Horse riding in Kyrgyzstan: rides, seasons and skills

Horses in Kyrgyzstan are the transport that tarmac never replaced. Herding families still ride their animals up to the summer pastures every year, and the rides offered to travellers use those families and those horses.

Kyrgyz mountain horses are small, tough and steady on ground you would rather not walk down. They are working animals: they know the route and have views about the pace. Saddles are often a wooden frame under a blanket, with short stirrups. You ride out with a herder, not in a numbered line, and should not count on a helmet, so bring one if you want it.

An hour, a half-day, a day

Short rides need no experience. Song-Kul, a lake at 3,016 m in a bowl of treeless grassland, is where riding is the obvious thing to do rather than an extra: out with a herder for an hour or a full day, with kok-boru and other horse games at some camps. Jeti-Oguz above Karakol is the other easy base, where families at the upper camps hire horses out and longer rides cross into the next valley.

• Grigorievka gorge and the Barskoon waterfalls: horses by the hour in the meadows, arranged on the spot in summer.
• Altyn-Arashan, Suusamyr and Kyzyl-Oi: camps and guesthouses keep horses and a horseman.

Multi-day rides

Here riding becomes the way you travel. From Arslanbob in the walnut forest the usual route is three days to Holy Lake, two nights out. From Sary-Mogol riders reach Tulpar-Kul, 25 km away, in one or two days. Above Tash-Rabat the pass at 3,800 to 4,000 m is four hours one way and brings Chatyr-Kul into view; riding on to that lake is two days each way, with a border permit. Treks from Kyzart reach Song-Kul in two or three days, and Jyrgalan runs half-days up to pass crossings.

The season

Riding follows the pastures. June to September is the dependable window almost everywhere, because that is when the herders and their horses are up on the jailoo. The Song-Kul camps run from about mid-June to mid-September, the Alay camps to the end of September; Arslanbob is lower, roughly May to October. Outside that the horses are back in the villages. When to go has the calendar.

What you need to be able to do

For an hour or a day at a walk, nothing beyond mounting, staying balanced and doing what the horseman says. Multi-day rides ask more.

• Six or more hours in the saddle on consecutive days.
• Steep descents where you dismount and lead the horse down.
• River crossings, loose ground and long stretches in cold wind.
• Being comfortable at a trot, since you will not spend a week walking.

Soreness rather than falling off is the usual complaint. Long trousers without an inside-leg seam, closed shoes with a small heel and gloves help most.

Nights and altitude

Multi-day rides sleep in yurt camps or tents, and much of the riding country is above 3,000 m, where nights fall below freezing even in July. Coming up from a city to Song-Kul, Tash-Rabat or the Alay, expect a headache, broken sleep or breathlessness on the first day; that is common and settles with a slow start and plenty of water. Symptoms that worsen instead of easing — a headache that will not shift, vomiting, confusion, an unsteady walk — are serious, and the answer is to go down without waiting. Speak to your doctor beforehand if you take regular medication or have a heart or lung condition. Staying in a yurt describes the camps.

The guided version

Rides are arranged through the families who own the horses, which is why they are awkward to book from abroad and simple to organise on the ground. Our three-day Song-Kul trip is built around a full day on horseback and horse games; the ten-day nomad route adds an hour in the saddle at Tash-Rabat.