Buffalo Cowboy

Bufffalo races near the resevoir this morning, then off to polo this afternoon.

Get the strong impression that buffaloes are much more interested in wallowing around in muddy pools than racing. Having been well soaked in water, they are always reluctant to make the long journey down to the start line.

Then, once at the start, there is a reluctance to line up; and each buffalo will endeavour to escape, throw off the rider, or head for the sanctuary of the nearest pool of water.

The start is consequently both frequently delayed and always chaotic. Here you can see that the buffalo on the left is still being held by the handler, while the other two are already on the way:

The race is about twenty seconds long. Half of the riders fall off before they get to the finish line.

If you do fall off, one solution is to attempt to run to the line with your buffalo, thus presumably qualifying as a finisher.

This doesn’t work if the rider behind you decides to knock you over…

Comments 🔗

2009-11-22 | risenman says

That looks great fun. The crowd should have been much bigger! Can farang try? I think I could fall off a buffalo with the best of them…

2009-11-22 | Billy says

Great capture of our airborne friend on the last shot. One of the benefits of shooting ten a second rather than hand/eye/button co-ordination I guess?

2009-11-22 | Spike says

Well you do have to have the camera pointed in the right direction, and you have to make sure that the little spot in the frame is over the object you are tracking otherwise it will not be in focus, and you have to move the camera to pan the movement or it will be blurred. Other than that, yeah the 10 fps makes it a piece of cake.

2009-11-22 | Billy says

Smashing shot whatever the reason :-)