Astonishing Displays of Horsemanship and More Naughty Equines

This sort of thing qualifies in my mind as pretty darn cool. My opinion, of course, and worth every kaui, crown, or pence you paid for it. 

Brief PSA: I will say without hesitation that one can debate Mongolian "horsemanship." If you are a horsey-pet (1) owner in some western country and you are all about wrapping your equine in proverbial bubble wrap, the Mongolian ideal of horsekeeping might not be to your fancy. Horses in Mongolia are for work (transportation), play, producers of hair for rope (and Naadam Flags!), and, of course, lunch. I'm a fairly practical person and am all about accepting other cultures. And I'm a carnivore. So none of that bothers me. If it bothers you, I respect that. That said, back to athletics and naughtiness.

So after everyone had a chance to trot around the arena a few times, these riders put on an exhibition of vaulting on horseback. Demonstrating moves that were used in battle, these riders bounced up and down, around and about, left and right and threw in a few moves that made me think they were part Gumby. Pokey was nowhere in sight.

I have always thought Vaulting was a equine sport that demonstrated amazing athleticism, but the stuff I have seen was always done on a lunge line. These guys were galloping hither, thither and yon all while boinging in and out of their saddles.

Then the vaulters moved on to a more serious enterprise:

I am working with the children this week on archery with a junior arrow and a ginormous target that one week into it, remains unblemished. I have ridden most of my life, and while I have certainly had horses that were rateable and that I could gallop on the buckle, these guys take it to a level that is not in the same universe. Marry the bow and riding without hands?? No more than I would blindfold myself and try to drive with Jeff yelling out left and right at appropriate intervals.

And so it went, impressive move after impressive move, until ... they set up a jump. And the brave warrior-horses went into chicken-s&^t mode again. Seriously, I wanted to head out there with a lunge whip and help these guys.

Anybody know how to say, "HEELS DOWN! SIT UUUUPPPPP! SMACK HIM!!!" in Mongolian?

I saw at least four horses quit and not one single rider got their horse to actually leap over the obstacle. The Mongolian riders, also practical people, gave up at some point and refocused their energies on more achievable goals. I still have no idea what the point was in trying to get the beasts to leap over the archery targets, although one supposes that in war, they were required to leap over all sorts of treacherous artifacts. Although one also supposes that they don't get much practice at this sort of thing.

Tomorrow: Awesome Skydiving Meets Traditional Dancing.

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If you are familiar with kittypets in the Warriors series, you get the reference. Otherwise, take it at face value. The phrase works nicely on both levels.

Comments

[Debbie Hanson]

Ellen, what type of saddle were they using?

[Jen]

Just so you know - my deaf grandmother would give directions to my blind grandfather so they could drive down the dirt road (one lane - hill on one side, cliff on the other) and then down the fire road that came out behind the library in Big Sur so he could get his books on tape. Don't know why she didn't just drive...