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A novice bullfighter is called a novillero and fights
not in a corrida, but in a novillada with young bulls (novillos).
There are also novilladas sin picadores (a novillada without picadores,
which aren't necessary to weaken young bulls, when nine bulls may
be killed by nine different novillos. Novices don't dress in a "suit
of lights" but in Andalusian riding clothes consisting of a
black outfit of short waistcoat, tight fitting trousers, high heeled
boots and a broad black hat.
Young bullfighters often take chances in their eagerness
to please and be recognised and are frequently tossed or even killed.
Most novices learn their trade in bullfighting schools such as the
Royal School of Bullfighting in Seville. To join the senior ranks
and become a fully-fledged matador de toros a novice must take his
alternativa, a bullfight where a matador symbolically cedes the
tools of the trade (the cape and sword) to the novice, thus giving
him the right to kill fully grown bulls.
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