Only the best horses were chosen for riding. It was believed that a Tuvan horse could go on for a whole week in the mountains at a good trot for ten hours a day without getting seriously tired.
The museum houses the Tuvan bridle with bits called chugen, which was made in the 19th century. In the 19th — the early 20th centuries, the traditional horse tack consisted of a strap chugen and a headpiece (chular). Sometimes poor people made chular from lariats. Chugen consisted of several straps with different names: kastyk was put on the horse’s forehead, heerik — on the nose bridge, and saldyryk — on the chin.
Leather-dressers made harness belts from skins of horses, cattle, and small ruminants, as well as some wild animals: elk, deer, doe, and others. Hides and leather were mostly dealt with by men, but women helped them as well. A horse harness was made with the help of a small knife: it cut belts and then made holes in them for weaving.
The bits — sugluk — were forged from iron. Traditionally, they consisted of two parts. A leather leash (mungash-dyn) was tied to harness’ rings (deerbek). A leather or hair rope (uzun-dyn) was fastened to a headpiece and used to tie horses to a tethering post (baglaash) when a rider dismounted.
The Tuvan household demanded two types of chugen bridle — ceremonial and everyday. The everyday bridle was woven from a leather belt. The Tuvans strove to richly decorate their ceremonial horse tack, especially the bridle and saddle.
