In 2013 Sue Bathurst went to Kyrgyzstan to ride a horse in the jailoo - the nomads' mountain pastures. She fell in love with the country, sometimes described as the most beautiful country in the world, and with its people. In this book she not only describes Kyrgyzstan, as it was and is, but tells of four of these horse rides in the Tien Shan and Talas Mountains, travelled with English and Kyrgyz friends.

During those rides they covered 500 miles by horse; crossed 20 passes, most between 9,000 feet and 13,000 feet; negotiated precipitous gorges and boulder strewn rivers of cascading snowmelt. In 2017 they rode for over 150 miles down the no-go zone, once the frontier between the USSR and China, and still the Kyrgyz/Chinese border. Everywhere they were welcomed by the shepherds and their families.

This is not only about a beautiful country, illustrated with over 200 colour photographs, 4 graphs and a colour map. It is about traversing challengingly tricky terrain, far from the possibility of helicopter rescue, and seeing, along the way, how the smallest country in Central Asia is rebuilding itself after 115 years of Russian rule.

About the Author
Sue Bathurst was on the first recce ride in Bhutan. She has ridden across the Thar Desert; the Andes; in Northern Mongolia to visit the Tsaatan; Cuba; the Georgian Tusheti and the Carpathians. Richard Dunwoody - who has written a forward to this book - then recommended Kyrgyzstan. She will give the profits from the book to The Injured Jockeys Fund as a thank you for the fun she has had on horses


Book Information
ISBN 9781805140757
Author Sue Bathurst
Format Hardback
Page Count 184
Imprint Matador
Publisher Troubador Publishing