Unveiling the Walking in the Hexi Corridor

Abstract

The Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Province, was the gateway to the Hexi Corridor, the hub of the Road. The Fork Stage horse well-known for its flying pace (a.k.a “Tianzhu walking horse”) is an excellent local breed, whose high-spirited gait was captured by the Galloping Bronze Horse statue and known to the world, as the symbol of China’s tourism. Over a long historical period factors including ethnic customs, trade and business, politics and military affairs have formed a rich walking horse culture of breeding, training, trading, and racing. However, because traditionally the related knowledge and stories relied heavily on oral transmission, the literature on this subject is acutely lacking.

In 2012 the teachers and students from Tianzhu No. 1 High School started synthesizing the connotations and changes of the walking horse culture from the oral narratives of ordinary folks, to learn more about the human ecology in the northwestern highland. Through the study, we found that due to the politics, economic, and social changes since mid 20th century in China, the walking horse culture has changed greatly in the past six decades, and is currently faced with both crisis and opportunities. A revival of this culture would need collaborative efforts top-down and bottom-up.

Keywords: Horse Culture, Walking horse, Fork Stage Horse, Hexi Corridor, Flying pace, Tianzhu

1 Motivation

In China's rapid modernization and urbanization process, many local history and culture not fully documented and studied are facing a crisis of accelerated annihilation. Evergreen Education Foundation as an NGO committed to rural library development in China, has realized the importance of urging rural teachers, students and members to study local history and culture. In 2009, with a pilot project in Tianzhu No. 1 High School, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, Evergreen started to explore oral history and local , sponsoring and guiding teachers and students to record

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indigenous culture using oral history methodology.

Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu Province is the gateway to the Hexi Corridor, the hub of the

Silk Road. The Fork Stage Horse good at flying pace (a.k.a "Tianzhu walking horse") is an excellent local breed, whose high-spirited gait was captured by the Galloping Bronze Horse statue and known to the world, as the symbol of China’s tourism. Over a long historical period factors including ethnic customs, trade and business, politics and military affairs have formed a rich walking horse culture of breeding, training, trading, and racing.

However, because traditionally the related knowledge and stories relied heavily on oral transmission, and the literature on this subject is acutely lacking, the walking horse culture lacks preservation and study. What does the traditional walking horse culture look like? In China's modernization and urbanization process, how is it now?

With these questions in mind, since February 2012, the teachers and students in Tianzhu No. 1 High School started an oral history project on the walking horse culture. We interviewed horse breeders, traders, riders, equestrian referees and horse race organizers, recorded the process of horse race and , and formed a collection of oral historical records on the walking horse culture. We found that since the mid-20th century, due to the political, economic and social changes in China, the walking horse culture has undergone great changes.

Below we will describe our research findings in four sections: Section 2 is the background research, introducing the traditional breed Fork Stage Horse, as well as the formation of the walking horse culture;

Section 3 reveals the connotations of the walking horse culture and its changes since the mid-20th century, by analyzing information from the interviews and the background research; Section 4 explores the strategies and measurements on the preservation and development of the walking horse culture; Section 5 summarizes our findings and reflects on our methods and process.

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2 Background Research

2.1 The Fork Stage Horse

In the , the Galloping Bronze Horse statue1 from the Eastern impresses the visitors with its handsome posture, vigorous yet nimble pace, and stunning mechanical design.

Combining the merits of Western horse and local Hexi horse, it is a model of good horse in the Han

Dynasty. And one of its prototypes, Hexi horse, is the Fork Stage Horse2 produced in Tianzhu County and its nearby areas.

The Fork Stage horse, with ancient name Six Valley horse3, has a breeding history of over 2,000 years. In 2006 it was included in the "National Protected List of Animal Genetic Resources". Presumably its bloodline is related to the Mongolian horse to the North and the Datong (Haomen) horse to the West, and in the Western . As a result of long-standing impact from unique natural environment and breeding and training, the Fork Stage horse has formed a local horse breed with prominent appearance and performance characteristics and genetic stability. Its body is well-proportioned and square (commonly

1 The Galloping Bronze Horse statue is one of 99 pieces of the bronze chariots and discovered in the tomb of the

Eastern Han Dynasty General guarding the city of . The neighing bronze horse has sturdy torso and nimble limbs, with three hooves hurtling forward in the air, and one hoof stepping on a dragon sparrow. If we assess the galloping bronze horse based on the standard of good horse set by the ancient horse judging manual, the bronze horse is the model of a perfect horse. So some people think it is not only an outstanding work of art, but also a model for horse judging. See “The Galloping Bronze Horse”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=UjqIYcvnUIHRoqfdZkTDAkSURr_UghGamWj42TrRRUh46s42QJM66EQy9vj0ypik.

2The Fork Stage along the Jinqiang River in Tianzhu County was one of the important stages along the ancient .

It is said that the first horse race in Tianzhu was held here, and this custom has continued for over 800 years since the times of tea-horse trade in the . Hence the name of the breed came from this location.

3 In the Song Dynasty, the Fork Stage horses as the main war horses of the court, were from Liangzhou Tubo (ancient

Tibetan) Six Valley either as tribute or as traded commodity (Six valleys refer to the six river valleys in the Tianzhu area). The name Six Valley horse is likely originated from this.

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known as "bench-type"), with a relatively small body size (adult stallion’s average body height is 132.9 cm), but strong muscle, superior bone mass and torso magnitude. Its other characteristics such as large and bright eyes, small pointed ears, large nostrils, well developed chest, short and wide waist, strong belly muscle, broad rump (commonly known as “tiger body”), strong limb joints and tendons, hard hoof etc., all match the standard of good horses.4

The Fork Stage horse is well-known for its flying pace5 and commonly known as "Tianzhu walking horse"6 .

At 4 or 5 months of age its foal can go flying pace, which shows the gait is a stable genetic trait. The flying pace is both fast and stable, and the rider will feel like riding in a car or boat without any tossing. A well-trained walking horse can flying pace at a speed close to a running horse7. Suitable for flying pace, the

Fork Stage horse is docile and sensitive, while physically strong.

The Fork Stage horse also has strong pull force8, is a dual-purpose (riding and harness) horse. In addition, its constitution is suitable for extensive husbandry, well adapted to a relatively harsh environment, easy to

4 Yuxi Cui, Zhenwu Li, “The Excellent Horse Breed of Gansu - The Fork Stage Horse”, Gansu Agricultural University

Journal, Issue 2, 1959, 26-38.

5 A flying pace is a two-beat lateral gait with a moment of suspension between footfalls, with both feet of each side land almost simultaneously (left hind and left front, suspension, right hind and right front). It is meant to be performed by well-trained and balanced horses with skilled riders. See “Icelandic Horse”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_horse.

6 We will use Tianzhu walking horse and Fork Stage horse interchangeably in this paper.

7 It was recorded that a Fork Stage horse can cover 1200 m with running for 1 minute 53.7 seconds, and with flying pace for 2 minutes 19.9 seconds. The difference was only 26.2 seconds, showing the speed of flying pace is close to the speed of running. See Yuxi Cui, Zhenwu Li, “The Excellent Horse Breed of Gansu - The Fork Stage Horse”, Gansu Agricultural

University Journal, Issue 2, 1959, 26-38.

8 It was recorded that the average pull force of a Fork Stage horse is 101.29% of its own weight. The largest individual pull force can reach up to 130.3% of its body weight. A single horse pulling a rubber tire vehicle weighing 1 ton, can walk

35 to 40 kilometers on a flat road daily, and continue this performance for a number of days. See Yuxi Cui, Zhenwu Li,

“The Excellent Horse Breed of Gansu - The Fork Stage Horse”, Gansu Agricultural University Journal, Issue 2, 1959, 26-38.

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accrue fat, with hard bone resistant to wear and tear, lasting stamina and disease resistance.

Since ancient times, the excellent quality of the Fork Stage horse has being noted. Suitable for the archery and confrontation of heavy armor cavalry, in the Song and Ming dynasties Fork Stage horses were often recruited and requested for cavalry. Comfortable and fast, they were favored by the ancient dignitaries. Good for both riding and harness, they were loved by farmers and herdsmen.

2.2 The Formation of Tianzhu Walking Horse Culture

Wuwei

Legends TianZhu Silk Road

Mountain

Figure 1. Tianzhu County and Wuwei Area in Hexi Corridor9

Wuwei (with ancient name Liangzhou), Gansu is the east gate of the Hexi Corridor along the Silk Road -- the ancient Eurasian overland . It was also a strategic fortress in the Northwest, and the important city for economic and cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the in history.

Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, under the jurisdiction of Wuwei, is located in the intersection of

9 A remix of two sources: 1) Google Map of this area, Map data © 2013 AutoNavi, Google,Kingway, SK planet, ZENRIN Imagery © 2013 TerraMetrics; 2) An illustration of Wuwei, Gansu province in China map, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_of_Wuwei_Prefecture_within_Gansu_%28China%29.png

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Tibetan, Mongolian, and the , as the eastern extension of . It has an area of over 7100 square kilometers, bordered with other counties in Gansu to the East, South, and Northwest, and bordered with Menyuan County, Huzhu County and Ledu County in Qinghai to the West. Tianzhu is full of stretching mountains in its territory. 70 percent of the total land is prairie with 5.87 million mus can be used.

So livestock husbandry is the main local industry. The Tianzhu walking horses are mainly produced in Tianzhu

County, as well as adjacent mountainous areas in Yongdeng County and .

The Tianzhu walking horse culture was shaped by various factors including politics, economy, culture, production and life in the history of Hexi Corridor:

1. The Hexi Corridor is a strategic location connecting the Central Plains and the Central Plains

with the Western Regions, and the frontier where the Han and other ethnic groups migrate, confront

and fuse. Horse is the most powerful military mobile instrument in the Cold Weapon era. Since the Han

and Tang Dynasties till the Ming and Qing dynasties, the needs of the military campaign promoted the

breeding of horses: Great Maying Prairie in Zhangye has been a royal cavalry breeding base since the

Western Han dynasties; 10 During the Song Dynasty, Tibetan Six Valley Tribe in Liangzhou (ancestors of

Tianzhu Tibetan) pay tribute to or sell the imperial court thousands of Fork Stage horses each time;11

During the Yongle period, Ming Dynasty, Gansu Horse Breeding Institution had 6 branches supervising

24 horse ranches each with 4000-10000 horses. 12 Among these ranches, the Gucheng (meaning “Old

City”) Ranch of Qilian Branch, the Wusheng (meaning “Military Victory”) Ranch of Anding (meaning

“Settled”) Branch, and the Heicheng (meaning “Black City”) Ranch of Zongshui (meaning “Ancestor’s

River”) Branch, became the place names used in the Fork Stage Horse production area today.

