Ba Jara Thaba (They Carry the Mountain)
A tribute to the Basotho horse in the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP2026)
High in the Lesotho Highlands, where the spray from Maletsunyane Falls drifts into the mountain air and winding footpaths disappear into the clouds, the horse is more than a means of transport. It is family, history, livelihood, and freedom.
For generations, the Basotho people have lived in partnership with their horses, navigating terrain too steep for roads and too wild for machines. Here, where the mountains determine the pace of life, horse and rider move as one - carrying food, people, stories, and traditions between remote communities.
It is a relationship built on trust, not ownership.
Ba Jara Thaba - "They Carry the Mountain" - captures this enduring bond through the eyes of filmmaker Ramon Mellett, whose two-year journey into the heart of Semongkong reveals a world that remains remarkably untouched by modernity. Rather than documenting a sporting spectacle, the film lingers in the quieter moments: the stillness before the race, the soft exchange between rider and horse, the silence that follows the thunder of hooves across the highlands.
The informal horse races that unfold across these mountain trails are exhilarating, but they are also something deeper. They celebrate a culture where resilience is measured not only by endurance, but by connection - to community, to landscape, and to generations of inherited knowledge.
For those working to restore landscapes around the world,
there is something profoundly familiar in this story.
Healthy landscapes are sustained by the people who know them best. The Basotho have adapted to these mountains for centuries, reading weather in the wind, navigating what to many would seem impossible terrain, and living within the rhythms of a place that demands both humility and respect. Their knowledge, like that of Indigenous Peoples and local communities across the globe, reminds us that stewardship is not simply about conserving land. It is about belonging to it.
As conversations around land restoration and pastoralist identities continue to grow - from the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists to UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia - it is worth remembering that resilience is rarely built through infrastructure alone. It is carried in culture, in relationships, and in traditions that have endured long before the language of restoration entered our vocabulary.
The mountains of Lesotho remind us that restoration is not only about healing landscapes. It is also about honouring the people whose lives have always been intertwined with them.
FILM CREDITS:
Director+DOP+Editor: Ramon Mellett
Music+SoundDesign: Oliver Stutz & Sean Ross (Supernormal Audio)
Colorist: Nic Apostoli (StrangeLovePost)
Local Fixer: Thabang Julius Mawela Maphokoane (+266 6205 1280)
Jockeys: Katleho Balothi, Molefi Manaka
