Josette Obin first backpacked through Kyrgyzstan in 2024. In February 2026 Josette spent three weeks at the ranch in Toktogul; this account takes in a ride through snow on Chaplin, classes at the local school and tea on the terrace.

In February, Yrys was out feeding the horses in the kind of cold that sends most people back indoors. The association sets out what a growing herd needs day to day, and how a monthly €15 keeps that work steady.

When the work began there were no reserve bloodlines, only one stallion, Chaar Suluu, and a handful of mares. Munarbek Kuldanbaev explains a life given to the Chaar, and what the next generation of stallions brings.

Seventeen foals had arrived by early summer, with three more expected, and a snow leopard had taken one. The team’s 2025 update covers the season on the mountain pastures, the first Chaar Expedition and a new intern from France.

Yorke McGillivray watched True Appaloosa at Thanksgiving 2021 and within weeks had joined the Chaar breeding programme. In spring 2025 Yorke brought a group of nine horse lovers from North America to Kyrgyzstan to meet the horses.

In the 2nd century BCE, Emperor Wu of the Han sent missions west in search of horses said to sweat blood. The association looks at those horses, the petroglyphs of southern Kyrgyzstan, and what they may say about the Chaar.

In 2021, after years of wolves, mountain accidents and feed shortages paid for privately, Munarbek faced a choice: sell the horses or stake everything on them. A look back at how the revival began.

Volunteer Léon Mitouard takes the bus from Toktogul to Osh, past the turquoise water of Lake Toktogul, and finds the noise again in a Sunday market where shoes and dried fruit are sold side by side.

Sitting on a lone rock in the snow, Léon Mitouard watches a mare walk over, curious, with large brown eyes. The volunteer’s short, reflective piece on the daily closeness of caring for the herd.

At nine in the morning Eska arrives to fetch volunteer Léon Mitouard to water the horses. An ordinary winter day follows, from the trough to the bazaar in town and an evening of music with three children.

In 2012, as filming of True Appaloosa wrapped, Munarbek Kuldanbaev bought a stallion called Chaar Suluu and five mares. A year-by-year account of the predators, the hungry winters and the people who later stepped in to help.

At 5 pm on a winter day, volunteer Léon Mitouard pulls on a pair of gloves for the evening feed, and follows it through bucket by bucket, with Kuku the farmer and a handful of Kyrgyz words.

Laundry washed in water heated by hand, cold nights, power cuts and two thick blankets: volunteer Léon Mitouard’s notes from the first two weeks living on the farm, and what the quiet gave back.

Before reaching the herd, Léon Mitouard spent two months travelling from France to Turkey by public transport. In this first post as the association’s winter volunteer, Léon explains what led to Kyrgyzstan and what the work involves.

Salomé’s father was one of the association’s first contributors. Years later Salomé came to live on the farm through a steppe winter, camera in hand; this first post explains the journey that led there.

Over a week of painting live on Instagram, artist Alice Shirley worked on a running Chaar in 22 carat gold leaf as the bids rose. The proceeds go to the breeding programme, and the design now appears on Chaar merchandise.

Writing for Equestrian Life Australia, Suzy Jarratt looks past the Nez Perce and the Hollywood westerns to Kyrgyzstan and the spotted Chaar horses ridden in its mountains. A short introduction, with a link to the full article.

Four Chaar geldings, a picnic in the saddlebags and a ride up the valley to find Chaar Suluu’s herd. The family diary of Nicolas, Jessie, Esther and Zélie from August 2024, from Bishkek to the summer pastures at Ters.