Bareback Horse racing in Oecussi

Traditional bareback horse races in Oecussi – East Timor.

Horse racing is one of the big events in Oecussi. The other is waiting for the rainy season to start.

The horsemen camp out near the airport under the trees and start racing in the late afternoon.

I was able to go down and meet them but did not get to see the actual races because the ferry to Dili left around the same time that the races started.

There are some great looking horses which are raced bareback around an oval track.

The owners were proud of their horses all wanted me to take a photo for good luck.

That East Timor sun really beats down. All the feed and water has to be brought in on foot because none of these guys have vehicles.

East Timor has a horse racing tradition going back 500 years to the time the Portuguese settled this area and used it as a trading port. Sandal wood was the big export at that time.

Beautiful horse

Management team – often the jockeys are around 10 years old but they are already excellent horsemen.

Team ready to go!

Beautiful gray horse

These horse racing teams camp out under the stars for about a week. Some of the crew travel out every day to get more feed and water for the horses. This is the biggest event of the year for many of these people and they put everything they have into the race.