They play this traditional game on horseback, almost like polo, but rather than a ball, it’s a headless goat carcass that players are maneuvering around the field of play.
The word buzkashi (pronounced ‘booz-ka-shee’) literally translates as ‘goat pulling’ in Persian. While it’s the national sport of Afghanistan, types of the sport have migrated across central Asia and have been adopted by a variety of various ethnic groups including the Kazakhs, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz people.
The utilization of a goat carcass does, amid first impressions, seem alarming and barbaric, but ultimately requires perspective. The goat (or sometimes a calf) is decapit
ated and disemboweled, they sever its legs at the knees, then they soak the body in water for twenty-four hours to harden the flesh and toughen the hide before getting used within the game.
Regarding the utilization of a creature in sport, there’ll always be some who object. There’s a distinction to be made, however, with animals used in buzkashi and something like bullfighting, for instance. The goat is slaughtered each day before it’s used and is roasted after the match has finished.
While they kill an animal for the sport, it’s not the method of killing that’s the game itself. Wholesome American football game fans have thrown around a ‘pigskin’ for m
any years, and baseballs are traditionally covered in cowhide. While a ‘pigskin’ isn’t any longer used in football, they accustomed pig bladders inflate footballs within the same way they were used for traditional styles of soccer across British towns for hundreds of years.
That might also lend itself to the physicality and sometimes violence that creates up an oversized part of the sport. Riders usually wear heavy clothing and head protection to protect themselves against other players’ whips and boots. Competitors that play within former Russia often wear salvaged Soviet tank helmets for cover.
The game also requires an enormous amount of agility and horsemanship, therefore the boots are worn usually have high heels that lock into the saddle to assist the rider to touch the side while trying to select up the goat from the ground.
