The international students of the university travelled to Bugacpuszta on the 26th May to get to know the traditions of the Hungarian stock-breeding lifestyle.

The second part of the name of „Bugacpuszta”, the „puszta” refers to the Hungarian plain, as Bugacpuszta is located in the western part of the Great Hungarian plain to the South of Kecskemét.

For many centuries the Great Hungarian Plain provided space for the nomadic stock-farming, which means that the Hungarian horse herdsmen, cattle herdsmen and shepherds lived outside, „under the free sky of God” together with their animals throughout the whole year, in every season.  

 

Within the program the international students took part in the playful Puszta Pentathlon, and in the frames of that competition they could test their skills in the use of the traditional short-stocked long whip („karikás ostor”) of the herdsmen and other games, such as

  • carting the classmates away in a wheelbarrow
  • corn-shelling
  • the use of the calabash
  • pulling the donkey.

 

Then they went for a carting ride, visited the Herdsmen Museum, saw the traditional Hungarian domestic animal breeds and watched the horse-show, which included the presentation of the

  • procession of horse herders;
  • the show of the famous Puszta Five;
  • skill show by the horsemen: Horse laying and sitting, puszta armchair, test of strengths, sitting down at the table, cracking the whip, the mother-in-law beating and competitions of horsemen;
  • show by the donkey called Anti;
  • Bugac stud galloping

The participants of the excursion had lunch in a traditional Hungarian Restaurant, „Karikás csárda”, during which they tasted the Hungarian Goulash, as well.