Traditional Horsemen

11:17am Saturday 15th November 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Finding out about the ways of Traditional Horsemen is not as easy as one may think, even in countries, where, until a few years ago, the horse was the main means of getting about and showing one's status.

The horse is being, or rather has been replaced by the motorbike. Carts drawn by horses still abound in Southern Mali, but horses used for exclusively for riding and displays are rare, because, as the older riders die or become too old to ride any more, there are no younger ones taking over. The motorbike is the new status symbol. In one place in Burkina Faso a motorbike is called a horse and a horse is a hairy horse.

In Djenne, a medium sized town on the edge of the main horse area of Mali, there are just 3 oldfashioned horsemen left and only one of them has the full local regalia. Along with the horsemen the skilled craftsmen, who made the saddles and intricate tack have gone. One old man found it impossible to get anyone to make a new bit for a horse he had purchased. The training of the horses was always carried out by the older horsemen. They had the time and the patience to slowly bring a horse on. An intricate system of ropes were used to get a horse to move its legs in the way that was wanted. For instance the most comfortable gait was with the horse cantering with its front legs and trotting behind. Some of the older horsemen can still get horses to do this, but they will not tell anyone outside the small circle of horsemen in theit village how it is done.

Display skills, such as getting a horse to dance - a type of dressage, or getting it to lie down with the rider on top or rear in a certain way, are all part of training for war. Cavalry controlled the area for hundreds of years and the skills of the horsemen were highly honed. To find the horsemen it is necessary to go out into the countryside, preferably well away from the tourist routes. To do this it is necessary to either hire a 4 x 4 or risk one's neck on a 'moto', a motorbike taxi. The first is expensive, though it gets one around better and commands respect, especially in villages that hardly ever see a 'blanc', as white people are known.

'Motos' vary, depending on the skill of the driver and the distance to be travelled. Also they do not command the same respect; important when the people one is meeting have horses as a sign of their high standing in the community.

On one moto journey I got the driver to turn round after 10kms. Twice we had got stuck in soft sand and three times he misjudged the corners so that we had ended up tearing through the millet fields on the side of the road as he fought for control. His big grin and 'see, we didn't fall over', did nothing for my nerves.

Each tribe has slightly different customs and distinct saddle decoration differences, but for me the biggest surprise was that the Bobo use mares as well as stallions. Mares are just kept for breeding or cart work in a few cases. Once they have had a few foals, one every two years, they are totally worn out. The most prized horses In Burkina come from Niger, Togo and Benin, because the local horses tend to be small due to the lack of nutrition when young. One horseman explained to me that as the people got better fed they got bigger, but as there was less and loss grazing the horses got smaller. Something that has led to the importation of horses for the rich and the lack of riding horses for the not so well off. Contacts are everything and, despite some setbacks, I have managed to meet many horsemen and get a good knowledge of what they do with their horses and how they look after and feed them. Bits of the training I was told about and shown, but most of it was kept secret.