Day 8
Only 2 more days of having to pack saddle bags and strap them onto the back of the saddle! Hurray!!! There was some relief in this thought until you looked out of the ger at the torrential rain that we were going to have to ride through in order to get to that final day! Our horses were good, to be honest they weren’t really tested. We started off riding through crop fields (the only crops we had seen during the entire journey!!) on slippery mud tracks so speed wasn’t an option and the weather was so bad that you just put your head down and pushed on. They were great horses in that they just did that, no antics, shying or anything, just went where you wanted them to go which really was exactly what we needed. For some perspective on the weather, by 7:30am I had a puddle in my left boot where the rain was running down my leg! We realised at this point how lucky we had been with the weather during the race. We hadn’t been rained on since day 1, there had been rain overnight but it had always cleared by morning. The whole thing would have been so much harder if we had been riding in this for days on end, putting wet clothes back on each morning. It seemed almost unimaginable how much worse things could have been when we’d struggled with what we’d had!
We were still the back of the pack and now we had Unenburen, our Mongolian Head Horseman, at the back of the field with us. He became a bit of a chaperone/shadow for us over the last 6 legs, stopping to take photos of us and provide encouragement. We hadn’t seem him since the start line, he had been with the front group getting the horse stations set up and making sure everything was running smoothly, but now with nearly half the field over the finish line he was at the back of the field ensuring the close was going well and spending time thanking the families at each of these stations.
At HS24 we had planned not to stop, the thought of going in getting warm and then having to put our wet clothes back on was not appealing! We were so wet we just wanted to keep going. Unfortunately Jeanette had a fall dismounting. Her right knee was so bad she was struggling to dismount, so instead of leaving her left foot in the stirrup, as we were supposed to, she went for a traditional dismount but her horse found that all to much and bolted as she got off. That body protector she was wearing came in handy again!! So a bit bruised and shaken we went into the gers to warm up and have some food. I’m glad we did the family were lovely, they had moved back to the nomad way having lived in Ulaanbataar for a number of years and spoke some English.
After a little break we picked our next horses and carried on to ger 25. The start of this leg was a struggle to say the least. As we were leaving a crew vehicle came past us and pointed us in the direction we needed to go. Straight across another bog and river!!! This was not on the GPS!! We got through that to find that I had the most mischievous little pony going and probably my hardest ride of the entire race. He was about 13hh!! So we’d go into canter and he would bolt between the other two setting all 3 of us of into an uncontrollable gallop, going uphill was the only way any of us had any breaks to start with… This continued for a couple of kms which didn’t really help with the navigation. Once we were back on track Charmaine suggested a racing trick where by you don’t start cantering together but leave a gap between each horse. We had control which was great, however my pony was much smaller than theirs and when he got left behind he just decided that he didn’t want to go any more. As soon as I’d catch them up and we were back together as a group he take to bolting through the other two horses again and trying to set them off. It took 30km and a mountain for me to get to a point where I could stop him doing this!
So we got to HS25, the sun had come out and we had dried off. We were just getting our horses checked in when there was an emergency call so the vet was called out. We couldn’t leave without a vet to sign in our current horses and sign out the new ones so we had a leisurely lunch. This has to be one of the highlights of the race. We were sat in a beautiful area by a lake, the family were so friendly and hospitable, they had a table and chairs set up out in the sunshine and just kept brining food. The daughter spoke some English as she learnt it at school so we were able to communicate without the interpreter who had gone off with the vet. A second vet arrived and we got ready to leave. As we were about to the heavens opened. We decided to hide in the ger until it passed (about 15/20) mins and then we headed off. Whilst we were sat with the family sheltering from the rain, they gave us a piece of advice that we should ride the Mongolian way, just push the horses to run until they were tired, then walk for a bit to rest them and then let them run again. That’s how the Mongolians got around, none of this trotting for kms on end…
So off we headed to HS26. All three of our horses were steady and we didn’t really get much more than a lope out of any of them. So it was slow and when we were almost at the next station we found flood water and another river that was not on the GPS! This had been a day of such mixed emotions and this was just so disheartening! All we wanted to do was get to HS27 that night and time was slipping away dealing with terrain that was slowing us down and no way of speeding anything up. Unenburen had said the night before that if we could get to HS27 there’d be a traditional meal prepared and a bit of a last night celebration and we really didn’t want to miss that.
