Mongol Derby

Orangina said:
. I think every culture should be prepared to progress when it comes to animal welfare.
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I totally agree

Snow-pony said:
you have to remember these horses live semi wild on vast plains, eating the diet horses were originally designed to eat, unshod etc, so in many ways are already living a better life than a lot of leisure and competition horses in Western society.
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I wonder how many of these Mongolian horses have EMS leading to laminitis? I wonder how many Western society leisure and competition horses have EMS leading to laminitis? Here in Western society there is so much that could be done to progress horse welfare and we haven't even got to competing and many of the other questionable things we do.
 
Snow-pony said:
The Horse Boy! It is a fantastic book! I think there is also a movie, but i haven't seen it!

There is also a documentary type film on You Tube about the Mongol Derby called All The Wild Horses which is a good watch for anyone that wants more idea what the actual race is like. I think it was filmed over several races and cut to be a little more dramatic than it possibly is though!
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That’s it!!
Also: A Traveller on Horseback in Eastern Turkey and Iran, Christina Dodwell, about 30 years ago, solo wildernesses with the horse - hats off to her!
Plus, visuals, Bruce Parry completed some ethnographic participant observation with Mongolian horsepeople, televised as part of documentary series with ‘tribal’ communities.
Enjoy.
 
Snow-pony said:
I have signed up for the 2027 Mongol Derby! Was hoping to bring it forward to 2026, but as someone mentioned previously, it is quite expensive so that's looking quite unlikely unless I manage to get sponsorship!

I personally believe the welfare standards for the horses to be very high, you have to remember these horses live semi wild on vast plains, eating the diet horses were originally designed to eat, unshod etc, so in many ways are already living a better life than a lot of leisure and competition horses in Western society.
They are rigorously vetted prior to the race.
Each horse does one leg of the race (there are usually around 29 legs, so about 35km each) and when a rider returns the horse to the next horse station they are vetted again- the standards are based on FEI endurance stats, but have been made more rigorous for the Mongol derby. If a horse is lame, or if its heart rate doesn't come down to the required level within the allowed time, riders receive time penalties, so they are incentives to look after the horses.

All riders are weighed (with all their kit) prior to the start of the race, and must come in under 85kg, with kit. So despite someone commenting that some of the men "look over 85kg", they definitely aren't!

The horse stations are run by Mongolian families, who are proud to have their horses used for the race, and are well compensated. The traditional nomadic culture is in decline, and anything that helps sustain it for as long as possible is a good thing in my view. The derby vets also treat any of their other animals needing attention, bearing in mind that a lot of these animals would get little, if any medical attention on a day to day basis.

I was amused by the view of a GPS navigated jolly across Mongolia for a lot of rich people, I mean I guess that's not entirely inaccurate but its probably a bit over simplified! 😂
Riders do get GPS navigation devices, which will show you a straight line between horse stations but they do also need to read a map to see where there are mountains, cliffs, rivers etc. So whilst the GPS undoubtedly makes it easier, I'm not sure how well riders would do if they solely relied on that! And whilst I don't doubt the participants are well off (and let's be honest, anyone that owns a horse in the UK/Ireland etc is actually well off whether they feel like it or not!), I for one (ane certainly many other participants) definitely wouldn't be considered "rich" in comparison to actual "rich" equestrian folk!

I do think its an amazing way to experience a sadly declining culture. Experiencing proper "wild" Mongolia, eating traditional food cooked by locals, camping out or asking to stay with random local families between horse stations. Sure, the locals probably find it a bit odd/amusing, but I do feel (hope?) that they embrace it and enjoy sharing their culture!

Sorry, that was quite long, but in summary I think it's pretty great and I cant wait to do it!
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I hope and wish you have a most magical time, the above post was informative and well written…
Don’t know if you have been asked to write a complete full story of your ride, but please do…warts and all..
 