2. The Hexi Corridor is the stage of commerce transactions between the central plains and the West

Regions, while the horse is used before the advent of modern transportation as the main vehicle for

10 “Shandan War Horse Base”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://baike.baidu.com/view/105461.htm

11 Kaijian Tang, Huiling Yang, “Horse Trade Between Amdo Tibetan and the Central Plains in Song and Jin Dynasties",

China Tibetology, Issue 2, 2006,160-168

12 “Horse Administration”, No. 150, Code of Great Ming Dynasty, http://www.doc88.com/p-979358685432.html

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load carrying and riding. During its bloom in the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Silk Road staged a grand

scene of "every-day traffic jam caused by the slow moving trade caravans"13.

3. Before the An-Shih Rebellion in the , was the political and economic

center of China. The Hexi Corridor was then the area most densely populated with stages where horses

were most actively used for transportation. Today the Fork Stage horse production area is lined with the

remains of ancient stages from south to north, such as Wusheng (meaning “Military Victory”) Stage,

Fork Stage, Jinqiang (meaning “Golden and Strong”) Stage, Anyuan (meaning “Settled Remote”) Stage,

etc. For these stages, the Fork Stage horse, with its characteristics of smooth, fast flying pace with great

stamina, is the ideal choice for courier horses and horses for long-distance travels.14

4. As a bulk commodity needed by civil and military uses in the inland, horses also became a key

commodity in the frontier trade between nomadic and farming people as a form of complementary

economy.15 Both the earlier silk-horse trade before the Song Dynasty, and the later tea-horse trade

started in the Tang and Song dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, are bulk trade in

which the Central Plains used silk and tea in exchange for horses with the minority ethnic groups. These

trades stimulated the continuous development of the all through the history.

5. The horse is also an indispensible tool in the production and life of local farmers and herdsmen, in

grazing, farming, cart-pulling, riding. The Liangzhou oasis, known as “A New Yangtze River Delta beyond

the Great Wall”, formed by two thousand years of careful farming since the military and civil farming in

the Han Dynasty,16 while the long-term land reclamation and farming cannot dispense with horses.

The formation of Tianzhu walking horse culture is also closely related to the horse culture and religion in the

13 “West Regions Chronicles”, No. 88, The History of Late Han Dynasty, http://www.guoxue123.com/shibu/0101/00hhsf/110.htm

14 Jiqing Wang, “Stage Horse and Long Distance Transportation Horse of Northwestern Regions in Early Tang Dynasty”,

Journal of Studies, Issue 2, 1986, 56-65

15 Kaijian Tang, Huiling Yang, “Horse Trade Between Amdo Tibetan and the Central Plains in Song and Jin Dynasties",

China Tibetology, Issue 2, 2006,160-168

16 Chenglu Guo, edit., Wuwei History (Gansu Culture Press, 2009), p18

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Tibetan culture. Since the 8th century, Tianzhu has become a multi-ethnic neighborhood with the Tibetan as its main . Its Tibetan group is called Hwari (meaning "Region of Heroes") Tibetan, belonging to the Amdo Tibetan Ethnic Area, one of the three Tibetan ethnic areas. The Amdo Area with vast grasslands is known for its good horses and rich horse culture, and was referred as “The Amdo Horse Area” in the Tibetan historical records.17 Since the late primitive society, horses has entered into the Tibetan people's economic and cultural life and are greatly hornored. Tibetan is full of works with horse as theme, such as the long song "The Tribute to Horse". People revere divine horses by hanging colored cloth along their mane and forelock, breeding them without harnessing them till they die. Considering the horse’s contribution in the history, some kindred Tibetan in Tianzhu made horse a totem.18

Historically in the Amdo Area, animism is deeply rooted, and it is popular to worship the god of mountain or the god of war. Each tribe has its own god of mountain as their patron god. Moreover, the love horses. During the drinking and gatherings after the ritual, they compete with each other for best horses and horse riding skills, gradually making part of the ritual activity. Tribes with horse as their totems also hold horse racing for prosperity. In horse racing winner horses not only get a prize, but also have their market values greatly increased. The horse race combined with the equestrian show, a variety of folk art performances, horse trading and other commodity exchange has evolved into an important public fair and festival. Historically, since the Song Dynasty the Lunar February 2nd Fork Stage Horse Race has been known far and near for more than 800 years. Since the Fork Stage Village was an important stronghold along the Silk

Road with dense population and convenient transportation, it was suitable as a commercial center, and the

Song, Ming and Qing dynasties all placed tea-horse trade here. Upon every horse race, horse traders from

Shanxi, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Tibet and etc. came to buy Fork Stage horses. The Tianzhu horse race as an exchange and trading platform as well as a folk festival, has played an important role in the formation and continuation of the walking horse culture as well as its dissemination to the surrounding areas.

17 Zhi-Guan-Ba.Gong-Que-Hu-Dan-Ba-Rao-Ji, Jun trans., The Political History of Amdo (Gansu People Press, 1989),

Vol. 1, Chapter 1, p5

18 Zhou-Ta, Qiao-Gao-Cai-Rang, Gansu Tibetan History (Ethnic Publishing House, 2009), 463-464

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3 Analysis of Interviews

3.1 Composition of Samples

We conducted 19 interviews with a total length of 650 minutes. There were 18 interviewees, including 14 horse breeders (one of them is a village horse race organizer), chief of a village with many horse breeders, one official from the Tianzhu County Animal Husbandry Bureau, one retired official from the Tianzhu County

Culture and Sports Bureau (who was also an equestrian referee and the county horse race organizer), a descendant of a horseshoer. Among 19 interviews 3 were group interviews and others were individual interviews. For two breeders and the retired Culture and Sports Bureau official we conducted several interviews and for others we conducted one interview. Each interview has a serial number. In this paper we cite an interview using the interviewee’s name and the interview serial number. For example, (Wanliang Hu,

016) refers to the 016 interview with interviewee Wanliang Hu.

Through interviews we found that the horse husbandry includes the following possible production activities:

1) Horse breeding: breeding a few to scores of horses, which may include breeds other than walking horses.

2) : training horses to flying pace.

3) Horse trading: buying and selling walking horses for profit. There are several possibilities: increasing the of the horse by training it, earning the dealing spread by changing hands, or serving as a broker to earn service charges.

We also found that horse breeders can be divided into three categories:

1) The horse farm owner/horse trader: A horse farm owner owns a family-run horse farm with a fairly good number of walking horses, and typically trades horses by traveling in a wide geographical region as horse trading is the main source of family income. In general the family of the horse trader all participates in tending horses, with women feeding the horses and men training and trading horses. The farm may hire hands for grass planting and small amount of crop farming.

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Danma

Qilian Great

Red

Ditch Maozang

Haxi

Duoshi

Anyuan Great West 东大滩乡 Zhuaxixiulong Shoal Jinqiang Great East Shoal Firewood Ditch Hua Legends 9 Zang Pine Mountain River Temple May 13 Friendship Village Horse Race Charcoal 1 Paradise 1 Stone Gate 3 Feb. 2 Fork Stage Horse Race Mountain May 5 Pine Mountain Crescent Horse Race

Saishisi June 6 Pine Mountain Ring River

Sailalong Horse Race

9 Number of Interviewees from this town

Figure 2. Distribution of Interviewees and Major Horse Races in Tianzhu19

2) The backyard horse breeder: A backyard horse farmer breeds and trains a small number of walking horses, while tending crop farming or other livestock farming. He normally buys a few foals in the local, trains them till some horse trader buys them. He normally works through the summer on crop farming (such as open-air vegetable growing), trains horses in winter slack time for half an year, then starts selling horses when the horse traders come in May.

3) The foal breeder: A foal breeder raises a small number of mares and sells foals to support their family. Foal breeders in general don’t train horses. Foals are born in spring and sold in winter to the horse traders or the

19 Source from Deren Sun, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County Township Distribution Map (Gansu Ethnic Publishing House, Oct. 1994)

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backyard horse breeders.

14 interviewed horse breeders come from different towns in Tianzhu and belong to different categories: 9 from Firewood Ditch Town, including 7 horse traders and 2 foal breeders; 3 from Hua Zang Temple Town, including 2 horse traders and 1 backyard breeder; 1 from Pine Mountain Town who is a horse trader; 1 from

Stone Gate Town who once was a horse breeder but no longer raises horses.

3.2 Connotations of Traditional Walking Horse Culture

Centered on the local breed – the Fork Stage horse, the traditional walking horse culture includes traditional knowledge and practices, traditional sports and athletics, oral tradition and traditional folk customs.

3.2.1 Knowledge and Practices on Walking

Traditionally Tianzhu includes both pastoral and farming-pastoral regions. In the production and life, grazing, plowing, cart-pulling, riding can’t dispense with horses. Overtime people have accumulated the knowledge of how to harness walking horses. Because currently walking horses are no longer used for harness, and the knowledge of harness walking horses is basically the same as the harness of horses in the northern areas, our interviews didn’t cover the knowledge in this area.

3.2.2 Knowledge and Practices on Walking Horse Breeding and Training

Historically, the central production regions for Fork Stage horses in Tianzhu were Firewood Ditch Town, Stone

Gate Town, Hua Zang Temple Town, Pine Mountain Town, Cypress Forest Town, Zhua-Xi-Xiu-Long (meaning

“Auspicious and Rich Ditch” in Tibetan) Town, Duo-Shi (name of local Tibetan Tribe) Town, Anyuan Town,

Sai-Shi-Si (name of local Tibetan Tribe) Town, Charcoal Mountain Town, Ha-Xi (meaning “Throne of the

Father King” in Tibetan) Town, Great West Shoal Town, and Mao Zang (name of a local temple) Town, etc., covering a wide geographical area.

