Polo, Unpolished

At a buzkashi match, both players and viewers can leave behind the present, and transport themselves to a medieval past. Which life is harsher?

- 

It is a Dothraki afternoon. Nearly 30 riders come galloping into a dusty maidan, in a valley surrounded by bleak hills. Attired in embroidered boots, sheepskin coats and fur hats, these men fight. Over the disembowelled carcass of a calf.

Onlookers troop in from villages, spread out mats on the low, mud walls of the maidan, and goad the horsemen. Every time a horseman manages to snatch the dead calf from the others and place it neatly into the centre of a chalk-drawn circle, the crowd hoots, and the rich among them hand out dollar notes to the winner. When in Afghanistan, what better way to spend a winter weekend than to head for a game of buzkashi, the national sport?