Using carpets won by the horseback riders, buzkashi fans near Hissor set aside time for afternoon prayers.

Players battle for possession of a goat carcass in a Buzkashi scrimmage in Novobod, Western Tajikistan.

A buzkashi player relaxes his horse between buzkashi rounds in Nojibolo, Tajikistan.

Nasriddin Hissor, 5-time Soviet buzkashi champion, rides out of the fray with the buz. Unlike many other sports, senior players with the most experience are often the best and most respected players

Audience members watching a match near Korgan-Teppe, Tajikistan, with the bikes they used to get to the buzkashi field from nearby farming villages.

Too slow to jump to a retreat with the rest of the audience, an old man is lost in the dust of a horde of buzkashi horses.

Khurshed's brother, Suhrob, exercises his horses in the mountains near Dushanbe.

Sunlight and dust streams around Buzkashi players in Sharinav, Tajikistan. Spectators stand on a mound nearby - audience members often wander as close as possible to watch the game.

Young spectators view a horde of buzkashi horses from a nearby hill in Dangara, southern Tajikistan.

Sunlight and dust streams around Buzkashi players in Sharinav, Tajikistan. Spectators stand on a mound nearby - audience members often wander as close as possible to watch the game.

A member of the audience runs for cover as buzkashi riders gallop past the goal markers in Luchob, central Tajikistan.

At a Navruz commemorative match in the mountains near Dushanbe.

A farmer holds the head of a goat he just sold for extended rounds of a buzkashi game in Sharinav, Tajikistan. The goat carcass is normally prepared the day before the match.

A player puts on his boots before a match near Dushanbe.

A buzkashi player tries to escape from a rival at a match in Tezgar, near Dushanbe.

An assistant buzkashi player in training at a match in Tezgar, near Dushanbe. As Tajikistan modernizes and young people increasingly move to Russia and elsewhere to work due to the lack of jobs in-country, the future of buzkashi is unclear.

A buzkashi rider wearing a USSR jersey takes a break during a foggy match.

Players set up the goal posts for a buzkashi game in a winter fog at Jirganak, Tajikistan.

Assistants to master buzkashi players exercise their horses in the fog near Jirganak, western Tajikistan.

Spectators rally around a snowy buzkashi field. The truck in the foreground is both the prize truck, the announcer's truck and the holding pen for goats (buz) for the game.

A new goat is handed off during a match in Jirganak, western Tajikistan, after the earlier goat is too destroyed to continue with.

Buzkashi players fight for possession for the buz during a muddy match in Nojibolo, western Tajikistan.

A buzkashi player tapes up his fingers to ward off cold and blows from other players' whips during a winter match near Hissor, western Tajikistan.

Young buzkashi players taking a break from a muddy match in Nojibolo, western Tajikistan.