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.