The skin burned by the icy sun of the steppes of Kazakhstan, a rider emerges from the melee, red jacket, grinning, chest bulging. He won this round of kokpar. His horse, 1m80 at the withers, with a black dress soaked with sweat, exalts. It's the beginning of the season, as the first days of December show their face.
Kokpar, a style of horse rugby, where the ball is a weighted goat corpse weighing about 55kg, has been played for almost a thousand years in Central Asia. Imported from the large population mix of China and Mongolia, it has now become the national sport of Afghanistan, with competitions held every year in the region. At the World Nomad Games, which took place in 2022 in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the title holder, lost to Kyrgyzstan.
But the roots of this sport however, lay beneath icy steppes, under the snow, or a veiled sun. In Kazakhstan, every year, between December and March, when the work in the fields is paused and the weather is cool enough for the horses, kokpar competitions are in full swing on the frozen mud. Temperatures rarely exceed - 5 degrees.
The rules vary, but in the countryside, the game is traditionally played individually . The goal: to fight for possession of the ball (the goat), which can only be carried under the rider's leg, wedged against the saddle, and then thrown into a goal, designated on the ground by large circles of white powder. At the beginning of each round, in a fair-like atmosphere, the commentator announces the prize that will be won by the next scorer - a car, money, cattle, or even a camel.
From noon to sunset, the earth trembles under the horses' hooves, the endless melees producing huge clouds of steam that make visibility difficult.
Despite the blaring loudspeakers, cars parked in the background, and drones circling the crowd, it's easy to imagine the sport being played a thousand years ago, against the same backdrop.