It’s a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, where two stallions fight over a female to ring the Chinese new year. And when it’s the Year of the Horse, the fights are considered to be even more significant. They’re held in small villages across southern China and have been condemned by animal rights groups, including Hong-Kong based Animals Asia. But those who participate in the events defend the fights and insist they take care of the animals.

Israelis in costumes spray water on each other during the annual Tel Aviv Water War on Hbima Square in Tel Aviv, Israel,10 July 2015. The annual water fight is on his 11th edition. (Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA)

Visarute Angkatavanich gets incredibly close up to capture these stunning portraits of Siamese fighting fish in graceful, dancerly poses. The Thai photographer uses perfectly placed lighting to create the dramatic highlights and shadows that give personality to each little finned creature.

In this November 9, 2014 photo, a man sits on the rope holding his bull by the neck as he waits to enter it in a bull fight in Leogane, Haiti. The obscure Haitian practice of fighting bulls is brutal like a cock or dog fight, but on a larger scale. A casual pastime for some rural men, it is serious business for others looking to pay their children's school fees or even buy a car. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

A female army recruit attends a base training at the armored battalion in Setermoen, northern Norway on August 11, 2016. Norway has become the first NATO member to have compulsory conscription for women as well as men in the army. Recently, the first batch of army recruits joined the ranks in The Armored Battalion in the Norwegian Army located in Setermoen in northern Norway. (Photo by Kyrre Lien/AFP Photo)

Convicts showcase creations during a fashion show at female penal colony No 10 in the village of Gornoye, Primorye Territory, Russia on June 7, 2017. Prisoners of the colony sew clothes at a garment factory and every year they celebrate Day of Light Industry by presenting the clothes they made. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)

A member of Kyrgyzstan's first female hockey team arrives for a training session in the village of Otradnoye, Kyrgyzstan on February 4, 2020. Based in the remote village of Otradnoe, 249 miles (400 kilometres) east of the country's capital Bishkek, the team comprises of around 15 girls from a local school and uses a flooded allotment to train on during the winter months. (Photo by Vladimir Pirogov/Reuters)

An instructor from the Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd. Co, smashes a bottle over a female recruit's head during a training session for China's first female bodyguards in Beijing January 13, 2012. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)