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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Gottshall, a Peace Corps Response volunteer based in Karakol, travelled about 12 hours to Toktogul to meet Munarbek and ride out in search of the association’s horses and the spring’s new foals.

Luis Miguel Bayán Bravo drove from Lake Issyk-Kul to Toktogul to meet Munarbek and the herd. This winter account takes in the long road, a plate of plov at feeding time and a first-hand look at the project.