The feed for walking horses mainly contains green grass on the hills (available in the summer), dry oat grass and straw, optionally with barley, peas, oats added. Raw egg is a special feed to horses during training 11

and racing, for more nutrition and lung clearing. The walking horse needs to be fed in regular schedule and amounts, 4-5 times per day, 1-1.5kg fodder per feeding, and the night feeding is especially important. From

Lunar August/September, the amount of fodder per feeding needs to be increased to add strength.

Historically Tianzhu people have the tradition and experience of training walking horses. Only stallions are trained to be racing horses. Foals with talents generally start training at the age of two. A training session starts at around 6-7 o'clock in the morning, the earlier the better. With a little more fodder at night, the horse starts training in the morning on an empty stomach. The training times vary from one hour to three hours by different breeders. Numbers of trainings per month also vary. Due to the genetic stability of flying pace, two or three times a month can be good enough. The tip of training gait is the horse shoe. Select shoes for the horse according to its strength, hoof size, preference for shoe weight. Tianzhu walking horses only wear shoes on forefeet, both sides wearing shoes of the same weight. We also need to prepare different sets of horse shoes for different types of race tracks, heavy shoes for thin sand, light shoes for thick sand. Because foals are born with the capability of flying pace, at the beginning of training, let it pace slowly and get the gait right. Later when it is gaining fat, it will speed up. Usually within two or three months the foal will get the right gait. Be patient when training it for speed and be sure to know its temperament. A horse with strong temperament is a candidate for speedy horse. The horse’s stamina needs to sustain its speed, so beware of asking it for undue speed, otherwise it tantrums and "refuses to move." A rider of the walking horse controls the horse mainly by the reins. Experienced riders will know what kind of rein control is the best fit for a horse by test-riding it for a short while. Most walking horses when flying pacing prefer very tight reins, so riders of the walking horses are commonly called "pullers". Also good tracks are needed for training horses.

As for diseases, enteremphraxis is a common horse disease with acute onset, complex causes and symptoms which can easily lead to death. The breeders normally determine whether the enteremphraxis occurs in the middle of the intestines which can be fatal by listening to the sound of the intestines. In addition, cold, tendon injury and hoof injury caused by training are also common.

As for breeding, people choose good stallions, with strong flying pace ability, big build, long mane, pointed 12

ears, big eyes, big nostrils (implies big lung capacity and better stamina), good hoof, big and high chest (“tiger body”) to be studhorses. If a good mare mates such studhorse, the foal produced will be good. People borrow each other’s studhorses for breeding. For a mare with strong flying pace ability, the owner will find a studhorse with top-grade flying pace ability for her, no matter how far away the studhorse is.

The breeding of walking horses is more complex and demanding than tending cows and sheep, and normal horses. The domain knowledge is generally accumulated in the horse breeding family with the sons following their fathers’ trade. Disease prevention and control, castration, horseshoeing technologies are also held by family businesses and passed across generations.

3.2.3 Knowledge and Culture on Walking Horse Trading

Market is the lifeblood of the walking horse industry. The trading journey of the horse trader is the very pulse of this lifeblood. Local horse traders buy horses at local horse races, breed and train them, then ship them to horse races in foreign areas for sale, or sell them to foreign horse traders who come to Tianzhu for horses.

Some trades are resale in which the local horse traders serve as brokers, finding horses and negotiating prices for foreign horse traders leveraging his connections and familiarity with the locals. Historically horse traders from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Qinghai, Tibet, Mongolia came to Tianzhu for walking horses.20 Today Tianzhu walking horses are mainly sold to Amdo and Kham Tibetan ethnic areas, including Qinghai Tibetan regions

(Hainan Prefecture, Haibei Prefecture, Haixi Prefecture, Yushu Prefecture, Golog Prefecture), Sichuan Tibetan regions (Ganzi Prefecture, Aba Prefecture), Yunnan Tibetan regions (Diqing Prefecture), as well as some areas of (Ordos , , ). There are buyers farther in Tibet Chamdo

(belonging to Kham Tibetan Area) and .

Traditionally a horse trader relies on his acquainted horse trader circle to sell horses, and expands this circle via introductions through acquaintances, getting to know foreign traders coming to Tianzhu, attending horse

20 Yuxi Cui, Zhenwu Li, “The Excellent Horse Breed of Gansu - The Fork Stage Horse”, Gansu Agricultural University

Journal , Issue 2, 1959, 26-38

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races, and trips to sell horses. A horse trader also opens up new trading areas by using known foreign horse traders as intermediary, or partnering with friends who are familiar with the target areas. From (Wanliang Hu,

018), we get a typical building process of the trading circle of a horse trader as an illustration.

Through hundreds of years of history, such a trading method has formed its unique knowledge and rule system (such as judging a horse based on its looks, pricing, bargaining, brokerage, customer relations, trading area expansion, etc.), of which we can catch a glimpse from the bargain gestures recorded in (Wanliang Hu,

010). The knowledge on horse trading is also generally inherited by the son from the father.

Because horse traders go deep into distant pastoral areas to interact with people there through arduous journeys, horse trading bears rich cultural connotations. Along the horse trading journeys, serendipity and connections occur, understanding between people deepens, new friendship formed with shared love for horses and brotherhood strengthened by the common hardships.

For instance, (Wanliang Hu, 016) talked about how he was forced to learn Tibetan in 1995:

"That year I went to Qinghai to sell horses. I took 8 horses. When I arrived at the prairie there, I let go of the horses. But when I tried to find them back in the afternoon, only four were there, and the other four ran away. I searched for them, and asked the Tibetans about them. It was near the Qushian River in Gannan, which is similar to our Datong River. By the hoof prints I found the horses went along the river and thought they were washed away by the river. Just then, I met two Tibetans. I asked them if they had seen my horses, but they didn’t understand my dialect, and I didn’t understand theirs, so we talked for a long while without understanding each other. In fact, our horses ran into the mountain. In the evening I returned without finding the horses. Tibetans told me that horses wouldn’t cross the river, and most likely they ran into the mountains.

The next afternoon, two Tibetans sent my horses back, because Tibetans I knew there had good relations with local Living Buddha, also I had good relationship with them, and Tibetans are honest. They said, Old Hu,

Old Hu, these are your horses, because we don’t have such horses here. Our Tianzhu horses are good-looking so they sent them back. After the horses were sent back, I met two (Gansu Tianshui) folks there. They opened a small shop selling underwear. I went to buy shoes. Just then there was a Tibetan

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also buying things. I found that the Tibetan spoke Tibetan while the two Tianshui folks also spoke Tibetan. I was very surprised. Hey, why Tianshui folks can speak Tibetan? Then I think if Tianshui people can learn the

Tibetan language, I certainly can too. After I returned from this trip, I started learning Tibetan from my friend.

I took out a book, starting from the horse's coat color, such as what is red horse called in Tibetan, what is grey horse called, then counting money, one, two, three, four ... then accumulating and learning slowly. Now

I have learned the Tibetan words used in business and daily life, and I can basically communicate with them."

In this incidence, the integrity of Tibetan people, the courage and insight of Wanliang Hu to sell horses in an unfamiliar area and later on to master the local language impressed us. After he learned Tibetan, Wanliang

Hu became an important merchant to spread Tianzhu walking horse culture to Tibetan hinterland.

Another example is a life and death experience of Wanliang Hu when he went to the Qumar River to sell horses together with several gold-rushing Muslim friends in 1992 (Wanliang Hu, 016):

"In 1992 we went to the Qumarleb County and traded horses for sheep and cattle. On our way back, it had rained for 3 days so the cow dung was all wet and we finished off all the fried barley powder. Three days without eating we walked into no man's land, carrying the raw barley powder, the sheep, but we couldn’t make a fire. It was raining for 3 days, the tent was all wet during the night, we were soaking wet and slept on the wet ground. Not a single man was seen, only a herd of , a herd of bison, a herd of

Tibetan antelope, then wolves, nothing else. We lost our way and walked in the no man's land for three days ..."

"Finally slowly, because they dug gold there before, they were feeling the way out. Three days without food, on the road I was too hungry to walk. We had to walk hundreds of kilometers from the Qumar River to

Geermu. It might go six days, to Tibet big ditch. I was hungry and couldn’t go any further. So my buddies said, why don’t you take a ride on the sand babies’ (gold diggers) tractor, and when reaching Geermu, in 3 days you rent a small walking-tractor, buy some cans and buns and go to Great West Shoal ---- Great West Shoal is

60 kilometers to the North of Geermu, and pick us up. So I took a ride with the sand babies, and they took me to Geermu. When I sat on the tractor, I was thinking to myself, I would get two jins of mutton, and a fried

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noodle with minced meat when I get to Geermu. ‘Cause I was so hungry. When I entered into the restaurant,

I asked for mutton, but I threw up after the first bite. So I ate a little and went to sleep early at the hostel. I waited for 3 days, and rented a small walking tractor, bought some canned food, buns, and watermelon and went up to them. Those Muslims are hard cores, also faithful to friends. The friends that I made, none of them cheat or swindle. After returning to Geermu, I sold the sheep, got the money, and they sent me to the bus. That was my first time going far. With all the money for 11 horses, I was sitting on the bus and very tense, feeling all the people were looking at me. I did not dare to sleep, holding the money all the time. "

On this horse trading journey partnering with his gold rushing Muslim friends, Wanliang Hu sold 11 horses for sheep and cattle at the Qumar River, but on the way to Geermu the group lost their way and walked in the no man's land for three days. Since it was raining all 3 days, fried barley powder was out and they didn't eat for 3 days. They found the way back afterwards but Hu was too hungry to walk any further. So he rode with the gold diggers’ tractor to Geermu, while his Muslim friends drove his sheep and cattle to Great West

Shoal (60 km to the north of Geermu). Hu then rented a small walking tractor and took food with him to meet his friends up. Finally, in Geermu he sold the sheep and got the money. In this common experience of life and death, horse trading partners forged a profound friendship.

Wanliang Hu thinks the keys to deal with Tibetan herders are: 1) Credibility and integrity. The reputation of a horse trader including the reputation of the quality of his horses and his integrity is spread by word of mouth;

2) Mastery of Tibetan language and understanding of local customs. (Wanliang Hu, 016) Horse trading became a tie of cross-regional cultural exchange beyond its business significance.

