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.

This 2014 series Shanghai Tian Wa saw Chinese photographer Liu Tao train his lens on two distinct districts in Shanghai. Here: “Shanghai Tian Wai №26, 2014”. (Photo by Liu Tao/The Guardian)

A serviceman kisses the main icon for the Russian Armed Forces' main cathedral, delivered at the Church of Our Lady the Healer in Rostov-On-Don, Russia on May 15, 2018. The Russian Armed Forces' main cathedral is to be built in Patriot Military Park in Kubinka outside Moscow by 2020, the year of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Red Army over Nazi Germany in the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War, the Eastern Front of World War II. (Photo by Valery Matytsin/TASS)

Same-sеx marriage supporters kiss outside the Legislative Yuan Friday, May 17, 2019, in Taipei, Taiwan after the legislature passed a law allowing same-sеx marriage in a first for Asia. The vote Friday allows same-sеx couples full legal marriage rights, including in areas such as taxes, insurance and child custody. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

Kambeba Indian, Dream Braga, 18, aims his arrow in a jungle near the village Tres Unidos, Amazon state May 9, 2015. Dream Braga has been shooting fish with a bow and arrow for most of his life. In the Amazonian village where he grew up, that was what kids did for food and fun. He participated in the Indigenous Archery Project which recruits Amazon native children to compete with modern archery equipment and try for a place on the national team, with the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as their ultimate goal. After training with Olympic coaches for three months, he has now been promoted to Brazil's national team. (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

The social media star, British model Demi Rose wows her fans and showed off her famous curves as she modelled in a bikini for “I Saw It First” in Ibiza, Spain on Monday, May 28, 2018. (Photo by KP Pictures)

Taiwanese artist Hank Cheng poses with his miniature model of Taipei street scenes, in New Taipei City, Taiwan on June 17, 2018. While some of the vehicles used in Cheng's street scenes are bought in shops, all the buildings and small details like the magazines and the furniture for his model houses are created from scratch. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

In this handout photograph received from the Delhi Police at the scene of the incident, an Indian schoolboy is confronted by a white tiger inside its enclosure at the Delhi Zoo in New Delhi on September 23, 2014. A white tiger on September 23 attacked and killed a schoolboy who appeared to have jumped or fallen into its enclosure at the zoo in the Indian capital, witnesses said. (Photo by AFP Photo/Delhi Police)