Chinese Horses

In the Nature Reserve Kalila got a chance to ride a horse for the first time! Her mind was blown. She learned how to say horse in Chinese - Ma(3). The guides were laughing at me because I look like an 8 ft tall giant on this horse. Chinese horses are much smaller than Western horses. One of the primary commodities that the Chinese imported on the Silk Road were horses because their own were not well-suited for warfare. The Chinese prized horses bred in the Ferghana Valley (modern-day Kyrgyzstan) as well as the Akhal-Teke breed from Turkmenistan. The tall and slender Akhal-Teke evolved in the high desert and so could go long distances without food or water. The Chinese referred to them as '1000 Li Horses' (Li is a unit of measurement) because the Turkmen were known to ride them over 1000 miles in a week's time, stopping only a few hours each day. Turkmen even slept in the saddle while their horses pushed on. Our little Turkmen fell asleep in the saddle too after 45 minutes of the horse's rhythmic gait and the hypnotic sound of the breeze in the bamboo grove. On our ride we saw the colorful Qinling pheasants (jin ji) and a pair of mountain goats (ma yang zi).