Our Photo of the Day series this week shares works from photographer Pavel Dvorak. Of this shot, he says:
Tibetans are excellent horse riders. They have horses to take care of yaks that nomadic people breed. During the day they train for horse riding (sometimes the entire day), since there is not much else to do. That is why every summer, individual villages and nomad families meet and organize competitions in horse riding. There are no judges, riders choose the best one by themselves.
They compete in hanging very low from a horse while riding at full speed and lifting a ribbon from the ground. Then they perform incredible tricks with these ribbons and flags. After that, they must pull themselves back onto the horse while still at full speed.
Some riders cannot pull back. They lose their grip and start hanging hopelessly from the horse. People on the ground must stop the horse quickly. Riders’ legs are attached to the saddle while the horses pull them for hundreds of meters. Fractures are common, sometimes even worse injuries.
Pavel is a Slovak content creator based in Shanghai. He moved to China in 2009 after receiving a double major in Chinese culture-language in Czech Republic. He organizes cross-cultural business events and recently began taking his business clients beyond the big cities and out to off-the-beaten-path adventures. Pavel’s works have been published in various media internationally, and awarded at the International Movie Festival Karlovy Vary. You can check out Pavel’s website here.
If you’d like to take over RADII’s Photo of the Day series for a week with your shots, please get in touch with us here.
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