Csikós in Action

After the spectacular showmanship of the standing rider, we got down to business. The Csikós aren't just guys who herd horses and cows about on the farm, they were also the backbone of the Hungarian army. This meant that there were things these horses needed to be trained to do to protect themselves and their riders under attack.



The first of these is to learn to duck. I have a sequence of photos here showing a rider lying his horse down on the ground. Rather than assemble these into a video that would last a couple seconds, here are the images, one by one, where you can really see what the rider is doing.

You'll notice here that the rider is still mounted. His feet are not touching the ground and horse is supporting him as he kneels, first with forelegs and then with the rear.

As the hind quarters get lower, the rider has one foot on the ground.

Still only partially supporting his weight with one foot as the horse continues to drop.

As the horse finally gets low enough, the rider is left standing astride of the animal.

And the horse is lying down. Next comes an even more amazing thing. the Csikós climbs off of the horse and sits on him.

With the horse perfectly calm under him, the Csikós fetches his whip and being cracking it overhead. This is, in part to train the horses to ignore this gunshot-like sound to prepare them for battle.

Here is a short video of the Csikós cracking the whips in unison. It was very loud. They made it look effortless and the horses were so used to it that not one of them was restless or anxious. A remarkable feat.

To see just how relaxed these animals were, here is a Csikós relaxing on his horse. I've never seen this level of trust between a man and horse before.