Our trip to Shangri-la (unintentionally) coincided with the Annual Horseracing festival. In prior years, its been held out in grassy fields, but this year it was held in what looked to be a brand-spankin-new stadium. We walked about a half hour from our guesthouse to the stadium, along with throngs of other people. People from surrounding villages converged at the stadium to watch this year’s events. We went in found some seats on the lower level of the stadium.

When we got there, there were a few horses going round the track, in what I took to be warm-ups or something. The horses were so spread out and the riders didn’t look to focused. But actually this is how all the races looked. I don’t know the rules of the race, but here’s my interpretations of what we saw. For each heat, the competing horses are gather behind a gate that opens up into the track and stadium. Then, someone lets the horses into the stadium and that’s the start! They don’t line up or anything, much less shoot a gun- once they’re let in, they just start going. Some of the horses dilly-dally, while some know what’s up and get going quicker. Sometimes, the riders have a hell of a time getting the horse to go the right direction and to get going. The seeming lack of regulations is found in all aspects of the race. Some riders have saddles, while some ride bare-back. Some horses have bells, carpets, and other decorations adorning them while some have nothing but a ride. Some riders wear silky pajama outfits that look like they came from the circus, while some ride in t-shirts and jeans. Not only are there disparities in appearance though. The heats don’t seem to be organized by the speed or size of the horses. Although each heat was five laps, usually only one horse of the four or five concerned actually completed all the laps. Usually one would drop out in the first couple of laps, while the fourth lap usually witnessed any horse without a chance drop out. It was so comical to watch though, with horses lapping each other and stuff. I mean, it was only five laps! Some of the horses didn’t look like they wanted to run and jerked their heads every which way. Sometimes the riders were nearly as big as the tiny village horses they rode. Their size wasn’t the only thing different than modern Western jockeys. The riding style was closer to Texas rodeo than my conception of how to ride a horse. These guys just bounced up and down all the way around the track. It looked like a challenge just to hang on to their horses, much less race them. All in all, it was a pretty entertaining day at the track. Well, a couple hours at least, you can only take so much. It was good for some laughs though.