ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AFP) — Six-year-old Hurts Gantumur raced across the Mongolian grasslands astride a galloping horse, training to become a child jockey in the country’s biggest cultural festival.

His older brother Zolboo is 14 and is already too old to race at the annual Naadam festival, where only competitors between the ages of eight and 12 are eligible to be child jockeys.

“In training, the child and the horse become one,” Hurts’s father, who spent years rearing racehorses for Naadam and oversaw his son’s training, told AFP.

“That’s how they succeed,” he said as he watched his son speeding across the steppe.

Children have long competed in horse racing, one of the defining features of Naadam, galloping between 11 and 25 kilometres (7 and 16 miles), depending on their horse’s age and race category.

Most children in rural Mongolia learn to ride from an early age, and those hoping to become jockeys usually begin training at around five years old.

More than 500 child jockeys are expected to compete at this year’s Naadam.

But their inclusion in the sport has also drawn criticism from rights groups concerned about exploitation and the sport’s dangerous conditions.

A UNICEF report said children were competing “under circumstances that are detrimental to their health and lives”, while NGO Their World said they often “miss school to prepare for races and work long hours for low wages at large stables”.

One child jockey was killed and nine others were seriously injured while racing in 2022, according to Mongolian government figures, with around 3,200 child jockeys participating in 82 races that year.

In response, Mongolia raised the legal minimum age of child jockeys to eight years old, up from seven.

Nevertheless, 46 child jockeys have died over the past 10 years while racing, according to the Mongolian National Human Rights Commission.

The United Nations has expressed concern over a sport it says poses “a fatal risk to the lives and well-being of children who are recruited or will be recruited as jockeys”.

But for many families, horse racing remains an enduring tradition, with victory at Naadam bringing honour to the winner’s family and province.

As Hurts prepares to follow in his older brother’s footsteps, his three-year-old twin brothers Galt and Gerelt await their turn.