Upper-valley riders take the Suusamyr ulak cup

AK-KYYA — A team of herders from the camps of the upper Suusamyr valley won the regional ulak tartysh tournament at Ak-Kyya yesterday, scoring the deciding goal in the tai-kazan in the last minutes of a final watched by riders, families and herds from across the eastern ranges.

Eleven teams took part in the two-day tournament, held every August at the summer settlement, where about seventy herding families from the eastern Talas Alatau live in yurts and log cabins from June to September. They graze sheep, horses and yaks on the valley meadows and make kymyz, which was served by the bowl along the edge of the field.

The winners rode Chongtor horses raised on the same meadows. "The lowland teams have faster horses," said their captain, Beishenaly Kudaibergen uulu. "But the goat is heavy and the grass is long, and our horses have been climbing all summer."

The Herald travelled to the valley, in the Talas Alatau zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions, with a permit issued by the clan council. In winter only a caretaker remains at Ak-Kyya, and the families will begin taking their herds down after the Feast of the Cross next month.