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The Ancient Turkic Sport of Kök Börü Re-examined Through Scientific Data

A study supported by the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University Scientific Research Projects Unit has revealed how victory and defeat physiologically impact the relationship between a horse and its rider in Kök Börü. Published in the journal Veterinary Medicine and Science, the research examines Kök Börü—a traditional Turkic sport—using modern veterinary, sports science, and endocrinology methodologies, evaluating the "invisible partnership" between horse and rider through biological data.

What spectators witness on the Kök Börü field is speed, power, balance, and fierce competition. However, there is another unseen side to the competition: How do the organisms of the horse and the rider react to the exact same high-intensity competitive environment?

Led by the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, researchers from various disciplines pursued this question by comparing stress hormones, metabolic indicators, and blood cell-related parameters in the blood of both horses and riders before and after Kök Börü matches. The study contributed new data to an area where literature on the horse-rider physiological relationship in traditional team equestrian sports is notably limited.

The Same Match, Two Organisms

The study included 40 Kyrgyz-breed stallions aged 3–4 years and 40 male riders aged 20–25 years, weighing 70–80 kilograms, from four teams competing in the Kök Börü Super League. Ensuring similar care, feeding, and training conditions for all horses provided researchers with a more controlled comparison.

Blood samples were collected approximately half an hour before the match and within the first 30 minutes following the end of the competition. This allowed researchers to compare the physiological state prior to competition with the picture following intense physical and psychological stress.

The Biological Signature of Stress Was Sought

Along with routine blood values of horses and riders, numerous hormones associated with stress and performance were examined simultaneously.

Levels of cortisol, ACTH, beta-endorphin, adrenaline, noradrenaline, T3, and T4 were measured using species-specific ELISA tests. Additionally, hematological indicators related to red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelets, alongside sodium, potassium, creatinine, total protein, magnesium, and various biochemical parameters associated with muscle metabolism, were analyzed.

Through this comprehensive approach, researchers investigated not only stress levels but also how the physiological responses of the horse and rider correlated with one another.

Stress Was More Pronounced in Losing Teams

One of the most striking results of the study was the differentiation in hormonal stress responses between horses and riders in winning versus losing teams.

In winning teams, while a limited connection was observed between the stress-related hormones of the horse and rider prior to the match, no significant hormonal correlation was detected after the match. For losing teams, the picture was different. Prior to the match, many hormones associated with stress showed more distinct interrelationships.

Researchers note that these findings indicate that horses and riders in losing teams may have experienced a more pronounced stress response prior to the match.

Winning or Losing Does Not Entirely Change the Blood Profile

Another notable result of the study was that victory and defeat did not create as distinct a difference as expected on the hematological and biochemical correlations between horses and riders.

Researchers detected various positive and negative hematological and biochemical correlations in the horses and riders of winning teams before and after the match. However, overall evaluation concluded that the status of winning or losing did not significantly alter the correlations of these parameters between horse and rider.

This finding demonstrates that the response of the organism in a high-effort sport like Kök Börü cannot be explained solely by the scoreboard. A multitude of factors, such as physical conditioning, training level, individual stress response, and the horse-rider relationship, must be evaluated together.

Physiological Adaptation is Also Important in Kök Börü

At the core of performance in equestrian sports lies the effective partnership established between horse and rider. Previous research shows that the rider's emotional state can influence the horse's physiological responses, and human behavior can induce changes in horses' arousal levels.

The new study brings this discussion to a traditional sport played as a team, involving high physical contact and competition, such as Kök Börü.

According to researchers, the results obtained show that both horses and riders can experience simultaneous changes in their immune, metabolic, and hormone systems under heavy physical loads. In particular, certain post-match biochemical relationships in winning teams carry signs that may be linked to muscle and metabolic adaptations following high-intensity activity.

Traditional Sport in the Modern Laboratory

Kök Börü carries deep cultural significance in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and other regions of Central Asia. Despite this, the majority of scientific literature on Kök Börü focuses on history, culture, and sociology. Studies aimed at the joint physiological evaluation of the horse and rider remain quite limited.

Therefore, this study sets an example regarding the examination of a traditional sport using modern scientific methods.

Going beyond treating Kök Börü merely as a cultural heritage, the research elevates it to a scientific research field at the intersection of sports physiology, veterinary medicine, endocrinology, and animal welfare.

Research Data May Also Contribute to Animal Welfare

The results of the research extend to another crucial area beyond athletic performance: animal welfare.

A better understanding of horses' stress responses during intense competition can contribute to better planning of training intensity in the future, preventing overtraining, and reassessing competition conditions from an animal health perspective.

Researchers state that a more detailed understanding of the horse-rider physiological relationship can help both sustainably preserve traditional sports and improve the welfare of human and animal athletes.

International Research Team Led by MANAS

The study titled "The Effect of Victory and Defeat on the Correlations of Stress Parameters Between the Horse and Rider in Kök-Börü Equestrian Teams" was conducted by Ali Rişvanlı, İsmail Şen, Kanat Canuzakov, Askarbek Tulobayev, Abuzer Taş, Ruslan Salykov, Nezahat Ceylan, Ünal Türkçapar, Ulanbek Alimov, Arina Kazakbayeva, Ayday Cunuşova, Nur Abdimnap Uulu, Burak Fatih Yuksel, Mert Turanli, Muhammed Uz, Metin Bayraktar, and Nuriddin Ruzikulov.

The study brought together scientists from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Faculty of Letters, and Faculty of Tourism at Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, alongside researchers from Fırat University, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Atatürk University, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, and Samarkand State University of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Husbandry, and Biotechnology.

The Struggle Beyond the Scoreboard

In Kök Börü, the scoreboard determines the winner. However, scientific data shows that the competition writes a much more complex story within the bodies of the horse and rider.

Hormones, the immune system, muscle metabolism, and blood values change together during intense competition, and certain relationships differ based on victory and defeat. The most significant contribution of the research is making this complex picture visible for the first time in a systematic way within the context of Kök Börü.

In this regard, the study carries one of the ancient sports of the Turkic world into the future with laboratory data and opens the door to a new question:

Are a horse and rider merely learning to move together, or are they developing a physiological partnership that responds collectively to stress and competition over time? While definitive answers to this question require further research, the study by MANAS researchers establishes one of the vital starting points for this new scientific path.