The horse is already moving when Sezim Jumabekova draws her bow.
asserted
Jumabekova → move → bow
She has three targets to hit before the track runs out.
asserted
track → have → targets
She grips the horse with her thighs, twists at the waist, and shoots.
Ms Jumabekova, 29, from Kyrgyzstan, has been riding competitively for only three years.
"I've fallen off many times and torn my clothes learning new tricks," she said.
asserted
she → grip → tricks
Despite being a relative newcomer to the sport, she is competing in horseback archery in the World Nomad Games from August 31 to September 6 in Kyrgyzstan.
asserted
she → compete → Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan launched the World Nomad Games in 2014 as a stage for the traditional sports and cultures of Central Asia's nomadic peoples.
asserted
Kyrgyzstan → launch → peoples
What began with 20 countries and 10 traditional sports has grown, in just over a decade, into an international competition of about 100 countries competing across 43 events.
Repackaging heritage as sport
Some of the sports are obscure outside the region, like eagle and falcon hunting and Kok-boru, where a horseback team wrestles for a sheep.
asserted
team → begin → sheep
"It's like AFL and the NRL here in Australia, but on horseback," said Ahmed Kharat, captain of the Australian team competing in archery events in this year's games.
asserted
Kharat → say → games
Many of the sports have cultural significance and local audiences.
asserted
Many → have → significance
Eagle hunting on command traces back to the Mongol conquests of the 12th and 13th centuries.
asserted
hunting → trace → centuries
Other events trace a long lineage.
asserted
events → trace → lineage
An 11-kilometre horse race is among some of the equestrian events that have a rich history in neighbouring Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
asserted
that → have → Mongolia
The team from Kazakhstan unseated opponents to win gold in both the 60-kilogram and 70-kilogram categories this year.
asserted
team → unseat → categories
One times how quickly teams put up a yurt, a traditional portable nomadic dwelling used by nomadic families moving between pastures.
asserted
teams → time → pastures
In another event called Ordo, teams use sheep knucklebones to flick opposing pieces from a marked ring.
asserted
teams → call → ring
Regional commentators also point to their political and economic purpose.
asserted
commentators → point → purpose
Kyrgyzstan is a young state, which became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, building its national identity from its nomadic past.
asserted
which → become → past
It was deeply integrated into the Soviet industrial machine, with one of its largest factories producing torpedoes for the Soviet navy.
asserted
It → integrate → navy
When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did those jobs.
asserted
jobs → collapse → ?
"Kyrgyzstan is quite unique as it experienced a lot of outward migration to the countryside after the collapse," said Kiril Nourzhanov, an associate professor in Central Asian Studies at the Australian National University.
asserted
Nourzhanov → experience → University
"The economy of Kyrgyzstan was hit for six, and it experienced deindustrialisation, so more people began to engage in agriculture, including the traditional nomadic pastoralism," he added.
asserted
he → hit → pastoralism
A service economy has emerged in the gap, and tourism now ranks among the country's most valuable sectors.
asserted
tourism → emerge → sectors
Tourism has soared in recent years, with tour companies such as Intrepid Travel reporting a 900 per cent increase in bookings to Kyrgyzstan this year compared to last year.
asserted
companies → soar → year
Gulshat Rozyyeva, a research scholar from the Australian National University's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, called the Games "a major identity booster".
asserted
Rozyyeva → call → Games
She said it was an opportunity for Kyrgyzstan to appear as more than "one of Central Asia's poor countries".
asserted
Kyrgyzstan → say → countries
"It doesn't have the natural resources like Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan," she said.
asserted
she → have → Kazakhstan
"But it has mountains, and a horse culture, and so the World Nomad Games are important economically, too, as people book hotels, and support local businesses."
asserted
people → book → businesses
The Kyrgyz government has invested heavily in that image: horses grazing on a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and pristine blue lakes.
asserted
government → invest → mountains
This year the World Nomad Games double as a diplomatic stage, hosting delegates from Russia, Iran, India, and China at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek.
asserted
Games → double → capital
Ms Rozyyeva said the balancing act was a familiar one for Kyrgyzstan — asserting a distinct national identity while leaning economically on its larger neighbours.
asserted
act → say → neighbours
China invests in infrastructure in the country under the Belt and Road Initiative, while migrant workers in Russia send remittances back home to Kyrgyzstan.
asserted
workers → invest → Kyrgyzstan
A digital revival of an analogue culture
Ms Jumabekova grew up in Bishkek, far from the high mountain pastures traditionally associated with the country's nomadic culture.
asserted
Jumabekova → grow → culture
She was teased for being a city girl, but was drawn to learning about horses and became a guide leading horseback tours, learning acrobatics and trick riding.
asserted
She → tease → acrobatics
She said she was passionate about rediscovering skills from semi-nomadic life.
asserted
she → say → life
"Nowadays young people are interested in the digital world," she told the ABC.
asserted
she → tell → ABC
"Each year it gets harder to save our nomad culture, perhaps because it brings in less money."
The irony is that the digital world and Instagram videos from tourists may also be helping preserve it.
uncertain
world → get → it
Australian archer Daniya Aziz, 23, said that these sports haven't just seen a revitalisation in Central Asia.
asserted
sports → say → Asia
"I think in the age that we are in, because we're so social media heavy, so technologically dependent, there has been … an urge to sort of disconnect from that," she said.
asserted
she → think → that
"There's no better way to do that than through these cultural sports because they have that element of physicality and an element of being outdoors.
asserted
they → be → physicality
It's a really nice way for us, from diverse backgrounds in Australia, to connect back to that culture identity."
asserted
us → connect → identity
Ms Aziz said she was attracted to horseback archery for its challenge.
asserted
she → say → challenge
…and 4 more, not listed.
