Steppe-riders Weekend

Steppe-riders really isn't located so far outside Ulaanbaatar, but even a hour and a half drive makes a world of difference. The rolling hills, nice (and sometimes chilly) breeze, and the stars at night...

The main reason we went though was for the horse-back riding. Despite a childhood fascination with horse books, I really have not ridden very many times. I think I've ridden a horse maybe five or six times before this weekend, so I'm not the world's most confident rider. Luckily Mongolian horses are fairly short, so if you were to get bounced out of the saddle the ground wouldn't be too far away.

We arrived at the ger camp and decided to postpone lunch until after our ride, which was probably a wise decision. I asked for a slow, nice-tempered horse and was given Donkey, so-named for his grey, donkey-like color. Of course, this caused me to try to remember all of Eddie Murphy's best speeches from Shrek. As we went up and down rolling and sometimes rocky hills, at times we were "a Donkey on the edge".

Me and Donkey, off in search of waffles.


To get Mongolian horses to go, you are encouraged to yell "Chu!" at them. This is rarely effective, and the slow horses especially tend to stick in packs and only move as fast as their friends. With enough encouragement from our guides/herders, however, there were prolonged periods of fast trotting. Fast trotting is incredibly hard to adapt to and makes you feel like any moment you may well bounce out of the saddle. Rarely, however, the horse will progress into a canter, which is faster but sooo much smoother. During the trotting, I tried my best to remember tips about how to post, with varied success. All in all though, it was a really fun experience and a beautiful day. Temperatures in the 60s, few clouds, a light breeze, and good company.


After our ride and a hearty lunch of tsuivan, we did a bit of hiking in the surrounding hills.

We stayed overnight in the ger camp, enjoying new and old friends and some chicken potato curry for dinner. After abstaining from the airag (fermented horse milk) and vodka drinking games, it took some finagling to get our wood stove in the ger burning. But once it was going, in my sleeping bag and two blankets on top I was quite comfortable throughout the night. In the early evening it was dark enough and pleasant enough for stargaze for ten or twenty minutes, which was incredibly beautiful. In the U.S. it is so hard to get far enough away from light pollution to really see stars, but in the Mongolian countryside you can see as many as you want for as long as you can stand the cold.


The next morning after a breakfast of fried bread with jam, a few of us headed out a short second ride. My horse this time around was a real sweetheart who loved to go fast, but a canter is really much more enjoyable than a fast trot. It was another beautiful day, and I'm glad we got to go a second time. After that we headed back to the city, bouncing around in our van, and then had a hearty lunch at Stupa Cafe. Now I'm off for a well-needed shower and to rest my bruised bones. Definitely worth it!