3.2.4 Traditional Sports and Athletics

Out of the love towards walking horse riding and athletics, Tianzhu people with different ethnic backgrounds have always the habits and traditions of breeding and training walking horses. Historically tribal chiefs and wealthy families all raise walking horses for racing. Due to theocracy, influential monasteries are careful walking horse breeders. Historically the Talon Living Buddha had owned a thousand horses and enjoyed a name of "Dong Da A Le" (meaning Living Buddha with a thousand horses) in Amdo. In 1958, "In the Fork

16

Stage horse production area, there are many large-scale monasteries, such as the Talon Temple, the Ancient

City Temple, the Stone Gate Temple, etc., which raise walking horse breeding group, pay much attention to breeding and have better feeding conditions. Therefore their horses have better quality than the horses of the general public. For example, the Talon Temple horse group enjoyed a high reputation in the local. The local people have a saying "The root of the walking horse is in the Talon Temple". “When we visited the temple, the wall of its reception room was covered with horse racing trophies over the years. We also saw their horses, relatively tall and neat."21

We found that many local horse breeds n Northwestern China can perform flying pace, such as Fork Stage horse, Haomen horse and Yushu horse in Qinghai, Ganzi walking horse in Sichuan, Chamdo walking horse in

Tibet, Mongolian Ujimqin horse, Yanqi horse in Xinjiang. The love for walking horses is popular in the production area and the vicinity of these breeds, including Amdo and Kham Tibetan areas, and the Ordos and Ujimqin regions of Inner Mongolia, Zhaosu region and vicinity in Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture and

Yanqi County and vicinity in Bayingolin Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang (We call the total area favoring walking horses "Walking Horse "). Herders in this cultural area, whether Tibetan,

Muslim, Tu, Mongolian, Kazakh, love to ride and racing walking horses. (Youxin Tie, 007) gave us an example, a Town head in the Golog prefecture bought a fast Tianzhu walking horse at a high price for transportation three or four years ago. In this cultural area, horse racing highlights walking horse race (such as Ganzi

Walking Horse Festival22 at Rongba Fork, Ganzi), and walking horse race poses stringent requirements on the horse’s gait. A good walking horse becomes a symbol of social worth and status.

So how does the Fork Stage horse compare with other breeds of walking horses in terms of athletic performance? Among the northwestern walking horse breeds, except the Xinjiang breeds are relatively tall

(For example, the Yili horse is of average withers height 144 - 148 cm), all the other breeds are similar to the

21 Yuxi Cui, Zhenwu Li, “The Excellent Horse Breed of Gansu - The Fork Stage Horse”, Gansu Agricultural University

Journal , Issue 2, 1959, 26-38

22 “Ganzi Walking Horse Festival ”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://www.tibet.cn/periodical/zgxz/2006/04/200608/t20060816_141472.htm

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Fork Stage horse in withers height. However the Fork Stage horse, clever and good tempered, has the most vigorous, fast, and smooth walking posture. It has advantages in short distance walking horse races (no more than 3000 meters). As for long distance races, although it has good stamina, its withers height becomes a disadvantage compared with Xinjiang breeds. However, compared with the Folk Stage horse, Xinjiang breeds do not have walking posture as good and do not fit for cold climate at high altitude, eat more and require longer time to learn the gait (more than a year while the Folk Stage horse needs only 2-3 months), so Amdo and Kham Tibetan generally like the Fork Stage horse better. (Wanliang Hu, 018) mentioned at the Yushu

Horse Race in August 2013, among the entire load of horses only the Xinjiang walking horse did not sell. The others, all Fork Stage horses, were hot sale with higher selling prices than the horses sold by Chamdo and

Ganzi horse traders. "We had a horse from the Lime Ditch Village. We rode it twice in the trading fair.

Everyone in the fair was shocked. All the others came around to see our horses, saying that these are Hwari horses from Tianzhu. Tibetan said they’ve never seen such walking posture and speed. That horse was sold for more than 100,000 Yuan, and the buyer immediately resold it for 220,000 Yuan. Till now the buyer has been calling asking us for more horses like that. I said not this year, but we will have 3-year-old horses like that next year.” We can see the popularity of the Folk Stage horse from this story.

From the interviews we also got an interesting story about legendary Tianzhu horses, which shows the love of the herders towards the walking horse is interwoven with their religious beliefs. The best horses are often dedicated to the living Buddha as a tribute, and such horses then be treated as divine horses. In (Wanliang

Hu, 006), horse trader Dandan Wang had a grey Tianzhu walking horse, quite wild and particularly fast. In order to care for this horse, Wang slept before the horse every night. But one night, after moving round and round the horse himself accidentally got its neck entangled in reins and was almost choked to death. Muslim horse traders offered a high price for this horse, but Wang rejected and decided to dedicate this horse to the

Talon Living Buddha. The Living Buddha made a gesture of putting the golden of the Talon Temple bestowed by the Emperor Kangxi on this horse, and praised it (The horse can sell only after being praised). At

68 years of age, Wang rode this horse into the 1995 National Minority Games in Kunming, Yunnan, when the speed of the horse (1 minute 35 seconds for 1000m) shocked coaches from Inner Mongolia and Yunnan. In

1996 the horse was seven years old. Wang said to Wanliang Hu in the Black Horse Ring River Horse Race: This

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is the Buddha's horse. I will sell it if you buy at eight thousand Yuan. Huwan Liang said, I will pay twelve thousand Yuan, on the one hand as a token of regard to the Buddha, on the other hand because it is a great horse. Wanliang Hu later sold this horse to Qinghai, where it was dedicated to the local Living Buddha, became a divine horse again. Till today the horse of Dandan Wang is known throughout Golog Qinghai.

3.2.5 Oral Tradition and Folk Custom

As mentioned earlier, Tianzhu Horse Race was formed by the love of nomads towards horses and equestrian sports, religious worship, and folk gatherings and festivals combined. It in turn was integrated with horse trading and other commodity exchange, and has evolved into an important folk fair. As for the origins of

Tianzhu horse racing custom, there are three legends.23 The first is the legend of tribal heroes: Once upon a time thirteen brothers of the tribe and their horses were besieged by the enemy and later all the men and horses died in order to defend the homeland. To commemorate them, the horse race is held annually and the top thirteen are rewarded. The second is the legend of the stationed generals: It is said that in ancient times, in order to save his wife Brug-gu-ma snatched by the King Hor, the Lion king Gesar led thirteen generals and one hundred and thirty thousand troops and horses, defeated Hor, rescued Brug-gu-ma, and migrated Tibetan to live and graze on Hor’s land, and left thirteen generals stationed. After these generals died, because their hardworking and great contributions, they are worshiped as thirteen war gods at the horse races. The third is the legend of Princess Wencheng: In 641, Princess Wencheng entered Tibet and a grand celebration was held in . At this event the most notable activity was horse racing. Songtsan

Gampo himself participated in the race, but only got the thirteenth place. Princess Wencheng specifically presented a hada to Gampo’s horse to pay tribute. Till today in Tianzhu horse races, the top thirteen are rewarded, especially the thirteenth got the same reward as the first. From our interviews we found the legend of tribal heroes most popular in explaining the origins of the horse race and the legend of Princess

Wencheng most popular in explaining the custom that the thirteenth is especially honored.

Folk horse races in Tianzhu are basically held by villages, on their traditional ritual days. They vary in size and

23 Zhou-Ta, Qiao-Gao-Cai-Rang, Gansu Tibetan History (Ethnic Publishing House, 2009), 462-463

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are usually 3-5 days. Large-scale horse races such as February 2nd Fork Stage Horse Race has also become an important regional commodity exchange. Dates of village horse races vary, forming a lively series of races one after another, such as Lunar January 15, January 16 (at Iron Waist Village, Firewood Ditch Town), March 3,

April 8, May 5 Dragon Boat Festival (at Crescent Bay Village, Pine Mountain Town), May 13 Kuan Kung Rain

Festival (at Friendship Village, Firewood Ditch Town), May 15 (at Lime Ditch Village, Firewood Ditch Town),

June 6 (at Black Horse Ring river, Pine Mountain Town, and at Lower Stone Dam Village, Firewood Ditch Town) and so on24. Folk horse races often have a long history and strong continuity. For instance, the horse race at

Friendship Village resumed in 1981 and held annually with the same rules till now for more than 30 years, except for one year when the village was hit by the equine influenza. The villagers value the horse race and chipped in when the village was short of money to sponsor the race.

Historically the roles of folk horse races are three fold, namely blessing, horse trading and exchanges, fairs and folk festivals. From our video recording of the ritual process of the Friendship Village Horse Race, we can see that via simmering pile of pine branches, casting tribute and wind horse papers, and Lama chanting

(called "Ebo Worship" locally), the villagers worship the local mountain god and pray for good weather and well-being of the villagers for the coming year. From the interviews we learned that winning horses in horse races and their owners are far-famed, and all horse owners cherish the trophies won in horse races and will show them as proof of qualifications when the time comes to sell the horse. Tianzhu horse traders buy good horses at the horse races, trade with foreign horse traders, exchange market information with fellow horse traders, and meet new and old friends to expand their trading circle. Owners of good horses will be surrounded by folks for exchanging experience. Horse breeders also exchange with each other. According to historical records and the memories of the interviewees, in the past folk horse races, vendors and merchants gathering, the village families all came to the venue to celebrate, dancing Guozhuang, watching opera and shadow play. People watched games during the day, and visited friends and relatives, drinking and feasting

24 4 races among these are relatively large-scale and well-known: Feb. 2 Fork Stage Horse Race, May 13 Friendship

Village Horse Race, May 5 Pine Mountain Crescent Bay Horse Race, June 6 Pine Mountain Black Horse Ring River Horse

Race.

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with finger guessing in the evening. The entire horse race was a grand folk festival.

The Tianzhu horse race puts its focus on walking horse. The major game is walking horse race, while the running horse race competing on speed is just a decoration. There is only one round of race for all running horses and the top thirteen are rewarded. The walking horses are divided into small, medium, and big horses

(2 years old and below – small; 3 years old – medium, can easily tell with their pair of grown front teeth; 4 years old and above – big). Each age group races separately, including preliminary and final contests.

Preliminary contest uses score ranking in group phase games to select top 13 for final contest. Gait requirement is strict with a foul leading to 0 points. Walking horse race is generally short track (200m, 500m,

1200m at the most). Compared with long track (1000m, 3000m, even 5000m, 10000m) in Qinghai and

Xinjiang, the practice of Fork Stage horses on long distance games is lacking.

