The Strike
Western Mongolia 2014
You have to look closely to see that the horse is in a gallop. His near hind and off fore hooves are leaving the ground. He leans away from the eagle, but he doesn’t shy. The Kazakhs are excellent animal trainers. Not only training the Golden Eagle to hunt for him, but training the horse to overcome his instinct to run from danger. (A Golden Eagle flying toward a horse signifies danger in the extreme.)
The Mongolian horse is small, maybe 12 hands. I don’t think any or many were as tall as 14 hands. They were well-muscled with hooves strong enough to gallop over rocky ground without bruising or lameness. The men each had a string of horses and would use one for about 3 months before putting him out to pasture and choosing another mount. Good horsemanship!
Although we had “ringside seats” for the eagle hunting contests, getting a good shot still required some skill and most of all a camera that would fire off the shutter at high-speed. One of our leaders, Kevin Pepper (http://www.kevinpepperphotography.com/), could shoot at 11 frames per second. I was envious as one of my cameras would only fire at 3 frames per second. I recited my mantra, ‘all you need is one good shot’ and concentrated on shooting at the key moment.