Again, from our friend Stephen Kinser:  "People are thought to have been riding horses more tha 4000 years ago in Central Asia, and the first to do so were probably ancestors of today's Turks....Children were put on sheeps' backs before they could walk so that they would become accustomed to the feel of riding.  Adults ate, drank, conducted business, held meetings and even slept on horseback.  The ancient Chinese knew them as 'horse barbarians."

Jumping to the present, cirit is an ancient game, now being revived.  Kinser:  "Cirit matches are lightning-fast, played by riders who gallop toward eachother in clouds of dus, hurling wooden javelins. They win points by striking an opponent or forcing his horse to veer off course....[All this] reflects the resolve of Turks not to lose their old identity as they embrace a new one."

Here's a brief view (which looks more like practice than the main event):


and one more elaborate, though a couple minutes in til the javelins fly:




more soon,
bob