HOW A BUKHARIAN JEWISH PHILANTHROPIST FROM NEW YORK IS DEVELOPING EQUESTRIANISM IN UZBEKISTAN
Sports
Equestrian sport in Uzbekistan is experiencing a revival, and one of the driving forces behind it is a Bukharian Jew from New York.
Shimon Alaev has put not only substantial funds but also his own energy into restoring the Uzbek school of horsemanship.
A Friendship That Began in the Stable
For centuries, Bukharian Jews have been an inseparable part of Central Asia’s cultural code. Many people from the region who have achieved success in the United States are returning with projects aimed at the prosperity of their historical homeland.
Shimon Alaev is an entrepreneur and a prominent member of New York’s Bukharian Jewish community who immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s.
“Even though I have lived in the US for a long time, my love of horses gives me extra motivation to support the development of my native Uzbekistan,” says Alaev.
In 2012, together with his close friend, Uzbek entrepreneur Bakhromjon Gaziev, he founded the company Universal Jumping Agro in Tashkent to develop equestrianism in Uzbekistan and support young athletes.
According to Alaev, his love of horses dates back to the time when his family lived next door to the Gaziev family in the Rakat mahalla, one of Tashkent’s old neighborhoods.
Gaziev’s father, Valijon-aka, kept several horses, and his uncle Murodjon was a professional equestrian athlete. The two families were close friends and often visited each other, and it was from these friends that Alaev caught his passion for horses.
Many years have passed since then. Alaev built a successful business manufacturing medical prosthetics in the United States, while Gaziev founded a successful publishing company in Uzbekistan.
(The New York philanthropist also supports the arts, and helped found Art Vernissage, a gallery in Tashkent.)
Yet the friendship between the two families, like their love of horses, only grew stronger over time, and this ultimately led to the creation of an equestrian complex in Uzbekistan.
Universal Jumping Agro is not a business venture. The complex and its young athletes are supported by the philanthropists’ personal funds.
Winning
Medals—Home and Abroad
Athletes trained with Alaev’s support form the backbone of Uzbekistan’s national team in show jumping and other equestrian disciplines, such as Bekzod Kurbanov, Khurshid Alimjanov, and Khumoyun Abdullaev.
One of the most significant results of this support has been the successful performance of Universal Jumping Agro riders at major international competitions in the United States, Europe and Asia.
In 2026, the club’s own Bekzod Kurbanov became the first rider in the history of Uzbek equestrian sport to compete in the world’s premier tournaments in Fort Worth, Texas and Aachen, Germany. He also finished in the top 10 in the individual show jumping qualifier at the Asian Games in Japan.
For Uzbek athletes, this support creates an opportunity to compete against leading masters, gain experience and set higher goals for themselves. For the younger generation, it is also a clear example that the path from first training sessions to the world stage is possible.
Today, Universal Jumping Agro has more than 100 sport horses and its facilities can host world-class sporting events. Just last weekend, November 5–8, it hosted the FEI Jumping World Challenge, an international show jumping competition with athletes from more than 10 countries.
Learning and Growing with Horses
The special value of this work cannot be measured in medals.
Drawing on his own experience, Bakhromjon Gaziev notes that for many young people, their introduction to equestrian sport begins with admiration for a horse. He recalls how, as early as the fifth grade, he would run after school to his grandfather’s house, where his first horse, Baikal, was waiting for him.
Gradually, this feeling grows into attachment and an understanding of responsibility for a living being. Equestrian sport becomes not just a hobby but an important part of a person’s life.
By supporting equestrian sport, Alaev helps preserve a space in which young people develop these qualities. Some of them will eventually become professional athletes, others will choose different careers, but the experience of care, responsibility and kindness toward animals will stay with them.
A Shared Heritage
For centuries, Central Asia has been a region where people of different nationalities have lived together in peace and harmony.
The work of this New York philanthropist, be it equestrianism or the arts, shows that these traditions of respect and trust endure across generations and borders.
His story proves that when love for one’s native land and respect for history lie at the heart of cooperation, cultural differences become not a barrier but a source of mutual growth.
For Alaev, it all comes back to spreading his love of horses: “I hope this feeling will stay with the young trainees of our sports center for the rest of their lives.”
By Yevgeny Zhuk,
Uzbekistan
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