The ''csikós'' (, singular) is a horse-mounted herdsman of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. The csikós tradition is closely associated with the Hungarian '' puszta'', the temperate

grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur ...

of the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...

, which encompasses the largest stretches of the greater

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorpholog ...

. In recent times, csikós have been particularly tied to the environs of

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

and

Hortobágy National Park Hortobágy () is an 800 km2 national park in eastern Hungary, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld (Great Plain), was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first in Hungary), and elected among the W ...

, the latter deploying csikós to watch over and maintain large herds of free-ranging native Hungarian

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...

breeds, including cattle, horses and sheep. The csikós tradition is also tied to the Nonius, a breed of horse with an epicentre of breeding in the Máta Stud, located some 3 kilometres from Hortobágy.

Images

Hungary, Hortobágy Fortepan 83757.jpg, Csikós on a white horse, 1935 Hungary, Hortobágy Fortepan 83753.jpg, Csikós on bay horses, 1935 Hungria - Bugac - panoramio.jpg, Hungarian post Puszta-Five.jpg, Hungarian post

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Csikos Animal husbandry occupations Horse-related professions and professionals

Images

See also

References