Kok Baru - Goat Carcass ‘polo’

Kok Baru, or goat carcass polo, is the national game of Kyrgyzstan, and the greatest display of horsemanship you are ever likely to see. Literally meaning ‘grey wolf’, it involves opposing teams of riders competing to grab a headless goat, then gallop with it to their team’s scoring area. Think rugby, on horses, with a 50 kg dead goat. Played in various forms across Central Asia, it's known as kupkari in Uzbekistan and bushkazi in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and in some cases can involve dozens of players (and a lot of noise!). One match we saw in Tajikistan, in January 2023, involved more than 100 horses, with some of the riders traveling huge distances to compete.

It’s thought that the game originated more than 1000 years ago, and arose from tribal wolf hunting practices and military training exercises, the chaotic nature of the game mimicking both hunting and battle conditions. 

These games take place in winter, often in the snow, and some of the best Kok Baru horses are worth tens of thousands of dollars.  If you’re traveling in Kyrgyzstan in winter, it’s fairly easy to find a game. If not, we can arrange show games for our guests, which are no less exciting.