VILNIUS - Sometimes things just don't make much sense 's such as the traditional horse race at Lake Sartai. The race is held on the frozen lake every year on the first Saturday in February, and for some inexplicable reason the horses don't slip head over hoof as they gallop along at amazing speeds over the ice.
Well, it does occasionally happen. A couple of years ago Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas had a go at the race but his horse went out of control, throwing the PM out of the carriage he was driving. But then it was the man 's and not the horse 's left reeling on the ice.
But most years the event goes off as smooth as the ice itself. The 70 carriage drivers that will be competing at Lake Sartai race on Feb. 5 are dab hands at it, and for them it's little different to doing it on dry ground.
Horse racing on ice began hundreds of years ago and some people believe that the Lake Sartai race is the oldest sporting event in the country. This year the event will celebrate its official 100th birthday, although you should probably add another 100 years on top of that to get an idea of just how far back this tradition really goes.
The Lake Sartai race survived the restrictions of the Russian empire, Germans and Soviet authorities, who all considered them to be a dangerous display of national pride. And so it is, in true Lithuanian fashion, that sport is mingled with a sense of national pride. Some 40,000 people make the annual pilgrimage to Sartai to watch the races and to enjoy the traditional fair that goes alongside it
Surrounded by endless forests, Lake Sartai, which is the fifth largest lake in the country, lies 150 kilometers northeast of the capital, in the Zarasai district. You would normally expect the lake to be sufficiently frozen for racing in early February, but in several recent winters the lake has only frozen over to dangerously thin levels. Yet this rather dangerous fact needn't actually put anyone off going ahead with the race for when the ice isn't thick enough the contest is run on a special ice track around the lake's shore.
Since the winter has been exceptionally mild thus far this year, the organizers are already preparing the ice track, daily spraying it with water to ensure that it will be suitably slippery.
Some elderly locals in Sartai tell you that such preparations for the horse race aren't all that different from those in their youth. They would start training their horses in early December to help get them accustomed to the icy surfaces. Then, during the last week before the race, the drivers would feed their horses better than they themselves ate. The special diet included sugar, eggs and even homemade bread baked from the best available wheat. When competition day finally came around, they would adorn their horses with beads, bands and curls. Whether or not the horses actually appreciated all this special treatment is anyone's guess.
Rather amusingly, the tradition of adorning the horses for the race has remained although they are decked out more tastefully these days. But just how the riders spur their horses on to make them gallop a mile-long oval in just three minutes remains a mystery.
