Kok Baru. A National Sport.

Here we can see many horsemen playing the traditional game of Kok Baru where in order to win, the carcass of a goat or calf must be carried across the opposition teams end zone.

The game played in many of the surrounding countries and known by diffent names and is seen by animal welfare groups (mostly having no tradition anything like the Krygyz) as unneccessary and cruel.
The Kyrgyz people treasure their horses and have honed their horsemanship over many centuries of hunting and competition.

The kyrgyz horses are a breed unto themselves; the purity of which was nearly lost by cross breeding them with larger foreign horses but now, thanks to the intervention of Kyrgyz horse enthusiasts they have now rebounded and are no longer endangered.