There is an ancient sport played in Central Asia, Afghanistan and other countries which trace their origins to central Asia nomadic tribes, the sport is called:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi
This sport seems to be of very ancient origin probably dating back to Median tribes.
Interestingly the word Pathan seems to be comprised of two words Path + Han. The word Path gives rise to another word Pattha in Urdu, i guess.
It seems that the people writing the family names "Han" predate the word Pathan. Kurds which are also horse riding people connect with people of Media as their predecessors.
The above stated sport seems to come from ancient horse riding people trying to save their injured or dead people during wars that took place on horseback for hundreds of years in central Asia, Afghanistan, etc. The beheaded sheep (an injured person is in pain and riding a horse in injury causes more pain but the injured person needs to be carried back to the base camp for recovery is symbolized by a sheep with no head) is a symbol of an injured or dead friend who is picked up in a battlefield and as often wars fought on horses often took place many kilometers away from the base camps, the injured or the dead warrior of the clan is shifted from one horse rider to another until the camp is reached, shifting of the horse was necessary as horse would get tired with two warriors on a long distance. This is an ancient sport where skills of horsemen and horses were tested in a war like situation to prepare for real war casualty retrieval.
Why a sheep? because these tribesmen were mainly central Asian animal/sheep rearers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes
It seems that Pathans, Pashtuns, ancient Median tribes men, etc., come from the same roots.
All have been horse riding people have been recognized in different cultures at different points of time with same words. A simple example is the word "Ashvameadh", which stands for people who perform horse sacrifice in Indian context directly connect with Scythian tribes of central Asia. While "Meadh", which in Indian context is recognized by a work these tribes performed. The local people/ tribes living in India would have connected the word ""Medh/Meadh", with the work these tribes performed when these tribes arrived in Indian subcontinent, while in central Asia upper Iran these tribes were ancient people residing in that region for a much considerable amount of time. This shows that these tribes migrated at certain point of time to Indian subcontinent. This also means that although these tribes were from the same roots and these tribes came at different periods of time as warriors, travelling tradesmen, soldiers who were lost, tribes which were displaced, etc.
The linguistic context/recognition of these tribes is very ancient in India, that means that these tribes were living, travelling in Indian subcontinent since ancient times. Can these tribes we recognized through the same work even today? Hard to say, because of numerous kingdoms, wars, etc., identities could have changed over a period of long time. These tribes could be recognized through their accumulation of people as these ancient warring clans stuck together during ancient wars so were able to save their ancient identity in some form or other. The horses have been lost by these tribes and so have been their traditional way of life.