This photograph taken on March 7, 2024 shows an Afghan caretaker feeding a horse a day prior to the Buzkashi league tournament final match between riders of the Yama Petroleum and Baghlan teams, at a makeshift stable in Mazar-i-Sharif. Played for centuries in Afghanistan's northern steppes, the national sport at the heart of Afghan identity has evolved from a rough, rural pastime to a professionalised phenomenon flush with cash. Traditionally, buzkashi is played with the headless body of a goat. More often a 30-kilogramme (66-pound) leather sack stands in for the carcass that riders try to pull from a fray of horses and drop in a "circle of justice" traced on the ground after doing a lap of the arena at full gallop with competitors in hot pursuit. (Photo by Atif ARYAN / AFP)