Once upon a time in the mountains lived Tolubai-Synch — an expert on the racing qualities of horses. One day, he was sitting in the mountains, holding a horse's skull in his hands, and lamenting bitterly. At that moment, a bay (a type of horse) passed by. He saw Tolubai, rode up to him, and asked what was troubling him. Tolubai replied, "There was a good horse, but it fell into bad hands and died." Then the bay invited him to choose a good racehorse from his herd.
The bay showed him all his horses. But Tolubai did not choose any of them. Suddenly, he saw a poor man on a nag, carrying firewood, and exclaimed, "Here is a good racehorse!" The bay became angry with Tolubai. He thought that Tolubai was mocking him and ordered that his eyes be gouged out. They gouged out Tolubai's eyes. But he asked the bay to give him that nag. The bay agreed.
For exactly forty days, Tolubai fed the horse. Since he could not see, his wife took care of the horse. He would tell her when to water it, when to give it oats, and when to let it frolic.
On the fortieth day, he approached the horse, felt it, and told his wife to saddle it. Then they mounted and rode to the bay's yurt. Tolubai showed the bay the horse and said that it was the very nag that had carried firewood, and he asked him to try to catch it with his racehorses. The bay ordered his horsemen to saddle their horses and chase after him.
One racehorse began to catch up with them. The wife told her husband that it was a horse with a white spot on its forehead. Then Tolubai instructed her, "Chase towards the sun. It has a thin skull, and it won't be able to race in the heat." His wife did so, and the bay's horseman fell behind. Then another horse with a long body began to catch up. Tolubai told his wife to run the horse over the stones. Then this horse also fell behind because it had thin and soft hooves.
Thus, Tolubai proved that this nag was more skillful than all the bay's horses.
