Horse riding in Kazakhstan: where to ride and what to expect

Horse riding in Kazakhstan is written into the official price lists of seven national parks. Ministry of Ecology Order No. 232 (as amended on 15 December 2025) sets each of them a rate for hiring a riding animal, most often 0.2 MRP per hour. Near Almaty it works differently: the city’s own national park, Ile-Alatau, has no such rate, and horses there come from mountain resorts and private owners. This page shows the rates, the places near Almaty and Kolsai, and what to check before you get in the saddle.

The short answer: where to ride

Your options depend on where you are based and how much you want arranged in advance.

• Staying in Almaty: pick a mountain resort east of the city. Oi-Karagai has a riding centre; Ak-Bulak runs horse rides in summer.
• On a Kolsai and Kaindy trip: hire through the Kolsai Lakes park at the official hourly rate, or from local residents at the Kaindy car park.
• Further afield: Katon-Karagay in the Altai, Sayram-Ugam in the south, Bayanaul and Kokshetau in the north, and Zhongar-Alatau in the south-east all list horse hire.
• A named horse route: Buiratau, between Astana and Karaganda, is the only park with a priced horse trail.

Which national parks hire out horses, and at what rate

Seven state national nature parks have an approved rate for hiring “draught and riding animals”. The order never uses the word “horse”, but this is the line that covers horse hire. Rates are in MRP, the monthly calculation index: a unit fixed each year in the state budget law, so the tenge amount changes from year to year.

Read the table as a map of where the park itself stands behind the horse and the price is set by law. The Buiratau row is a route fee: the park’s horse-hire line is blank, so you pay for the right to ride the trail, not for the animal.

Four nature reserves also price riding animals: Aksu-Zhabagly, Almaty and West Altai at 0.2 MRP per hour, and the Ertis Ormany reserve at 0.4 MRP per hour. In the Charyn, Kolsai and Sayram-Ugam annexes riding animals appear twice, priced in a transport line and blank in a standard hire line, and the order does not explain why. Guides, filming permits and yurts are covered on our page on national park services.

Riding near Almaty: resorts and private owners

Ile-Alatau National Park, which covers the mountains above Almaty, has no line for riding animals in its price list. Yet the park’s forestry service counts horse routes among its 38 tourist routes, according to bes.media in April 2026. So on those routes the horse is not the park’s. That is legal: under Article 46 of the Law on Protected Areas, tourism in a national park may be run by the park itself and by individuals and companies providing tourist services.

In practice that means the resorts. Oi-Karagai has a riding centre, and its horse and walking routes lead to Kabanye (Boar) Lake through Ile-Alatau park. Ak-Bulak, a resort in the Soldatskoe gorge beyond Talgar, offers horse rides in summer. Both set their own prices, so check the resort’s price list on the day; the Order No. 232 rates do not apply.

You will also see herds on the Assy plateau east of Almaty, where sheep and horses graze in summer. That is pasture, and we have no information on horse hire there.

Kolsai Lakes and Kaindy: horses at the car park

At Kolsai you can hire a riding animal from the park at 0.2 MRP per hour. At the Kaindy Lake car park, local residents offer horses to visitors for the walk of about 1.5 km to the lake. The usual overnight base for both lakes is Saty village.

Accounts differ on what is going on at Kaindy. In November 2025 Tengrinews reported that a footpath built in 2024 had been closed for a “technical fault” and was under repair, and some visitors linked the closure to pressure to hire horses. The Kolsai Lakes park press office replied that the closure had “nothing to do” with horse rides. Both positions come from the same report. Check the current state of the trail on our Kolsai Lakes page.

Parks where the park itself does not hire horses

Altyn-Emel and Karkaraly have a horse-hire line in their price lists, but it is blank: the park does not provide the service. The same blank appears for Tarbagatai, Ulytau, Ile-Balkhash, Altyn Dala, Akzhaiyk, Irgiz-Turgai and Semey Ormany. Burabay’s tariffs are set by the Presidential Property Management Department, and they include no services with riding animals at all.

So if someone offers you a horse in one of these parks, the offer does not come from the park. We could not confirm who provides horses at Altyn-Emel or Karkaraly.

What you pay: park entry plus the horse

Park entry and horse hire are separate lines in the order. Entry is charged per person at its own rate; our protected area tariffs page lists every park and converts MRP into tenge for the current year.

Where you may ride inside a park depends on its zones. By law a national park has four zones. Regulated tourist use is allowed in the tourism and recreation zone. In the strict protection zone, covering 10–40% of a park’s area, only regulated ecotourism is allowed, so if a horse route enters it, ask the park whether that route is permitted.

Safety: insurance, ticks and a checklist

Kazakhstan’s compulsory tourist insurance does not apply to trips inside the country. The Law on Compulsory Tourist Insurance names the insurer as a tour operator in outbound tourism and the insured as a tourist leaving the country. It does not cover a horse ride in the Kazakh mountains, so check that your own travel policy names horse riding.

Ticks are the other risk. In Zhetisu region the tick season runs from April to September and peaks in May and June. Tick-borne encephalitis foci there include five districts, Sarkand among them, which is where Zhongar-Alatau park lies. After a bite, immunoglobulin is recommended, preferably within the first three days. Read more on our page on ticks, snakes and bears and see medical care in Kazakhstan for where to go.

Before you ride:

1. Ask whose horse it is: the park’s (rate in MRP set by the order) or a resort’s or private owner’s (their own price).
2. Ask how you are charged: per hour, per kilometre or per route. At Zhongar-Alatau, agree the distance before you set off.
3. Pay park entry separately and keep the receipt.
4. Check that your travel insurance covers horse riding.
5. From April to September cover your arms and legs, and check yourself and your clothes after the ride.
6. Keep off areas signposted as treated against ticks for the first three days after treatment.
7. We found no rules on helmets, rider age or weight in the law or the order, so ask whoever provides the horse.

Horses in Kazakh culture: what UNESCO recognises

Of Kazakhstan’s 14 elements on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, one is about horses: the traditional spring festive rites of Kazakh horse breeders, inscribed in 2018. Kokpar, the mounted game played with a goat carcass, is not on the lists for Kazakhstan, and kumys (fermented mare’s milk) is not inscribed as a separate element. A 2026 nomination, “Salburyn, a horse festival with tazy hounds and golden eagles”, is still under review. For eagle hunters and where to see them, see our page on eagle hunting in Kazakhstan.

On breeds our only sources are encyclopedia articles, and unreviewed ones. According to Russian Wikipedia, the Kazakh horse stands 140 to 165 cm at the withers and is used under saddle, as a pack horse and in harness; its most prized type, the zhabe, is found in Central Kazakhstan. The Adaev breed from Mangystau in the south-west is smaller, 136–140 cm, and was officially recognised in 2011.

What we could not find