Traditional Horse Fighting of China – Probably you’ve heard fighting of between several animals, but this story is something unique and unusual. There are a number of pictures in which you see two stallions fight during a traditional Chinese New Year horse fighting competition for the Year of the Horse in Tiantou Miao village in Rongshui, China.
It’s a traditional festival which is carried out as a grisly 500-year-old tradition. The two stallions fight in the presence of a female horse to ring the Chinese New Year, who is kept meters away from the clashing pairs by a villager armed with little more than a stick, and when it’s the Year of the Horse, the fights are considered to be even more substantial. The horse which successfully defends its position close to the female is declared the winner.
Animals Asia has said that female horses are sometimes “induced into season through the injection of hormones. They nourish the horses in a small village across southern China and have been condemned by animal rights groups; including Hong Kong-based Animals Asia. But those who participate in the events defend the fights and insist they take care of the animals. Members of the Miao ethnic group encourage the animals to fight and bet on the winner.
The tournaments can earn the winner 10,000 yuan (around $1,650) and are happening more frequently now, as the Year of the Horse begins. The inhabitants of this area argue that horse-fighting is steeped in tradition and without horse fighting, it wouldn’t feel like a new year also referring to the horse’s bloody bites, We have adequate medicine to treat his injuries, and after some time he will gradually get better.
As most people know horses are not naturally aggressive and wouldn’t normally engage in their behavior like this. Moreover; Horse-fighting has been outlawed in many countries but not here in China. The animal activists from the non-profit organization Animals Asia called the tradition a “horrific spectacle” and says that local government officials now actively boost this cruel event in order to entice tourists to this area.
