Mongolia Wild Horses & Soaring Eagles By ANNE STEVICK
Horses are deeply embedded within Mongolia’s culture and are an indication of a man’s wealth. The pace of life is governed by the speed of the horse, and horses are woven into Mongolian song, verse and history. Even the morin khuur — their national musical instrument — is called a “horsehead fiddle.” Rural nomadic children are taught to ride before they can walk, and a young person’s prowess is measured by his skill as a horseman. The life of a nomad is basically unchanged since the days of the Golden Horde when Ghengis Khan’s “devil horsemen” created the largest empire the world has ever known. Even in present-day western Mongolia, near the Kazakhstan border, mounted horsemen use Golden eagles to hunt for foxes whose pelts are a significant form of income. 22
That is why my husband Quentin and I wanted to travel to Mongolia — their nomadic culture is based on livestock grazing and their traditions on horseback in the Altai Mountains. We had seen the documentary film, The Eagle Huntress, at the Fox Theatre in Pincher Creek in 2016 and vowed to someday go see the Altai Eagle Festival in person. The 17th Annual Altai Eagle Festival was at the very end of our two-week trip and was an absolute highlight. After a three-hour flight from Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar (or UB as it’s known), we arrived in Bayan Ulgii (or Ulgii town), the epi-centre of two annual Eagle Festivals. With fewer than 100 eagle hunters left in western Mongolia and bordering Kazakhstan, these festivals are keeping an ancient tradition alive. Held in a beautiful natural rock amphitheatre not far from a lake, some of the highlights of the events in the two-day festival were the parade of 60 participants, including 10 mounted eagle hunters with their eagles seated on their arms. The eagles were each hooded with “jesses” affixed (thin leather ankle tether straps), followed by 50 more hunters wearing traditional fox fur and leather coats and hats, high leather boots — each
ABOVE: Competitor with his hooded Golden eagle riding in the grand entry OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Competitors dressed in full regalia riding to the start line of Kyz Kvar
Canadian Cowboy Country April/May 2020
PHOTO COURTESY NOMADIC TRAILS/TULGA
M
ongolia is a unique area of unsurpassed geographical and human diversity, with alpine, forest, desert, steppe and lake lands populated by over 20 ethnic groups.
