The Csikós

After the horse stampede about the paddock, we headed to a different field (also filled with dusty sand) for the main event. This included a variety of Csikós showing us how they ride and manage their mounts. It was fascinating.



This is the traditional dress of of the Csikós, with their whip loosely draped about their bodies and the handle resting on the left side of their chests, ready for instant action.

Although they do not use saddles to speed the changing of mounts while working (or fighting for their country), this fellow below has, for some reason, stirrups. I'm sure he had no saddle, but apparently he has a strap with stirrups to help stabilize himself. Others clearly had no saddle or stirrups, as you will see from the images below and in subsequent posts.

I am no great connoisseur of horses (but I'm sure some of you might well be), but I was really impressed with these animals.

There really seems to be a strong connection between the men and the horses.

There was also a donkey cart driven by a young man who was a Csikós in training.

But one of the stars of the show is this fellow you see standing below. As you will see here, he is standing on the backs of two horses.

In fact, the team of horses he commands is five-in-hand, two in the back to support him and three in the front. The master of ceremonies who explained to us what we were seeing, told us that someone wrote about this sort of thing, standing while driving five horses, as a piece of imagination. He had not done it nor seen it done. Someone in Hungary read this fiction and decided, "well, I can do that", and the next thing you know, "Bob's your uncle!" and he did it. It clearly caught on.

He puts pads on the horses backs to stand on (don't ask how he gets up there to begin with) and grasps all the reigns and away he goes.

As they rode about the compound, the horses, especially the two he stood upon, were amazingly well coordinated. The choreography of the two supporting the rider was faultless.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the practical aspects of this. For example, is this good for anything? Who cares. It is a wonder to behold.

The precision with which he manages the animals, the way they support him and never throw his balance off, never get too close to the front three, or pull the wrong way is just gobsmacking.

Here is a short video that E took on her iPhone of the fellow riding to give you just a taste of what we saw.