The highlight of the summer festival in Jyrgalan is the horse and rider competition, Kok-Boru.
Kok-Boru is the Kyrgyz national sport. The riders and the audience are looking forward to the event and a victory is associated with great honor.
The games start with horseback wrestling. The riders try to pull the opponent with their hands from the saddle and from the horse. If this does not succeed, then a referee who watches over the fight can nominate a winner, so to speak declare a win on points.
The difficulty is that the fighters usually need both hands to grab the opponent, but must control the horse at the same time.
In the main competition Kok-Boru, the riders try to pick up a dead goat or a goatskin during the ride and place it at a predetermined point. Usually, every man fights for himself.
It is fascinating to see how they motivate the horses to press each other, or how they ride across the meadow at full gallop and then brake abruptly, as if they brake on ice. The riders do not treat each other with kid gloves and the fight is fierce.
Please watch the 4K UHD video here
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More InformationSometimes things get a little out of hand. As the horsemen wrestle for the goatskin. In the heat of battle, they suddenly come directly toward us. A man in military uniform still stands in front of us with his arms outstretched to protect us.
But everything happens in a flash and at the last moment, he also has to dodge. I tried to escape back to get the camera to safety, but stumble, fall on my back and the camera falls on me. But Ursula is more in trouble.
She realizes that she can no longer escape, throws herself to the ground and makes herself very small. The horses storm in and stop right in front of her. One hoof already touches her body. We assume the horses have thought along and also did not want to step on a human being.
If you watch the video in frame-by-frame mode, you can see how close it was at 10:12:28.
Later, when we are eating in a yurt, a woman notices to Ursula: “Luckily you had a good guardian angel today. It could have ended worse”.
We have watched similar scenes also in Murgab in the Pamir and came to the conclusion that one should always first look for an escape route when visiting such games. Then you will be able to quickly make way if necessary.
The local population knows this and acts accordingly. Only the tourists are a little naive. Even so, hardly anything seems to be happening.
It is also interesting to note that some dogs are friends with horses and follow them onto the field. There they watch the events intensively and bark if their friend is in danger. Although a lot of hooves are constantly moving around them, nothing happens to them either.
In any case, we were enthusiastic about the commitment and willingness of horse and riders to win.
Thanks to the drone, we were able to see Kok-Boru from a bird’s eye view.
Please watch the 4K UHD video of the drone flight
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More InformationHere two teams fight against each other. It’s a bit confusing for us because we don’t know who’s fighting whom. But that’s not very important either.
It is interesting to observe with which will to win they are fighting and riding here.
We find it fascinating to watch and if you have the opportunity to see such a competition you should not miss it.
Finally, we show you a short overview of the beautiful Jyrgalan Valley!
Please read on > Tulpar-Tash and Eki Chat Yurt Camp
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Disclosure: Our trip was organized in cooperation with Discover Kyrgyzstan, and made possible by the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). All opinions are our own.
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