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.

Hunter Chiaki Kodama guts a deer in a shed in Oi, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, November 17, 2016. A small but growing number of Japanese women enter the male-dominated world of hunting, where it was once taboo for men to even speak to a woman before going on a hunt. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Young girls take ballet lessons at the New Dreams dance studio in the Luz neighborhood known to locals as Cracolandia (Crackland) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 14, 2015. For the young girls learning to jump and plie, the dance studio provides a way forward and out of the difficult environment they have grown up in. Brazil is one of the world's highest consuming countries of crack cocaine, and Cracolandia, or “Crack Land”, located in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, is one of the most intense and brutal hubs. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Palestinian girl Manar Al-Shinbari (R), 15, who lost her both legs by what medics said was Israeli shelling at a UN-run school where she was taking refuge during the 50-day war last summer, is helped by her sister to put on her headscarf in an apartment in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip January 13, 2015. Manar's mother and three of her brothers were killed in the same incident. The girl's family house was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the war. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Damaged train coaches at the site of a train accident, 180 kilometers from Bhopal near Harda district of Mahdya Pradesh, India, 05 August 2015. At least 25 people died when two passenger trains derailed in central India after heavy monsoon rains flooded railway tracks, officials said. Ten coaches from the trains toppled while approaching a small bridge just before midnight. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA)

People dressed in costumes have a break while marching during the Vijanera Festival, in the small village of Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, January 3, 2016. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly coloured clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

A street actor dressed as a devil frightens children in downtown Prague in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, December 5, 2016. On the eve of St. Nicholas, Czechs traditionally celebrate by dressing up as Devils, Angels and St. Nicholas, and visiting children in their homes handing out small presents, coal, potatoes or other gifts. (Photo by Petr David Josek/AP Photo)

In this November 17, 2014 photo, Pancho, a domesticated huitia, confronts a camera, in Bainoa, Cuba. With their rope-like, dark tails, long front teeth, and whiskers that appear to be vibrating, huitias look like giant rats. They measure nearly a foot long (about 30 centimeters), with the largest ones weighing in bigger than a small dog. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)