After a two-year absence, the world’s longest and toughest horse race, The Mongol Derby, has been thundering across Mongolia’s steppe for the last eight days. Based on the ancient horse messenger system used by Genghis Khan, in a country where the horse is king, at 1000km the Derby is the toughest test on the planet for equestrian endurance riders. Whilst…
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Age is irrelevant. The Long from the USA; the 2013 Mongol Derby was won by 19-year-old Lara Prior-Palmer from the UK. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you do for a living; we’ve had competitors from nearly everywhere you can think of, and they range from tech geeks to businesswomen to former jockeys. You do need…
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In an extraordinary, seven-day demonstration of horsemanship, fortitude and navigational skill, the USA’s Robert (Bob) Long, 70, became the oldest winner of the 1,000km Mongol Derby, the world’s longest horse race. Bob, who has a PhD in Public Health, in 2013 retired from Healthwise, a company he helped build up from the ground. Commenting on his success Bob joked: It’s…
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How does one prepare for Mongolian horses? That is one question I have an easy answer to, you don’t. Here in the Netherlands, where I live, we do not have horses that come anything near the Mongolian horses. Not in size, not in temperament and not in strength. The Mongolian horses are bred for centuries for their habitat, work, and…
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Here, in her second contribution, Anne talks about her struggles and how she’s overcome problems with anxiety and other health issues she’s faced over the last 10 years. One crazy idea, why? – Anne’s Mongol Derby II We all know you must be a kind of crazy to want to go to Mongolia to ride on over 25 half-wild local……...
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Readers Blog: Anne’s story Written by Anne Binnendijk Mongolia, the country with few people and lots of horses in between Russia and China is the place where every year, the Mongol Derby takes place. About 40 riders, 1000 horses and 27 horse stations get set to cover a distance of 1000 kilometers (about 621 miles). It’s called the longest and…
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