We finally made it to HS26 and Unenburen was there, we asked him to help us pick our horses. And here’s where we had an incredible end to the day, talk about ups and downs… Jeanette had a racehorse that had an extra gear, just when you thought you were galloping it found another speed and it was gone… Charmaine’s horse was quick and both of them had some control issues. Mine didn’t have the speed but just kept going so I pointed them in the right direction and off we went. It was a shame because if I had had this horse for any other leg he would have seemed amazing but against these two he was just slightly lacking. When we were taking a bit of a break half way through the leg Unenburen passed us and stopped to give us each a KitKat Chunky. Amazing! A little chocolate fix was just perfect at this point… We did the leg in 1.5 hours, unbelievable!
So HS27 and the dinner of champions! Basically a milk churn, layer in goat, potatoes and stones and slow cook over a fire. The stones mean that the meat cooks evenly. It was incredible! The three of us, some of the crew and family all in one ger enjoying the meal, very, very special!
Day 9
So the final day, only 2 legs between us and the finish line and a whole day to do it in, all we had to do was not do anything stupid! It was a strange feeling knowing that you were so close to the end, bittersweet in that getting to the end had been all we had wanted to do for over a week but I didn’t really want to get there any more as that meant I had to stop doing this. Yes it hurt and yes it was hard but everyone was so amazing, the horses were incredible and the thought of having to leave the Steppe to go back to ‘reality’ was not really something I could even bring myself to think about…
The family that ran this station were racehorse trainers (see all the medals/sashes behind us in the photo above) so we were in hope of some good steeds. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was just rising as we left and you knew it was going to be a hot day. We got 3 chunky little horses who ran and ran and ran. For this leg we went with the advice that we had received the day before, let them run until they tire, because if we didn’t then they pulled your arms out wanting to go faster… Unfortunately Charmaine’s horse went lame a couple of kms out from HS28 so from a fast start we slowed to a walk for the last few kms. And the not doing anything stupid… Well as we walked along Jeanette and I went through her Spotify playlists to work out what our finish line song should be… Luckily neither her horse or mine seemed to mind the music choices! We made it to HS28 in one piece, the final station! We stopped for breakfast, this was our last station so there was no way we couldn’t enjoy the nomad hospitality one last time. By now the sun was out, it was warm and we were enjoying our final day and going to make the most of every last opportunity.
Our final 3 horses were just fantastic. This horse I named Nic due to the nic on his left ear. They felt like riding horses, like something you would pay to hire and enjoy riding. The leg was beautiful, almost alpine. We didn’t rush, just enjoyed the horses and the view. As we had been leaving HS28 the last two riders that had stopped at HS26 the night before had been arriving. They passed us about an hour into the final leg. We told them to tell everyone at the end that we were taking it easy and just enjoying a little holiday on this last leg. We’d been at the back for most of the race so it seemed fitting that we should cross the line last! Unenburen followed us the whole way, stopping to take pictures 3 or 4 times during the route.
In the final few kms we came down into a valley with a lake at the bottom, the end camp was on the other side of the lake. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We all went quiet for a while, I think the realisation of what we had achieved finally hit each of us and I don’t think I was the only one to shed a silent tear.
And then there is was, the finish line, the flags out and everyone there to cheer you across the line. Hugs all round, everyone so pleased to see you. Your horse taken off you and a beer put in your hand, and there we go, over, job done, one of not too many people in the World who have managed to complete the longest, toughest multi-horse race in the World.
It’s a feeling I can’t describe completing the Derby, euphoric maybe?!A feeling like you are walking on clouds. I doubt it will be a feeling I have ever again.