Mongolia

    For centuries the Mongolians looked to their horses, the Mongolian ponies, for friendship and food, as objects of worship, weapons for war, and for drink in the form of kumys, mares' fermented milk.  Today, Mongolia's emblem is a horseman galloping into the rising sun, and despite changes since the country became a republic in 1924, horses remain an integral part of everyday existence.  Collective farms, where horses, as well as other domestic animals, are bred extensively, have removed much of the need for a nomadic life.  But there are still numbers of Mongolians who, like their ancestors for centuries before them, live by herding huge droves of sheep, goats, cattle and horses, pitching and striking their traditional felt and wooden yurtas as they move along the grazing trails.  (This was written before I began citing the dates for my sources so I don't know when today was.  It was probably in the 1970's or 80's.)
    Horses are still largely used both in harness and for haulage, and a large percentage of the population remain superb horsemen.  A Mongolian "cowboy" rates it as part of the day's work to capture specified animals from a troop of stampeding mares and stallions, using a lasso, a leather loop on the end of a long bamboo pole, which he wields from his own pony.
    Mongolian emperors were raising ponies in the Shangtu river region three hundred years ago.  Today the Shangtu pony is noted for its speed.  Ushen ponies have been developed in, and have adapted to, the desert area where they live.  They are small, with short legs and broad, sand-withstanding hooves, and have an innate ability to thrive on little food and drink.
    In the east of Inner Mongolia, good type Sanho ponies have been improved and bred-up into excellent saddle and draft animals, with use of Russian Transbaikal, Arab and Thoroughbred blood.

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