by REBECCA HENSCHKE
Child jockeys race their horses at a racetrack outside Bima, November 17, 2012 PHOTO/Reuters/Beawiharta
The island of Sumba, in southern Indonesia, is famous for its horses and regularly hosts racing festivals. In one such event last month, some 600 horses participated, as did a large number of jockeys — all of them children, some as young as four or five and none older than 11.
Among them is 7-year-old Ade, who doesn’t even reach my waist. He’s putting on a balaclava so I can only see his eyes and mouth. He’s also wearing a small helmet and no shoes. He has a black eye from falling off a horse.
Ade doesn’t own a horse, but he’s here hoping someone will hire him as a jockey. A man has just come over and asked if Ade can work for him. He simply grabbed the boy by the arm and said, “I want to use him, I want to use him.” Ade’s father consented.
The horses here are small, about 1.5 meters high. But even so, Ade’s father has to help his son climb onto the unfamiliar horse’s bare back. “He has been working as a professional jockey since he was four years old,” the father explains. “We started teaching him when he was three-and-half. Now he is seven and is a good rider.”
And they’re off …
“How much did you get that time?” I ask. “50,000 rupiah again,” or about $5, the father replies.
After the race, he picks up his son and carries him away from the track. The boy looks tired. “If he is strong enough he will just keep going,” the man tells me. “He will race on more than 10 different horses in different races. If he has enough energy, he will just keep going. But if he’s tired, he takes a rest.”
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