoing. Twinn has needed a few scoops. For example, one night after the famous Mardi Grass festival, he drove his freshly washed, shiny red truck and trailer into a lamppost. The hit turned out to be a lucky shot: all the lights in a 3-mile radius went out. Fortunately for Twinn, Nino drove by at that exact moment. He got Twinn and his horse back on the road and made sure no one knew it was Twinn that turned off the lights.

 

The hit turned out to be a lucky shot: all the lights in a 3-mile radius went out.

 

Every day, Nino gets up at five to get to the horses on time. Horseback riding - and everything that comes with it - was instilled in him from a very young age. His father taught him everything: forging, trimming, and shoeing, as well as taming wild horses. When the horses are happy he goes off to his "real" job. He does maintenance on temporary houses (trailers), which are placed when people temporarily cannot live in their own homes - after a tornado, for example. 

 

"And who takes care of you?" I ask him. "I'm good."