The Mongolian Horsemanship
Kongming Lock
Sheep-snatching Contest
Weiqi (The Game of Go) |
The Mongolian fantastic horsemanship involves a lot of performing stunts. Among them is "hurdle crossing", in which one-meter-high hurdles are set up dozens of meters apart on the track, with a fire ring about two meters in diameter erected at the track end. Strong and robust horses begin their race at the starting line, cross the hurdles and go through the fire ring, charging toward the finishing line. "Cutting Hurdles on Horseback" is another stunt, in which a dozen or so hurdles are set up on a 200 to 250-meter track. When saber-wielding horsemen gallop by, they clear their way by cutting the hurdles one by one. Anther stunt worth mentioning is "horseback skills". In this performance, horsemen do various challenging movements on galloping horseback. The horsemen generally start rigorous training in equestrian teams at the age of eight or nine. There are single-item or multi-item skills, which include performances involving one person, one horse or those involving one person, two horses, two persons and two horses as well as multiple persons and horses. When one horse gallops by a horseman, he swiftly rides on the horse by seizing its mane and suddenly gets off by touching the ground with his tiptoes and then gets onto the horseback again. Other horseback skills include "somersault turning and hand standing", "sideway dodging", "hiding in the tower" and the stunning human pyramid building etc. |








