WILDER MIND
Mongolian horses might only be 12-14 hands but they pack a punch. Anyone who mistakenly calls them ‘ponies’ will rescind the judgement after riding these diminutive powerhouses. These are the same hardy beasts that carried the Mongol warriors over half the world. You should think of them as equine gladiators; grass fuelled, air cooled, saddled and bridled after some serious negotiation. They don’t come when you whistle and they won’t appreciate a pat on the neck or a kiss on the nose.
The controls can be rudimentary but they are the toughest and most fit-for-purpose partners imaginable for the Mongol Derby. Impervious to heat, cold, hunger, thirst, flies, foods, deserts, and really anything else that Mongolian mother nature can throw, they can cross terrain that would make a thoroughbred weep and maintain speeds that would put them in contention in many a tough endurance ride.
Horse racing is one of the three iconic sports in the traditional Mongolian Naadam, and is taken very seriously, with horses running up to 30kms across country. Many families involved with the Derby graciously lend us their finest racehorses, though the vast majority of the horses you will ride will be the ordinary working horses of the steppe, used for herding, transport etc. Not every horse will be a celebrated athlete, but every horse will have been carefully selected by our vet team and trained in the run-up to the event. They will be fit, healthy, older than 5, and tough as a titanium spork.
ENSURING HORSE WELFARE
Planning the event
Rider selection
We select riders according to their suitability; their riding experience, not just in years and heights of fences or distances raced, but in terms of horsemanship. We look for riders with proven ability to work with their horses and a clear commitment to putting the horses first. We reserve the right to take references on any rider and frequently take these up. Every rider is interviewed by HQ and hand picked. All must weigh under 85kgs dressed to ride on race day 1.
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Horse selection
We seek to engage responsible and enlightened herders to prepare their horses well for the event. Rather than selecting 50 horses from one family, who cannot have the capacity to work with all 50 in the weeks leading up to the race and have them all fit, we select 8-10 from 5-6 different owners (often extended family), so that every horse is given the proper time and workload to be fit for the race. This means we are handling some 150 separate herders and contracts for the supply of horses, vastly increasing the logistical complexity of the event, but helping to ensure a higher quality of horses on the day for the riders, which have been handled and ridden more.
We time horse selection carefully, so that horses have time post selection to either gain condition, if they have been racing recently and are too lean to carry an adult, or lose body fat, which they accumulate very rapidly once the winter snows finally recede in May each year. Every horse's training requirements are discussed and they are aged and checked by a vet for soundness and heart and lung health; too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too small, too lazy, too crazy, poor conformation, heart arrhythmia, evidence of old injuries which could recur under strain, and the horse is not selected. We choose the biggest and best quality horses available and invest heavily in the families who supply them so that they understand the nature of the event and the physical demands that will be placed on their horses. We produce a physical catalogue of all of the horses selected for the Derby, and each urtuu family keeps this record. This ensures that, barring the odd emergency substitute, the horses used on the race are traceable, and we know they have been properly prepared, and verified as healthy and fit to take part by our selection team.
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Course design
The entire course is designed to safeguard horse welfare as far as possible. The availability of water is paramount and where the course does not naturally follow or cross freely available water sources we actively map nearby water sources and wells, and check their viability in multiple manual surveys prior to the event. In drought conditions we supplement the naturally available water supplies. Where sections of the course appear to pose a tough challenge for the horses, for example a very mountainous section, or a big river crossing, we recce on horseback and actively test the route for suitability before including it, and take advice from herders who live locally. By using horses local to every station we tend to find horses well adapted to whatever natural obstacles and conditions we come across on the Derby.
The dedicated crew
The veterinary support network
No horse may return from their destination urtuu until it has been cleared as fit to travel by one of our Mongol Derby vets. After being ridden on the Derby every horse undergoes a mandatory vet check. Any horse requiring treatment, or further observation by our vets, can be held at the urtuu. All vets are equipped to deal with all manner of veterinary issues and briefed to treat proactively, on the basis that they will not get recurring access to the horses as they might be accustomed to in a western veterinary hospital setting.
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Emergency response system
As well as the mandatory vet checks at every horse station the emergency response system allows riders who are concerned that their horse is sick, or injured, can summon help to their location between horse stations. Riders receive full briefing on how to summon this assistance at pre-race training. Any emergency, horse or rider related, takes precedence over ordinary race business during the Mongol Derby. This means that an urtuu could be out of action whilst the vet attended to an emergency away from his station. No horse will be left waiting for emergency treatment just to keep the race running.
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The role of the referees
A couple of key crew members are roaming the course during the Derby looking at actual riding standards on the Mongol Derby, not just who is where and who is winning. They have the authority to impose a veterinary penalty on horse welfare grounds, or indeed to outright disqualify an abusive rider. They also have the authority to hold a rider at an urtuu who they feel is physically unfit to continue. Fit to continue means fit to take care of a herder's precious horse. Delirious, asleep at the wheel, hypothermic or heat struck riders are as much a danger to their steeds as to themselves.
Strict rules
The weight limit.
No horse will carry more than 96kgs: 85kgs of rider, 2kgs of water, 5kgs of rider kit, and 5kgs of saddle and stirrups.
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The penalty system.
Riders get time penalties if their horses don't recover at an acceptable rate monitor their Derby run, and if a pattern of poor recovery emerges the organisers can disqualify a rider on horse welfare grounds. Vet penalties are treated as a horse welfare issue first, and a race tactical issue second - we investigate why the horse has been compromised and seek to exclude the possibility that a rider is pushing his or her horses too hard. Two race referees are on the course monitoring how riders are riding throughout the Derby and can be dispatched to spy on riders who have racked up penalties. Riders can flag suspicions or evidence of abusive riding to any of the event crews on the field and are encouraged to do so if they see horse welfare being compromised in any way between horse stations.
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No horse goes more than one leg.
Each horse is used just once on the Derby. Some will return home (most likely a reverse journey of 36kms back to where they started) without a rider on, same day, but this is very much a day in the life for a Mongolian horse, as they travel comparable distances just to graze, most days.