Formed by folk customs, running horse race and walking horse race (further divided into 3 age groups) each rewards the top 13, and prizes for the 13th and the first are the same, which is unique. The top three horses will be put on red ribbons, and silk banner, blanket, and/or quilt cover rewarded, then circle the venue. The traditional custom prohibits women being riders and mares being racing horses in the horse race.

3.3 Changes of Tianzhu Walking Horse Culture since mid-20th Century

3.3.1 Social Changes in this Period

After P.R.C was founded in 1949, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County was founded in 1950. From the official records we can find the outlines of subsequent political and social changes:25 In the inception of the

Autonomous County, the government carried out the socialist transformation and redeemed the private ranches by forming public-private ranches. In 1958 Tianzhu entered the People's Commune period, with the means of production, commune members, and part of the means of livelihood all managed by the commune.

25 "Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County Profile" writing group, “Chapter 2. Historical Changes and Social Reforms”, in

Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County Profile (Ethnic Publishing House, 2009), 48-76

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Horses as means of production are bred and used by the production team, while family horse farms disappeared, and the horse races and horse trading stopped. During 1958 anti-feudal movement and the

1966-1976 , Tianzhu monasteries were completely destroyed. After the reform and opening, in the early 1980s most of the monasteries reopened and reconstructed. But no horse is bred in the monastery any more.

During 1983-1984, the people’s commune system was revoked. In 1985-87 the household contract systems regarding farmland, livestock, and grassland were established. Family horse farms, horse races and horse trading were resumed. With the development of a variety of businesses, some households gradually became specialized in certain businesses. Based on specialized households, village and township cooperative economic organizations emerged.

Guided by the Tenth Five Year Plan (2000-2005), the government put an emphasis on pasture management, returning 884k mus of grazing land to grassland (15% of the total grassland area). The government also accelerated the urban construction of small towns, such as Firewood Ditch Town, Charcoal Mountain Town,

Paradise Town. The government took a developmental strategy of characteristic economies to leverage comparative advantages, promoting characteristic animal husbandry, characteristic farming, eco-tourism, characteristic industry, Tibetan wine and medicine industries. On animal husbandry, in addition to building the industrial chain for white yak farming and products, the government emphasizes on forage grass industry, barn feeding, and fattening feeding. On eco-tourism, the Tianzhu Three Gorges became a National Forest

Park. The Tianzhu “Three Gorges Scenery and Folk Custom Tourism” Festival, started in 2001, has been held eight times till 2013.

Looking around, in the pastoral areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia provinces, modern animal husbandry development, including pasture management, returning grazing land to grassland, forage grass industry, as well as barn feeding and fattening feeding, is also the direction followed by local governments.

What challenges and opportunities has such a dramatic social change in the past 60 years brought to traditional Tianzhu walking horse culture? How was the culture changed after experiencing those challenges

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or taking those opportunities?

3.3.2 Challenge 1 – Shrinking of Harness Functions of Walking Horses and the Breeding Population

Since 1980, the horse population in Tianzhu has been declining. In 1980 Gansu Animal Genetic Resource

Census counted 24,000 horses. In 2000 this number became 18468. In 2003 it became 14320.26 By the end of 2010, the number was only 8744, among which around 4500 (51%) are Fork Stage horses.27 According to

(Wanliang Hu, 018) (Guowen Chen, 009), now the central production area has been shrunk to the Firewood

Ditch Town (including Lime Ditch Village, Flint Ditch Village, Friendship Village, Charcoal Kiln Ditch Village,

Upper East River village, Big Bay Village), Stone Gate Town (including Thirteen Bay Village, Burned City

Village, Big Pond Village), Hua Zang Temple town (including Fork Stage Village, Zhou Kiln Village, Duolong

Village). The Firewood Ditch Town raised more than 50% of the county’s Fork Stage horses. In 2013 the total number of Fork Stage horses was estimated to be over 2000.

The reduction of central production area and yield are due to the shrinking of harness functions and the rising of the breeding cost (including opportunity cost) of the walking horses:

1) Local modernization process exacerbated the shrinking of harness functions of the walking horses. With

the improvement in traffic conditions and the popularity of motorcycles, buses and other vehicles in

transportation, the walking horses are seldom used for grazing, cart-pulling, and riding. Constant

mechanization of agriculture reduced the plowing function of horses, which are now only used in rare

mountain farming to plow small plots with irregular shapes.

2) Environmental changes, and industrial changes since 2000 further exacerbated the reduction of horse

breeding:

26 Yongtang Zhang, “Resource Survey Report on Fork Stage Horse", Journal of animal science and veterinary medicine,

Issue 2, Vol. 28, 2009

27 Wei Chang, “Protection and comprehensive utilization of Fork Stage Horse", Journal of animal science and veterinary medicine, Issue 5, Vol. 30, 2011

23

a) Due to climatic and human factors, in the Northwestern region, climatic drought and grassland

degradation are widespread problems, such as the degradation of historically famous

Zhua-Xi-Xiu-Long and Pine Mountain grasslands. Inadequate feeding forage increased the needs of

supplementary feeding and drove up breeding costs.

b) In response to grassland degradation, the government promotes the industrialization of animal

husbandry with focus on forage grass farming, barn feeding and fattening feeding, cutting down

the demand for nomadic husbandry, and further weakening the grazing functions of walking

horses. For example, Pine Mountain Town was famous for its grading grassland and was the

county’s main pastoral area. But now husbandry here mainly relies on barn feeding and fattening

feeding, so there are now very few horse breeders in this town.

3) With no big market demand for the Fork Stage horse, the opportunity cost of raising it rises, when the

county government promotes the characteristic farming, including pollution-free off-season highland

vegetables, Tibetan medicine and edible fungus farming. In areas where farming brings good income,

horse herders were further reduced. A typical example is Hua Zang Temple town. In the Jinqiang River

area of this town (such as Fork Stage Village, Zhou Family Kiln Village, Li Family Village) the government

established vegetable planting bases, "After vegetable planting bases were set up, fewer people raise

horse" (Youxin Tie, 007). In Firewood Ditch Town, the Jinqiang River flows through the middle of the

town, with Maomao Mountain to the east, and Horse Teeth Snow Mountain to the west. So

agriculture is mostly in the river area, while farther away from the water, husbandry is still the main

means of livelihood. So there are still quite many horse breeders in this town.

4) Subsidy and insurance policies orient the herders to take on edible animal husbandry such as cattle,

sheep, and pig farming (Local people call this "Favoring cattle over horses" policy).

After experiencing such a challenge, herders generally no longer raise Fork Stage horses for harness, but

for sport purpose only. In other words, the harness market of the walking horses disappeared, while only

sports and leisure riding market remains.

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3.3.3 Challenge 2 –The Initial Rising of Sports and Leisure Riding Market

From the household contract system establishment in 1985 to 1997, although the horse trading market was recovered, and herders in the walking horse cultural area wanted to buy walking horses, due to poor economic conditions, herders cannot afford to buy walking horses in cash. Instead they traded cattle and sheep for horses, or had to buy on credit. Therefore, although the sports and leisure riding market of the walking horse remained, its market price was stagnant or increasing slowly, without paying off the labor of the breeding/training and trading. As a result horse breeding households further reduced. After 1998, the price of the walking horse began to rise at a speed faster than the price of the edible livestock. Especially in the decade from 2003 to 2013, its market price rose to more than 14 times, and was even accelerated during

2012-201328. The profit of a common walking horse has reached 10k-30k Yuan29. Annual income of a horse farm is 150k-200k Yuan, much higher than migrant working and farming villagers.

Market Price in 2003 (Yuan) Market Price in 2013 (Yuan) Percentage Increase

Good walking horse 5000（50 sheep for 1 good horse） Over 70000 Over 1300%

Sheep 100 1000 900%

Figure 3. The Change of Market Price from 2003 to 2013

There are two reasons: 1) With the economic development brought by husbandry and characteristic farming, the walking horse cultural area are better off. For example, In Yanglong Town, Qilian County, Haibei

Prefecture, Qinghai, "(There is) big pasture, each family raises one to two thousand sheep, four to five hundred heads of cattle". In Litang County and Daofu County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan, households “rely on

28 In 2013, the price of one foal less than one year old, stallion or mare, is between 8000-10,000 Yuan. The price of a 2-3 year old stallion is 20,000 -50,000 Yuan. The price of a stallion 4 year old and above (adult) is more than 60,000 Yuan. A good adult stallion can have a price between 70,000 -200,000 Yuan.

29 A horse trade usually trains a 2 year old stallion for six months to 2 years. If the horse is talented, the horse trader will raise it for 2 years to an adult stallion (bought at 10k-20k Yuan, feeding and other costs are 20k-30kYuan, sold for 60k

Yuan, so the profit is 10k-30k Yuan). If the horse has no talent, the horse trader will sell it earlier.

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cordyceps sinensis, tricholoma matsutake and herbs" (Wanliang Hu, 018); 2) Since entering the 21st century,

China has witnessed a rising of professional and leisure equestrian sports, which stimulated the overall horse market.

Facing the single market now for walking horses - sports and leisure riding market, horse traders continued to promote Tianzhu walking horses via folk horse races, resulting in the flourishing of this market in the walking horse cultural area (In our interviews horse traders mentioned their participation in Yunnan, Sichuan

Ganzi, Inner Mongolia Wushen Banner horse racing festival, where Tianzhu horses excel in the short track races). Moreover, the government and horse traders, working together, tried to seize the opportunities of professional athletics to establish a brand for Tianzhu walking horses in the northwest and nation-wide, expanding the influence of walking horse culture to other areas:

1) Tianzhu Culture and Sports Bureau organized horse traders to participate in provincial and national

Minority Games which have a long history and are influential (This was also coordinated by Tianzhu

Walking Horse Association, see 3.3.4). During 1995-2003, the Bureau has organized the participation of

one Gansu Minority Games and three National Minority Games, with poor performance ever in the first

national games30. Superficially the problem was the adaptability of the horses to the environment and

improper training, but the root cause was serious organizational and management issues. In the past 10

years, Tianzhu government has not organized any participation of provincial and national games, which

also reflects poor organization of the government and its poor attention to walking horses.

