A YouTube on-location vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan at Day 4 of the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan, centered on Kokburu (a horseback contact sport played with a goat carcass). The hosts obtain field-side press access, describe match action (Kazakhstan scoring early; US plays Kazakhstan), state rules/facts about Kokburu (three 20-minute periods; goat carcass ~45 kg), and show related events at the Hippodrome (horse wrestling, sumo). The video emphasizes the sport's brutality, crowd atmosphere, and behind-the-scenes interactions with medics and volunteers.
Questions this video answers
November 14, 2018
45 kg
A game is made up of three 20-minute periods
Chapters
It is the most exciting sport I've ever seen.
Without a doubt, coolest sport in the world.
It's my new friend. Say hello, Kondaises.
Jerks.
Today is day four of the World Nomad Games here in Kyrgyzstan, and if you've missed any of our last videos, the World Nomad Games are basically the Olympics of nomadic sports.
We are super excited about today because we are going over to the official arena of the games, the Hippodrome, and we are going to see the event that we are most excited about, Kokburu.
Kokburu is basically a mix between polo and rugby on horseback. Using a goat carcass for the ball.
It's gonna be nuts.
So we've made it to the stadium. It turns out the first Kakuru game doesn't start for another hour, but there's tons of other stuff going on, including the sumo match behind us that we just happened upon. We're also super excited because we've learned that today the two teams that we wanted to see play most are playing Kyrgyzstan plays first and then after that, the US plays.
This afternoon heard the US is not that good, but it should be entertaining.
We'll cheer loud anyway. The west for usa still young.
I do it so much to convince.
A false start.
We've just made it into the Hippodrome. This place is absolutely packed with everybody waiting on the Kyrgyzstan team to play. This is like the biggest sport of the game, so I expect the atmosphere to be really good.
Once again, we have no clue what's happening. Apparently the team that was supposed to play Kyrgyzstan just didn't show up, so there's no game.
But we did find the only real coffee that we've had in Kyrgyzstan, so I am not complaining.
The next game starts in one hour.
We just got access to the fields. We're walking around it right now. I think we're gonna get to go in. We have coffee. We're with our friend Jun.
Hi.
It's a great day.
We're doing it. There's everybody else sitting.
This is incredible. Our press passes are really starting to pay off. We are down basically on the field with the Kyrgyzstan team. We're not exactly sure if we're supposed to be down here or not. There's 500 international press, but there's only a handful of us that have made it down to the field. We just kind of walked down here with our badges out, like we knew what we were doing.
I had all my cameras in my hand, so I looked really official and professional. We're like right next to the goal. This could be amazing.
Nate is my husband.
Husband.
My husband.
Husband. We're passing the time by hanging out with all of the medics. These are the medics for the humans, which have been translating for us for the very nice medics for the horses.
Hi, guys. My name is Costa. I'm from Bishkek, and I'm a volunteer of Red Creston. Do you know Red Creston?
Okay.
The reason we were so excited to see this spot for it is because we actually saw this before on tv. Our friend Charlie's older brother is a filmmaker, and he made this whole series on manhood rituals. And he actually got to play this game. And we've been wanting to see it ever since. I can't believe we're actually getting to watch it. It's starting. The music is starting. The horses are marching out. Everybody's cheering. What's the.
That happened so fast.
That did happen so fast. We are a minute into the game. Kazakhstan has already scored twice. I cannot believe how rough this sport is and how much control they have of the horses. They're about to score again.
It's crazy. Okay. It is the end of the first period. A game of Kokburu is made up into three 20 minute periods. And this is the most insane period game that I have ever seen.
Everybody's yelling and they're just picking up this huge goat and just slinging it around like it's nothing.
We've Learned it weighs 45kg. They struggle just to pick it up. It's the roughest sport I've ever seen. And the fact that man has such control over these huge animals is just kind of mind blow.
Wow, that was cool.
The first Kokburu game is officially over. I think if we would have come to Kyrgyzstan just to watch that, it would have been worth it. Taking a little break from the games for some lunch. And we stopped to get these Asian noodles. Obviously they were pretty good. And it was a good, much needed break. I don't think we realized when we're out there how, like, tense and excited we are. And we're holding our backpacks and our cameras because as soon as we sat down, we were all just like.
Okay, the US Is taking the field. We are about to face off against Kazakhstan, which we've heard is the second best Kakuru team in the world. But we're still going to cheer loudly and proudly.
We're rooting for you. Usa. Usa.
Usa.
Rough start. Not so good.
No, no, don't pet him. Pet him. We have the goat. Oh, we got the goat.
Out of bounds.
We got him out of bounds.
Man. Usa. We have to go. We have to go. Come on. Go. Come on. Go, go, go. Stay with it.
He's going all the way. He's going all the way for sure.
Go.
Our guy bit with the goat, but I think it still counts. Maybe they didn't let us.
No, they're not letting us do anything.
The crowd keeps laughing.
The announcer's making some kind of joke that we're not getting.
The defense broke down. So one of the things that I really like about Kokburu is after a team scores a goal, the opposite team, like, the losers are the ones that have to retrieve it and take it back to the middle. It's like extra punishment for losing.
The other team got it out of the pit for us, which was really nice.
Alright, the end of the first period, we're switching sides. We're down 7 3, but we're looking confident.
Love it. Our guy just like jumps in there with the goat.
The game is over. We did lose, but I cannot explain to you how proud I am of those guys. I really think that they played hard enough to earn everybody's respect, like, especially in the crowd. And the other team, like, we didn't embarrass ourselves at all. They were incredible.
It just like completely changed the feel of the game for me. After we got down here on the sidelines, we were like, so standing beside the US Team and you were seeing how much they were sweating, how hard they were breathing. They were cheering each other on, constantly checking to see if each other was okay because you're just like getting banged around. And it just really showed me how physically challenging that game is.
I would try to say, like, great job out there. When they would come off and they. It was all they could do to keep breathing. Like, they just like. Like they could hardly breathe. It was incredible.
Okay, we think horse wrestling is next, whatever that means.
Horse wrestling just started. It's in the middle of this field and they've let us just come onto the field and sit right on the outside of the circle. We don't know how it works, but it seems pretty simple.
What we know so far is that each competitor has to take their shirt off and they wear a belt around their waist. And it seems like the goal is to grab the belt of the opposing player and then rip them off their horse using that belt. And we have a US Competitor who apparently has never ever done this before. He played on the US Cock Brewer team. He's an accomplished MMA fighter, but he's never done horse wrestling before. And he's about to do it for the very first time against. Against Kazakhstan, who I assume is very good at this.
These are the cutest vets in all of Kyrgyzstan, maybe in all of the world.
