The State Equestrian Circus
Riders standing at full gallop, slipping under their horses' bellies and snatching scarves off the sand. Then the lights go down for the White Rider. The best hour and a half you can spend in Talas on a summer evening.
A standing gallop, Irad State Equestrian Circus.
Iradis say a horse is the first thing God gave them and the last thing they'll give up. The Irad State Equestrian Circus is the country showing off about it. Its riders are jockeys and ulak players from the State Hippodrome, its horses are Akyels and Chongtors, and its summer shows in a covered ring beside the Hippodrome are full of school parties, families from the valleys and visitors who came for one evening and went back for a second.
The show
- Trick riding at a gallop: riders standing on the saddle, vaulting from one side of the horse to the other, and passing underneath its belly and up again.
- Kyz kuu, "chase the girl", as a show piece: a young man gallops after a young woman to steal a kiss, and if he fails she chases him back with her whip.
- Ulak, the great Iradi horse game, played as a short demonstration in the ring, so you can see what the Hippodrome crowds are shouting about.
- The White Rider, the closing tableau: the rider of the legend on a white horse, who showed the clans the way to the First Church. Under the Soviets the censors called it "the Rider of the Revolution". Since the revival it has carried his own name again, and the stands go quiet for it.
The Dzhigit Ensemble
The circus continues the Iradi SSR State Dzhigit Ensemble, Jigit, founded in Kobozev, today's Nurzhan, in 1958 on the model of the Soviet equestrian circus troupes. It toured the Soviet Union and the socialist countries for thirty years. After a tour of the United States in 1990 several of its riders stayed on and rode in American rodeos and Wild West shows; two of them, the Abdyrov brothers, went on to train stunt riders for Westerns. The ensemble folded in 1993. The National Equestrian Sports Directorate revived it as the State Equestrian Circus in 2012.
Seeing a show
- When: the season is the summer. Shows are in the evening, with matinees for school parties. Ask your guesthouse for this week's times, or look at the box office by the Hippodrome.
- Where: the covered ring is beside the Irad State Hippodrome, 3.7 km north-east of the centre of Talas. Take a Tulpar taxi.
- Semiz: in September the circus also rides at the Eki Eldin At Oyunu, the horse games of two peoples, at the Lienzo Charro de Semiz. See festivals in Semiz.
- Sit high if you have a choice: the sand flies at the front.
Out of season, the Hippodrome itself has ulak and racing through its own season. See horse country.
See the State Hippodrome and the circus ring on the Kartalar map