LINK All these countries from Central Asia and around the world come together and play traditional nomad games. I got to check this out this past weekend. It was intense! One game, Buzkashi, is basically rugby on horseback with a dead goat. These guys were ramming their opponents with their horses at full speed. Some guys fell off and had to move quickly to avoid being trampled. The game had to stop at one point because a guy fell off and his horse ran away. An extremely dangerous sport. There were tons of other cool sports like horseback wrestling, horseback archery, horseback everything! And falconry! But sadly, no horseback falconry. One horse had a heart attack during a race and they cut his throat right in front of the audience. It was shocking but I was told there was nothing they could do for the animal. It was cool event. There were tons of other cultural stuff but I didn't go see much of that. I did sleep in yurt though and drink fermented horse milk.
Yes, I quit my job in the spring and joined Catholic Relief Services as a system admin. Best decision I ever made.
This is a picture of the "dead goat rugby" that I went to. The goat is about 50 Lbs and they pick it right off the ground while the horse is running. The whip the other guy had was used also to whip other people's horses and sometimes the opponents themselves. It was brutal. These are some tough mofos