10 Ludicrous Sports You've Probably Never Heard Of

A sport originating in the farmlands of Bali in Indonesia, makepung - literally, ‘chase’ - involves participants yoking two water buffalo to a plough, leaping astride it and racing them against other buffalo-plough riders like they’re chariot racing in ancient times. It’s Ben Hur with bulls, and that’s barely even a joke.

Well over a century old, makepung initially begun as a diverting way to churn wet ground to allow it to be worked with ease: after all, the ploughing needed doing, and this was just the most fun way to do it. Today, it’s a cultural tradition and a tourist attraction, with all the ceremony, bells and whistles you’d expect from a national institution. The ploughs have been replaced by carts. There are festivals, performance, art and other amusements surrounding the events themselves, and even buffalo fashion shows where the best-decorated beast wins a prize.

All of the frippery can’t disguise the danger, however. Jockeys often fall, which can be incredibly dangerous given that each ‘chariot’ is yoked to a ton or more of horned, hooved, heavy muscle, capable of speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour. It's also arguably not great for the animals themselves, which are beaten by their riders to get them to reach those speeds.

The sport is in something of a decline at the moment, with veteran racers bemoaning the lack of take-up from the current generation of Balinese youth. It's almost as though leaping aboard a tiny wooden cart pulled by painted demons and racing your friends through the mud is a foolish thing to do.