2) In recent years, there have been many domestic and international equestrian events nationwide. Some

of them were held by Chinese Equestrian Association in collaboration with local governments, such as

30 The first national game that Tianzhu participated was the 1995 National Minority Games in Kunming, Yunnan. Tianzhu got the 4th place in 2000m walking horse race. This is also the best ranking Tianzhu has ever achieved in the National

Minority Games. In this competition, problems occurred such as the subsidies of the athletes and horses being skimped on, the official from the Culture and Sports Bureau taking the place of the coach and forcing the real coach to be a breeder, which led to improper training and serious conflicts between the official and the athletes. It reflected severe organizational and management problem.

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the 2012 inaugural Chinese Equestrian Games (, Inner Mongolia). Some of them were

held by local governments and the Horse Industry Association, such as the 2011 Western Rider King

Open of the first Inner Mongolia Shanghai Temple Racing Festival (Ertuoke Banner, Inner Mongolia).

These games either include ethnic walking horse race into professional equestrian sports, or treat the

walking horse race as its main contest item, both offering lucrative rewards. Some Tianzhu horse

traders/riders organized themselves as private associations and participated in these games. The

Hometown of Walking Horse Club in Tianzhu, initiated by our interviewee Chenglin Zhang, is an

example of such self-organization, which sent 22 horses and 18 riders to the 2011 Western Rider King

Open.

An important challenge of developing walking horse sports market is the small body size of Tianzhu walking horses, which is a disadvantage in long distance race. The strategy to overcome this problem is the conservation and improvement of the breed, i.e. improving its body size while keeping the walking posture, stamina, cold-resistant characteristics of the original breed. The Fork Stage horse has not been improved for nearly three decades since the family breeding and trading resumed. Relying on natural mating, people borrow stallions from each other for breeding. Because there are no files for stallions, it is impossible to build conservation group based on paternal lineage and inbreeding is inevitable. Although in 2009 the Animal

Husbandry Bureau proposed to 1) form core stallion groups to improve the intra-breed breeding; 2) establish germplasm bank and use biotechnology conservation; 3) introduce improving breed and carry out crossbreeding via artificial insemination,31 through the interviews we learned that, apart from listing 3 horse farms including Wanliang Hu’s as conservation farms and giving certain construction subsidies32, these three proposals have not been truly implemented. These conservation farms wanted to expand their scale but

31 Yongtang Zhang, “Resource Survey Report on Fork Stage Horse", Journal of animal science and veterinary medicine,

Issue 2, Vol. 28, 2009

32 In 2012 the new production area of Wanliang Hu’s Horse Farm was built at the cost of over 300k Yuan, among which

70k Yuan was subsidized by the government based on a policy of 90 Yuan per square meter subsidy for a conservation farm.

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lacked the means of financing33. The proposal to the government from Wanliang Hu to jointly invest a

Xinjiang stallion for improvement testing was not adopted either. The government wants the horse traders to experiment breed improvement at their own expenses while an initial test period can be 4 or 5 years.

(Wanliang Hu, 018) We also learned from the horse traders and the retired Culture and Sports Bureau official that, the conservation farms and related subsidies were supported by the previous Secretary of the County

Party Committee34. After he left, the efforts to promote conservation and improvement of walking horses were greatly weakened, reflecting the lack of sustainability of strategies and policies. In the absence of governmental support, a few horse farm owners started experimenting breed improvement, but are still in the beginning of the trial.

An opportunity for the development of leisure riding is sightseeing riding, referring to the short or long-distance riding trips for natural and cultural sightseeing. Such riding trip, combining enjoying the magnificent scenery of Tianzhu, learning nomadic culture and history, and experiencing customs of ethnic minorities is also an effective means of disseminating walking horse culture. The well-proportioned, fast and smooth pacing Fork Stage horse, with stamina and cold-resistance, is in fact a good recreational riding horse breed, especially for riding in the northwestern pastoral areas. However, limited by the low popularity of equestrian sports, and small population who know how to ride horses, sightseeing riding market in Tianzhu has not really been developed. Its true development will have to wait for the popularity of recreational equestrian sports.

33 Currently two types of loans are common. One is called “Joining-hands with Villages and Households” Farmer

Benefiting loan, interest-free. A livestock farmer with over 40 head of cattle can loan 800k Yuan in maximum. But because the "Favoring cattle over horses" policy, applications from horse farms usually fail. The other is called Livestock

Interest-free Loan. It requires a public officer to pledge for the loaner, and it is difficult for horse farm owners to find such officer.

34 The actual head official of the county government.

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3.3.4 Challenge 3 – Transformation of Horse Races

After the establishment of the household contract system in 1985, Tianzhu villages resumed the folk horse races in their traditional ritual days. This folk custom helped the walking horse culture to continue during the difficult times when the harness market of horses was fading away yet the sports and leisure riding market has not risen. Affected by the factors including the reduction of horse breeders, the increase of migrant workers, the diversification of means of livelihood, the replacement of fairs by shops, and the modernization and diversification of entertainment, the folk horse races are no longer folk fairs and festivals, with number of villagers watching horse races decreasing year by year. Only the functions of blessing and horse trading remain.

In 2001, Tianzhu government began to intervene in the horse races according to the strategy of "using culture to set up the stage and economy to put on a show". It uses horse races as traditional cultural symbols to enhance awareness of Tianzhu, and promote inter-regional exchanges on sports, culture, tourism and economy. On the County Day, August 1 (Gregorian calendar), the government holds a horse race together with Tianzhu “Three Gorges Scenery and Folk Custom Tourism” Festival for 7-8 days. Meanwhile, after it was resumed, the February 2 Fork Stage Horse Race was led by the government because of its representative status. It was no longer held by the Fork Stage Village only, but by certain villages in an alternating fashion with the government’s involvement. After the County Day Horse Race started, the government stopped supporting February 2 Fork Stage Horse Race in 2003, so the horse race became a village horse race again.

The county horse race combined with tourism festival, however, is not held annually, subject to the government’s decision each year, so it has been actually held once per 1-2 years. During 2001-2012, it was held 8 times.

The specific organization organizing the County Horse Race is the Tianzhu Culture and Sports Bureau. In view of the needs for knowledge, experience, and connections of the horse traders during the organization of the first few horse races, the Bureau promoted the establishment of Tianzhu Walking Horse Association in 2004.

This Association is composed of six or seven important horse traders, with Wanliang Hu, and Chengbao Ma as president and vice president respectively. The roles of the Association are: 1) assisting the organization of 29

government-led large-scale horse race by participating in the rulemaking, the referee selection, and coordinating and mobilizing horse herders to participate in the race; 2) assisting the government to organize riders for Minority Games; 3) as a reception window for horse trade, to help foreign horse traders who are not familiar with Tianzhu find horse farms. The funding of the Association comes from the horse traders themselves.

The intervention of the governmental resources resulted in the prosperity of the official horse race. Also the connection with the Tourism Festival helps to attract tourists for the spread of walking horse culture. But the resulting removal of traditional religious and cultural practices, such as the dates coinciding with traditional

Chinese festivals and ritual day, ritual, rewarding the top 13, put the oral tradition and folk custom of the walking horse culture in jeopardy.

3.3.5 Challenge 4 – Inheritance and Development of Technologies

Traditional knowledge and technologies related to walking horses include two parts: 1) Breeding technologies, including feeding, training, breeding, hoof care, castration, disease control, etc.; 2) trading technology and experience, including horse judging based on its looks, pricing, bargaining, customer relationship maintenance, trading area expansion and so on.

The threshold of walking horse breeding technologies, especially training technology is high. Since the sports and leisure riding market becomes the sole market for walking horses, training is very important to the horse's value. During the period of People’s Commune, each production team assigned one or two people to tend the horses. Although these people might pass the walking horse breeding technologies on to their next generation, during this period everyone was busy with collective labor, and few were able to tend horses. So the breeding especially training technologies was not well-inherited across generations. With the establishment of household contract system, although each household got some cattle, some sheep, and some horses, but fewer people knew how to tend horses. Together with the policy favoring cattle and sheep farming, less horse households were formed. This further exacerbated the breaking of the inheritance chain of the horse breeding technologies. Therefore, though the market value of walking horse soared in the past

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decade, due to the threshold of horse breeding technologies, the number of horse households didn’t increase. In addition, the open selection of means of livelihood in modern society weakened the inheritance of trade from father to son. For example, both sons of the famous horse trader Chengbao Ma opened restaurants in other places and did not inherit the horse trade. This implies more horse farms are transformed to the backyard horse breeders. Hoof care, castration, disease prevention and control technologies were also inherited from father to son, at a high risk of being lost. Horse traders reported a problem already emerged when there are few horse doctor families, but doctors at veterinary stations do not have effective disease control experience.

The horse trade poses high requirements on the comprehensive qualities of the horse traders, including building connections and communication skills, market sensitivity, the ability to endure hardship. In addition, with the primitive market expansion approach based on the circle of acquaintance, the connections and experience are crucial. So the inheritance of trading technology and experience is less common than the inheritance of breeding technology. Among the 7 horse farms where sons participated in family business, 3 farms don’t have sons participated in horse trading. The famous horse trader Wanliang Hu had to pass the trading part to his wife’s brother because his son is an introvert.

In addition to the challenges of inheritance, because the sports and leisure riding market of the walking horse is already connected with modern, national, and even international market, the traditional experience and technology also faces the requirement for development. In many respects we have already seen signs of development: 1) Nowadays supplementary feeding and warm shelter in winter and spring are common, in contrast with the extensive husbandry of the past. 2) With large-scale horse farms built in recent years (For example, Jiancheng Li’s and Wanliang Hu’s farms were both built between 2010-2013 with over 300K Yuan investment and can accommodate 60 horses) , share-holding farms are emerging, and the farms started to accumulate modern knowledge on capital operation, production management and enterprise operation. 3)

With special trucks to ship horses, horse trading became more convenient. 4) Once the trust between horse

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traders of different places is established, horse traders choose to use "distance trading" approach35 to reduce transaction costs leveraging modern communication technology. The following changes are also foreseeable: 1) The requirements of breed conservation and sports cause the management of horse breeding to eventually include detailed genealogy records of horses, periodic appraisal of physical appearance and athletic ability of the horses, conservation using biotechnology, breeding and improvement using artificial insemination, etc.; 2) Because chance has played an important role in the traditional market expansion approach based on the circle of acquaintance, which leads to issues such as the big spread between isolated regional markets, in order to capture the market demand in a timely manner, horse traders will eventually leverage low-cost trading methods such as e-commerce to assist horse trading process.

