With wild, rolling eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hatred, nostrils flaring, blood already flecking their ragged flanks, two stallions rise on hind legs to fight each other in a dusty arena.
All around them as they bite, kick and snort, an excited, cheering crowd takes bets on who will win. While animal welfare groups yesterday condemned the horse-fighting tradition, celebrated by China?s Miao ethnic group in Rongshui county, Guangxi province, locals pointed out that it had been going on for 500 years.
The fighting, part of the summer Xinhe festival which asks for blessings on newly planted crops, such as corn, sweet potato and soya bean, is even included on some tourist itineraries in South West China.
"It is nothing but barbaric," said Vivian Farrell, president of the International Fund For Horses, which has led campaigns to ban horse fighting. "It?s cruel and inhumane and I don?t know why they do it."
While tourist guides tell tales of teams of horses being led into the makeshift arena to the sound of gunfire and a reed pipe band, they fail to mention that the stallions are whipped into a frenzy.
Mrs Farrell said: "First of all they get a mare in season to arouse the stallions, then they take the mare away and the fighting begins. They will rear at each other and kick and bite in the bid to show whose bloodline is superior.
"Sometimes the fights last 10 minutes, sometimes they go on for half an hour"
