HUANGPU SHANGHAI

Tourists ride horses around Kanas Scenic Area in Altay, Xinjiang. [Photo by Wang Chun/For China Daily]

Modernization

The results of the regional government's 2016 modernization plan for the industry, which focused on improving the quality and value of Xinjiang horses as well as job creation, are already being seen.

"To train more professionals, the regional government cooperated with Xinjiang Agricultural University and established hippology studies in the university's College of Animal Science," said Yao Xinkui, head of the university's Horse Industry Research Institute.

"Two hundred students who studied hippology have graduated, and we believe more students will study hippology."

Zhaosu county in Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture has 120,000 horses, which makes it the county with the highest number of horses per capita in the country.

After 2016, Zhaosu invested more than 30 million yuan on improving the infrastructure of its stud farms and over 20 million yuan on breeding local horses with better quality ones.

Chen Weigang, a supervisor at one stud farm, said Zhaosu Ili horses had been sold to equestrian clubs across the country. "The performance of the horses has been recognized by many people," Chen said.

In September, 12 horses from Xinjiang were sent to Dalian, Liaoning province, for the city's mounted unit of policewomen. The horses, which were bred by an animal husbandry company, have an even temperament and went through a rigorous screening process before they were accepted by the unit.