4 Thoughts on Protecting and Developing Walking Horse Culture

By looking into the challenges and opportunities of walking horse culture since the mid-20th century, and analyzing expectations and suggestions from various stakeholders, we formed our train of thoughts on the protection and development of walking horse culture as a basis for further exploration and discussion.

The protection and development of walking horse culture needs the combination of two angles: 1) the protection of intangible , namely walking horse related traditional knowledge and practices, traditional sports and athletics, oral traditions and traditional folk customs; 2) the development of walking horse industry, both breed conservation and intangible cultural heritage protection are inseparable from the ecological environment – the walking horse industry.

4.1 Walking Horse Culture as Intangible Cultural Heritage

Using the walking horse culture associated with the symbol of Chinese tourism as a city name card, Tianzhu

35 By phone conversation, the horse trader learns what kind of horse a customer needs. Then the horse trader finds the horse in his own or someone else’s horse farm, and sends the photo or video of the horse via multimedia short message or e-mail. If the customer is satisfied with the horse, both sides negotiate the price and the customer pays. Only after that, the horse trade ships the horse to the customer or the customer drives up to get the horse.

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should fully reveal, display and disseminate the connotations of the walking horse culture, protect and revive the walking horse culture in order to revitalize local culture. Using the Qinghai Yushu Horse Race and the

Tibet Lhasa Dangjiren Horse Race which already entered the directory of National intangible cultural heritages as reference, Tianzhu should strive for getting representative Tianzhu horse race into the directory of provincial or national intangible cultural heritages. Therefore, keeping the ancient customs of Tianzhu horse races is crucial. Whether Tianzhu horse race enters the directory or not, it is necessary to use the idea of intangible cultural heritage protection to protect the ecological environment of the walking horse culture in a dynamic and integral fashion.

4.1.1 Investigation, Documentation and Research

Do in-depth investigation on the current conditions, the evolution and the protection status of the walking horse culture, including traditional knowledge and practices, traditional sports and athletics, oral traditions and traditional folk customs. Use text, images, audio, video and digital multimedia technology, to record and organize the connotations of the culture and its evolution process, also collect representative objects, in order to create files and related databases. On this basis, conduct academic research, including research on the culture and its conservation methods. Such investigation, documentation and research are also the basis for the display and dissemination of the culture.

4.1.2 Plan and Design, Guidance and Regulation

Develop the conservation plan based on research. Protect the cultural heritage and its ecological environment in a dynamic and integral fashion. Pay particular attention to the research and development of laws and policies to regulate and guide the breed conservation and cultural protection, and the development of the walking horse industry with the culture as the core.

The core of dynamic integral protection is inheritance: 1) the inheritance of traditional knowledge and practices. With the development of the social environment and the industry, the evolution of traditional technologies is inevitable. Some technologies will exit the stage of history, such as the harness technologies

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of the walking horses. Other traditional knowledge and experience will merge with emerging new enabling technologies such as telecommunications and biotechnology, and evolve with technological advance. Based on the study of this evolution process, we shall design supporting policies to protect inheritors and promote inheritance, not forcing a straight substitution of new technology for the old, but leaving the inheritors enough space to gradually merge the old and new technologies, so as not to lose the advantages of traditional methods, such as the cold-resistant and disease-resistant characteristics of Tianzhu walking horses brought by traditional extensive husbandry36. 2) The inheritance of traditional sports and folk customs.

The horse race combines traditional sports and folk customs, and is also an important inheritance field bringing together local people and horse lovers and tourists far and near. We shall be committed to the continuation and promotion of folk horse races rich in folk customs. Moreover we shall be aware of the pitfall of over-simplification, stereotyping, fragmentation, and distortion in ethnic tourism development driven by the mass market.37 One of the preventive measures is to respect the Walking Horse Association in the design and organization of the horse race, so that they can accurately and fully express their understanding of the walking horse culture.

Following the idea of protecting the walking horse culture and its ecological environment in a dynamic and integral fashion, since the traditional sports and leisure riding market of the walking horse still exists, and its modern equestrian sports and leisure riding market is emerging, realizing its industrial potential for its dynamic protection is an important strategy. We will elaborate on this strategy in 4.2.

36 In recent years, the endurance races, such as the 2013 "White Horse Festival" 30.5 km endurance race, prairie horse has obvious advantages over participating , Arabian, and other fine pedigree horses, it was partly contributed to the harsh natural environment in which the prairie horses grow up in contrast with the fine breeding environment of the equestrian clubs where those "noble" horses grow up. See “Why could not we win the game?”, in China Horse Lovers’ Union Forum, Views Section, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://bbs.horse.org.cn/thread-112231-1-1.html

37 Xinjian Xu, “Developing China: The Formation and Influence of the Ethnic Tourism and the Touristy Ethnic – Case

Studies of "Man in black", "Silver Water Village" and "Tibetan Qiang Village", Journal of Southwest University for

Nationalities, Issue 7, Vol. 21, July 2000

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4.1.3 Dissemination of Culture and Education

Produce good quality cultural products (cultural relics, books, film, exhibitions, plays, etc.), and build walking horse culture database, stored in museums, libraries, archives which also provide related information services to the public. Spread the walking horse culture through a variety of media and the Internet, so that the public can understand and experience the culture’s past and today, and draw wisdom from the tradition and its evolution. Focus on the education of walking horse culture to youth and local , and promote community inheritance.

4.2 Building Convergent Industry

Following the idea of protecting the walking horse culture and its ecological environment in a dynamic and integral fashion, we derive the walking horse industrial development strategy of building a convergent industry combining the cultural, breeding, sports and tourism industrial sectors. The convergent industry centers on culture and blends the design of cultural elements into other industrial sectors, to provide windows for people to perceive, and explore the walking horse culture. The key of such a convergent industry is the right direction and mechanism of drive and management. Also strategies and measurements are needed in breeding, sports, and tourism industries considering cultural conservation and inheritance.

Below we will discuss these two aspects.

4.2.1 Direction and Mechanism of Drive and Management

The convergent industry of walking horses should be sponsored collaboratively by the central and local governments, driven, managed and regulated by the industry association, and implemented by various commercial organizations and non-government institutions together.

Using the management of International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations (FEIF)38 for the Icelandic

38 “International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://www.feif.org/

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horse39 industry as a reference, combined with the idea of cultural preservation, we derived the following management functions for the walking horse industry association: 1) in-depth investigation of the current situation and problems of the culture, systematic recording of the culture’s various aspects, and academic research on the culture and its protection methods; 2) developing the strategic plan of cultural preservation and the development of convergent industry based on research; 3) studying and developing laws and policies to regulate and guide the cultural preservation and industrial development; 4) facilitating the spontaneous inheritance of traditional knowledge and practices and focusing on local community education and community inheritance; 5) building walking horse related sports system, For example, intervening and influencing the formation of the rules in the national and international sports system; 6) cultivating the culture of leisure riding; 7) displaying and disseminating the walking horse culture; 8) focusing on youth education on the walking horse culture; (4) -8) can be guided by organizing flagship events) 9) building important industry related information infrastructure, including website of the industry, horse pedigree database, rider database, horse sports ranking database); 10) as a platform linking the supports and collaborative works from the government, non-governmental organizations and commercial organizations.

In contrast with the International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations (FEIF), currently the horse industry in China has two major regulatory agencies: the China Horse Industry Association (CHIA) 40 as the industry association, and the Chinese Equestrian Association (CEA) 41 providing management and guidance on equestrian sports nationwide. The CHIA should play the role of managing the horse industry, but it does not have the corresponding funding and capability and currently plays a much less important role than the

CEA. As both a consortium of equestrian enthusiasts and an industry consortium, the CEA is dedicated to the promotion of equestrian sports and horse culture, equestrian sports related e-commerce, consultation for

39 The Icelandic horse is a local horse breed in Iceland, which is good at flying pace and is of relative small body size. See

“Icelandic Horse”, accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_horse

40 the China Horse Industry Association (CHIA), accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://www.chinahorse.org/

41 the Chinese Equestrian Association (CEA), accessed Sept. 2, 2013, http://www.horse.org.cn/

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equestrian sports and horse culture industries, and events/games organizing services, but does not involve domesticated industries, including healthcare domesticated breeding. Note that the CEA does not deal with the breeding industry, including research, standard development, management and technical training and promotion on horse feeding/breeding and disease control, horse farm management, and the horse industry products.

So far the driving forces of Tianzhu walking horse industry include governmental and social forces. Both are confined to local, and have neither been connected with higher levels of government or industry/equestrian associations vertically, nor been connected with other governmental or social organizations in the walking horse cultural area laterally. The current governmental forces are: Tianzhu County government, responsible for disseminating the walking horse culture including the horse races, developing strategies for walking horse industry and formulating related policies; its two subordinate agencies, the Culture and Sports Bureau responsible for organizing the County Horse Race and organizing riders to participate in provincial and national games (it is also responsible for the protection of intangible cultural heritages), the Animal

Husbandry Bureau responsible for feeding and breeding of walking horses. The current social forces are:

Tianzhu Walking Horse Association closely working with the government, and riders’ self-organization to attend games such as the Hometown of the Walking Horse Club. Both are relatively loose and weak; also individual horse traders and retired officials who tried to push the government via proposals, but judging by how much of the proposal was accepted, the individual force not backed up by any social group is very weak.

Tianzhu Walking Horse Association should work with other influential equestrian or horse industry associations in the walking horse cultural area, get the CEA and CHIA’s guidance and help, and explore the possibility to extend the current framework of the CEA and CHIA to incorporate the drive and management functions of the walking horse industry, such as getting the walking horse race into international games so it can be another way out for Chinese local horses other than the endurance race. Tianzhu Walking Horse

Association should aim at becoming a mature social organization, representing the public opinion of the local horse traders and pooling their collective wisdom, to connect the CEA, the CHIA, equestrian/industry

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associations in the walking horse cultural area, and Tianzhu horse industry, and develop corresponding management and service capabilities.