I think I’m getting old. It looks incredible but I don’t think I fancy riding those horses or that terrain. Looks terribly hard work with high risk of injury!
 
rara007 said:
I think I’m getting old. It looks incredible but I don’t think I fancy riding those horses or that terrain. Looks terribly hard work with high risk of injury!
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You're also a very very very long way from a hospital. And even further from anything we would recognise as a hospital! (Says the girl who is going climbing mountains in a former USSR Central Asian repiblic next month.... 😬)
 

the last few posts reminded me I had forgotten to post this link. It is Warwick Schiller. I was a bit horrified when I saw they reared but he explains why which is not the horse's fault. . I notice on google there are other videos he made of the gaucho derby which may give a bit more insight into it.
 
Gamebird said:
You're also a very very very long way from a hospital. And even further from anything we would recognise as a hospital! (Says the girl who is going climbing mountains in a former USSR Central Asian repiblic next month.... 😬)
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This is true, but there’s a lot of supervision, and back-up at the staging posts, c.30km between, I think?
You might be geographically close to a hospital in UK, but waiting times for ambulances and A&E might not leave you that much further adrift....
Have a great trip mountaineering.
 
Exasperated said:
This is true, but there’s a lot of supervision, and back-up at the staging posts, c.30km between, I think?
You might be geographically close to a hospital in UK, but waiting times for ambulances and A&E might not leave you that much further adrift....
Have a great trip mountaineering.
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Thank you!

I was thinking about a fractured pelvis or femur. I think you'd be a long rough jeep ride and 1 or 2 (at least) flights away from a reasonable orthopaedic surgeon! I know that is definitely true of where I'm going. The size and remoteness of these wildernesses is staggering. I have read reports of hospital treatment in the country I'm going to and it is rudimentary to say the least.
 
Gamebird said:
Thank you!

I was thinking about a fractured pelvis or femur. I think you'd be a long rough jeep ride and 1 or 2 (at least) flights away from a reasonable orthopaedic surgeon! I know that is definitely true of where I'm going. The size and remoteness of these wildernesses is staggering. I have read reports of hospital treatment in the country I'm going to and it is rudimentary to say the least.
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Hmmm, might be better not to think about it!
On the other hand, if worst comes to the worst, ever read ‘Touching the Void’, Joe Simpson, mountaineering in Latin America? That has to be about the worst, then a long, rough mule ride before the long, rough jeep ride, but even he recovered.
 
Aye, had a friend who fell down a gully in Peru and tw7tted himself. Only access to their location was by foot or equid, and my mate was not remotely horsey. Poor guy had to ride a donkey to the nearest road with broken ribs, broken collarbone, and a bad concussion.

Joe Simpson kind of takes the biscuit for crawling out of a glacier and down a mountain with his tibia shoved into his knee.
 
Caol Ila said:
Aye, had a friend who fell down a gully in Peru and tw7tted himself. Only access to their location was by foot or equid, and my mate was not remotely horsey. Poor guy had to ride a donkey to the nearest road with broken ribs, broken collarbone, and a bad concussion.

Joe Simpson kind of takes the biscuit for crawling out of a glacier and down a mountain with his tibia shoved into his knee
Caol Ila said:
Aye, had a friend who fell down a gully in Peru and tw7tted himself. Only access to their location was by foot or equid, and my mate was not remotely horsey. Poor guy had to ride a donkey to the nearest road with broken ribs, broken collarbone, and a bad concussion.

Joe Simpson kind of takes the biscuit for crawling out of a glacier and down a mountain with his tibia shoved into his knee.
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....and then the mule ride, and then the vehicle trips..... but even that mishap was overcome! If you dwelt on that, you’d never attempt anything - I hope all these adventurous people have a splendid time, and return safely with the photos and stories
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Caol Ila said:
Aye, had a friend who fell down a gully in Peru and tw7tted himself. Only access to their location was by foot or equid, and my mate was not remotely horsey. Poor guy had to ride a donkey to the nearest road with broken ribs, broken collarbone, and a bad concussion.

