Mongolia’s most famous horse festival is a celebrated event across the country, but in the background rights groups are concerned about the rise of performance-enhancing drugs, harsh handling of horses and lax enforcement of safety protections for child jockeys. More than ten thousand children participate in nearly four hundred races nationwide in Mongolia and according to Mongolia’s National Traumatology and Orthopaedics Research, an average of six hundred child jockeys are thrown from their horse and in 2017 169 were killed. Libby Hogan has this report from middle Gobi desert, Mongolia.
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