csikós

{{short description|Traditional herder of horses in Hungary}}

{{Other uses|Csikos (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}

{{use list-defined references|date=June 2013}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}

File:Tomsics Hortobágyi puszta.jpg of Hortobágy, 1846]]

File:Csikós a kőrösi pusztán.jpg, 1855]]

File:Hungarian folk wrangler.jpg

The csikós ({{IPA|hu|ˈt͡ʃikoːʃ|-}}, singular) is a horse-mounted herdsman of Hungary. The csikós tradition is closely associated with the Hungarian puszta, the temperate grasslands of the Great Hungarian Plain, which encompasses the largest stretches of the greater Pannonian Basin. In recent times, csikós have been particularly tied to the environs of Debrecen and Hortobágy National Park, the latter deploying csikós to watch over and maintain large herds of free-ranging native Hungarian ungulate breeds, including cattle, horses and sheep. The csikós tradition is also tied to the Nonius, a breed of horse with an epicentre of breeding in the Máta Stud, located some 3 kilometres from Hortobágy.