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.

“Horst Ludwig Wessel (October 9, 1907 – February 23, 1930) was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the lyrics to the song “Die Fahne hoch” (“The Flag On High”), usually known as Horst-Wessel-Lied (“The Horst Wessel Song”), which became the Nazi Party anthem and, de facto, Germany's co-national anthem from 1933 to 1945”. – Wikipedia

Photo: German Nazi activist Horst Wessel (left) at the head of a parade of S.A. stormtroopers, or “brownshirts”, in Nuremberg, Germany, 1929. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Zoo keeper Ross Poulter holds a White's Tree Frog in Edinburgh Zoo's new tropical forest zone on September 9, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Brilliant Birds Exhibit which brings together beautiful and rare birds from all over the world is now more colourful and unusual, with the unveiling of the zoo's new tropical forest zone bringing together a collection of vertebrates, invertebrates and amphibians for the very first time. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

“Hatem Moussa joined The Associated Press as a photojournalist in 1998. Since then, the Gaza City-based Moussa has covered repeated rounds of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in Gaza, including the wars of 2008-9, 2012 and 2014”. – Associated Press. Photo: A Palestinian youth jumps into the Mediterranean sea on the beach at the port of Gaza City, Gaza, Monday, August 27, 2012. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

A wrestler from the Nuba Mountains tribe is seen during a celebration of their cultural heritage, as part of ongoing events to commemorate the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, in Omdurman August 15, 2015. The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is observed on August 9 annually. (Photo by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

Photographer Han Youngsoo captured the ordinary people of Korea as the country emerged from war into an age of prosperity. Han Youngsoo: Photographs of Seoul 1956–63 is at the International Center of Photography (ICP), Jersey City, New Jersey, until June 9, 2017. Here: Seoul, Korea. (Photo by Han Youngsoo/The Guardian)

A dancer performs before a judging panel during the World Irish Dancing Championships in Dublin, Ireland on April 11, 2017. The April 9-16 event draws some 5,000 performers from Ireland and overseas, including from both the Irish diaspora in places like the United States and Australia as well as less likely countries such as Russia and Japan. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

United States Air Force Academy graduates cheer as the United States Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the graduation for the Class of 2021 at Falcon Stadium on May 26, 2021 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley gave the commencement address to the 1,019 graduates from the academy. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)