Joe Simpson kind of takes the biscuit for crawling out of a glacier and down a mountain with his tibia shoved into his knee.
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This last bit is my favourite "understatement of the weekend".
 
I had a friend who competed in the same one Robert Patterson MP, not the sexy guy from Batman, competed in. His many worry was his diet as he was a vegetarian I think as not really a place to grow veggies, Mongolia. And his weight to ride pony’s as he was super tall. Sadly got bucked of a few 100 feet from finish.
 
I didn't enjoy the book very much. I wanted to know more about the ponies and the logistics of the race, how it was run and what it was like. It was mostly about her. I didn't end up bothering to finish it, which is unusual for me.
 
Mongolian horses are tiny, tough, sure-footed and wiry, and independent-minded. In 2008 I did Zavkhan Trekking's initial exploratory late summer horseback Altai mountain exploration ride. We were warned by leader John that it would be basic, sometimes uncomfortable, with temperatures hot and cold, all kinds of weather including snow, nights in tents and sleeping bags, camping, and to look out for each other and ourselves as we would be days from nearest hospital and no air ambulanace.

It was stunning, memorable, hospitable, wonderful, occasionally scarey. Absolutely the trip of a lifetime and wonderful to meet and spend time with locals. We shared almost no language but with hand signs and body language, we had wonderful conversations.

I'd dreamt of going to Mongolia ever since reading about the Pazryck tombs (an article with ink line drawings, no photos) in a 1970s Riding annual. It was everything and more that I could ever have imagined it to be.

in 2008 Mongolia was a couintry in the midst of huige change - huge numbers of nomads moving to the towns and cities in search of income and after a series of zuds (harsh winters that cause many deaths of livestock), foreign investors and countries eyeing up mining and other lucrative land use opportunities wholesale.

Mongolia has an extremely high literacy rate among its population. And schoolchildren learn English...something not lost on me as I was crouching over a long drop toilet (this was near Bayan-Olgi where we stayed one night in a place with no toilet) with no front door.... It was 8.30am and a gaggle of pupils were walking to school when they spot this tall, white woman. So they all stopped to practice their English on me, while my thighs started shaking as I just wanted to wipe myself and pull my trousers up, but being English it seemed rude to brandish toilet paper in front of them....

We spent first and last nights in a hote in Ulaanbaatar (we'd taken internal flight to Bayan-Olgi to get to Altai region) where we saw some very luxury top end cars which would drive round and round the same city route endlessly because outside of Ulaanbaatar then was mainly sandy desert tracks, not tarmac roads.

We took a minibus ride to Kustan National Park at end of the holiday and saw the wild Przewalski horse herds, and in a quiet 2 hours of sitting on a hillside we spotted a lone wolf too.

So glad I got to go and see Mongolia then. Memories that will last a lifetime.

There is a documentary on Mongolia on tele (BBC, ITV or Channel 5, can't remember) thsi Friday night, 15 Aug.
 
Channel 5's Lost In The Desert With Nick Knowles (Friday 0pm) was AMAZING. Very horsey. Brought back amazing memories of this wonderful country and culture. Nick's obvious passion for it was exactly how I felt in 2008 on visiitng it. Definitely worth seeing, Anotehr part to come next Friday too.
 
Suechoccy said:
Channel 5's Lost In The Desert With Nick Knowles (Friday 0pm) was AMAZING. Very horsey. Brought back amazing memories of this wonderful country and culture. Nick's obvious passion for it was exactly how I felt in 2008 on visiitng it. Definitely worth seeing, Anotehr part to come next Friday too.
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Excellent wasn't it. Amazing little horses and so tough.
 
Late to the party but we have just watch two episodes of Lost in the Desert. Wow what a fabulous series and yes I also want to visit Mongolia. I am not a fan of Nick but thought he did a great job with this series.
 
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