TOKYO-2020 Editorial / sports

Dead Goat Polo

  • Prize
    Silver in Editorial/sports
  • Photographer
    Alain Schroeder
  • Photo Date
    2020

Trying to outrun your opponents with a decapitated (headless) goat wedged between your leg and your horse, might not be your idea of a fun game, but in Kyrgyzstan, Kok Boru is the national sport.  Dead goat polo feels more to me like cavalier rugby. Organized in two teams of five, but sometimes many more, riders race from one end of the field to the other chasing the rider with the goat whose sole intention is to score a point by heaving the 20 kilo body into the Tai Kazan (goal) on either end. Only stallions are used as they are naturally anti-social and eager to fight off rivals.