While exploring the collaboration with the CEA and CHIA, Tianzhu government should not wait, but should assume joint responsibility of driving and managing the industry with the Tianzhu Walking Horse Association, and add the development of the convergent industry into the five-year plan. The government should sponsor and build the website for convergent industry as a platform for management and advocacy. On this platform, the government should gradually establish and improve various management functions mentioned above.

4.2.2 The Breeding Industry

The breeding industry includes horse feeding, breeding, disease control, trading, etc. The government should study and develop subsidies, insurance, tax, and financing policies and other incentives to encourage the horse farms to scale up, and to encourage more people to raise horses. Facilitate the inheritance of the horse's health care expertise by the doctors at veterinary stations to improve their capability of preventing and controlling horse diseases. Improve the management knowledge of the horse farm managers and gradually guide the family-run horse farm to develop into modern enterprise which can carry larger scale and finely managed business. Guide the related service providers, such as hoof care and castration family shops, to evolve into modern business. Meanwhile, transform the breeding, training, disease prevention and other professional knowledge into tangible knowledge for effective training and inheritance.

In terms of breeding, introduce artificial insemination technology, and establish horse pedigree and germplasm database. Develop core stallion groups, breeding mare groups, and expanded reproduction groups. Use biotechnology for breed conservation. Introduce improving varieties for crossbreeding to breed the new generation of Fork Stage horse with body size improved, and merits such as good walking posture, fast walking speed, agility and docile temperament, endurance, cold-resistance, etc. retained.

In terms of nurturing the market, the Tianzhu government should work with the Tianzhu Walking Horse

Association to hold at least one large-scale horse race each year, as a trading platform to attract customers.

During the interviews, horse traders suggested the February 2 Fork Stage Horse Race be resumed annually 38

due to its long history and rich cultural connotation. In addition, the government and horse traders should explore the use of e-commerce to assist horse trading and market expansion, facilitate the demonstration and advertising of the Tianzhu walking horse, and reduce the information and process cost of the trading.

The website of the convergent industry should have a link to a viable horse trading platform.

4.2.3 Sports / Equestrian Industry

The sports/equestrian industry is a continuation of the walking horse culture in the modern society, so the value of the walking horse in equestrian industry is the foothold of walking horse in modern society. The horse race is not only a sports event and a trading and exchange platform for horses, but also an important cultural inheritance field. Tianzhu government and Tianzhu Walking Horse Association should hold at least one large-scale horse race with rich traditional customs each year. In addition, the government should provide special funds to help the villages continue and advance their traditional horse races.

Leveraging the incentive policies of the government in breeding and trading, the Tianzhu Walking Horse

Association should encourage horse traders to actively participate in folk/official horse races in the walking horse cultural area and other western pastoral areas, to shore up the existing foundation of the walking horse culture, while expanding it further.

In equestrian athletics make the Tianzhu walking horse known to the country and to the world. In terms of training strategy, on the one hand, continue to maintain its edge on short straight tracks; on the other hand, research and improve its daily training track and environment so it can easily adapt national/international games. Instead of the government organizing riders to attend provincial and national games, the Tianzhu

Walking Horse Association should serve as the organizer using the funds and resources from the government, and build its organization and service capacity. Moreover, with the walking horse race entering into international games, the Tianzhu Walking Horse Association should collaborate with the equestrian clubs in economically developed cities, and make Tianzhu walking horses used in professional athletics and recreational sports (such as youth equestrian training), leveraging these commercial clubs to promote the sports and leisure riding industry of the walking horse, as well as to disseminate the walking horse culture,

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especially among youth.

4.2.4 Tourism Industry

With the popularization and promotion of equestrian sport in China, and the cultivation of leisure riding culture and population in economically developed areas, the eco-tourism of Tianzhu cultural and natural landscape will soon be developed in the future. It will include short-distance sightseeing excursions, and long-distance riding routes experiencing magnificent mountainous scenery and ethnic customs, in order to make best of the advantages of Tianzhu walking horse.

We can design a variety of products to meet diverse needs, by mixing and matching cultural products (such as oral history exhibitions, music festivals, etc.), cultural display, experience, and inheritance components embedded into sports and breeding industries (such as horse races, youth camps, horse farm visits, etc.) , and sightseeing rides. Here we need to re-emphasize that the ecological nature of tourism for the protection of is the key. We need to limit the degree of development to avoid the distortion of minority due to the influence of and the market.

5 Summary and Reflection

Via oral history research, we collected the connotations of the walking horse culture in traditional knowledge and practices, traditional sports and athletics, oral traditions and traditional folk customs, learned the outline and details of its changes since the mid-20th century. In the past 60 years, the walking horse culture faced multiple challenges. The people's commune period halted the horse breeding, trading, sports, and horse races, almost causing the extinction of the technologies and culture in the new generation; After the household contract system was established, it was plagued by the issues of fading harness market, weakening inheritance field with fewer people watching horse races and traditional customs removed from the official horse races, and reduced inheritance of related technologies in modern society. Though the sports and leisure riding market of the walking horse has a regional revival along with the rise of equestrian sports in China and the improvement of economic conditions in the walking horse cultural area, Tianzhu

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walking horse faces competition nationwide and the challenge of branding. To meet these challenges, we incorporate suggestions from the stakeholders interviewed and propose a convergent walking horse industry strategy centered on the cultural protection and development while integrating horse breeding, sports, and tourism sectors. While developing this convergent industry, we need to pay special attention to recording, utilization, and inheritance of traditional knowledge, and maintenance of important inheritance field, and adherence to the protection of the cultural ecology protection. The key of the convergent industry is the right direction and mechanism of drive and management. While exploring getting the management functions into national industry/equestrian associations, Tianzhu government should not wait, but should work with Tianzhu Walking Horse Association to assume the responsibility of driving and managing the convergent industry. Tianzhu Walking Horse Association should aim at becoming a mature social organization, representing the public opinion of the local horses traders and pooling their collective wisdom, to play a more active and important role in the design and implementation of the convergent industry.

Looking back on this research process, we learned the following lessons:

Role of oral history in minority culture collection

For the purpose of collecting walking horse culture, the functions of our interviews are two-fold, qualitative

(case) surveys and personal stories/feelings collection. The former favors more interviewees in order to obtain more accurate and comprehensive information, while the latter favors multiple and in-depth interviews for each interviewee, with a higher degree of trust and familiarity established between the interviewer and the interviewee.

Oral history as a case study method needs to meet the requirement of sampling effectiveness. However, when we got the interviewee resources through personal network in a limited period of time, we could only manage to get as good samples as we can. In addition, we faced the difficulties of getting data and resources from the government. A lot of background information and statistics, such as latest statistics regarding the breeding of Fork Stage horses, the horse farm directory, the organizational materials of official horse races, etc., are lacking either because the government does not have them or because we couldn’t get them from

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the government. We realize that for the systematic recording and collection of a culture, we need to have both the “surface” and the “points”. Oral history helps us delve into "points" to reveal the impact of culture on individuals, while statistical surveys and questionnaires, relatively shallow but comprehensive in coverage, can help set up the "surface". Ideally, we would have the "surface" first to help build background understanding and select "points" to dig further. However, in minority culture research, often times the

"surface" is not available. In this case, oral history assumes the role of pilot survey. Our project work to date is pilot survey for the most part combined with a small amount of in-depth discovery.

Based on the building and development of one to one relationships, oral history has an edge in collecting emotional stories and experiences. Just because we glimpsed the depth and strength of the walking horse culture through these stories, we feel the audio recordings of these stories alone cannot fully tap the cultural treasures from the horse traders’ experience. If money, time and technology permit, we wish we could survey the place where these stories occurred and interview other characters in the story, revealing their cultural connotations to the full.

Interview techniques according to the characteristics of the interviewee group

For our interviewed horse traders, walking horse related knowledge and practices are part of their production and life. Except for a few horse traders with wide trading area and open personality, horse traders are often reserved, even if a local interviewer interviews them in dialect in their familiar environment. In the first interview, a middleman is generally needed, or a group interview with fellow horse traders is preferred, in order to overcome miscommunication due to unfamiliarity. A group interview with the presence of a middleman is beneficial for gleaning information, and establishing initial trust with multiple interviewees. It is then followed by individual interviews for in-depth conversation.

There is a long way to go from the initial trust to the kind of trust in order to provide insights after personal reflection, memories full of emotion, and even sensitive remarks of others and the authority. Whether we can get such in-depth narrative has something to do not only with the trust between the interviewer and the interviewee, but also with the interviewee's personality and the situational atmosphere of an interview. For

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example, some stories were first mentioned by the interviewee on the wine and dinner table, subsequently probed and examined by the interviewer. Overall a lot of investments are needed to build such familiarity and understanding.

Jigsaw – Merging background information and oral materials

Analyzing information from background research and oral history interviews to build a complete picture of the object of study is often described as a "doing a jigsaw". For the study of walking horse culture with both the literature and general survey lacking, we found the jigsaw process has the following characteristics:

1. Quite a few in-depth background studies were triggered by the oral materials, thus the research process

was featured with alternating interview and background research. For example, we learned from the

interviews that the Tianzhu walking horse is a hot sale in the Tibetan regions of Qinghai, Sichuan,

Yunnan, with some reasons given by the horse traders. This triggered our background study of the

harness function and preference of walking horse in these regions, eventually drew the conclusion that

the hot sale is due to the walking horse culture in Amdo and Kham Tibetan areas. As an another

example, since we learned from the interviews that the current management of walking horse industry

is weak, we conducted a comparative study with Icelandic horses, as well as investigated the

management structure of the horse industry in China, to obtain an understanding of the management

mechanism of the convergent industry.

2. Many modules of the walking horse culture, such as the trading culture, changes of the sports and

leisure riding market, have their frameworks formed by the oral materials and background research

triggered by them. However, because oral history is the subjective understanding of the facts, bias is

inevitable, and oral materials are more fragmented, so several key interviews are needed to help

establish the framework of the module in order to find meaning for the fragments. For a few interviews

with mostly fragmented information, only after subsequent interviews established the framework, we

realized the meaning of fragmented information all of a sudden.

Looking back, the entire process of interweaving research and interviews is a race against time with

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connections, interview techniques, timely analysis, sensitivity to the information and our relationship with the interviewees, plus a little luck. We feel that these 19 interviews only the overture of the research and preservation of the walking horse culture, as more work is waiting for us to disentangle its intricate past and present, in order to predict and plan its future.

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