Mongolia

Photos and text courtesy of Noreen
One good thing about riding in Mongolia- the local ponies are small and are less intimidating to ride than horses...

Mongolian ponies. Don't judge them by their size- they are strong and sturdy

The local riding style is different but not too difficult to pick up. To get the ponies to move faster, we say “chu” instead of walk-on, trot or canter. Also, the saddle may take some getting used to- it’s very unlike the English or Western saddles we are accustomed to. Traditional Mongolian saddles are actually made of wood (ouch!) Thankfully, for us tourists, they have custom-made saddles with cushions, which made it more bearable to sit on!

A traditional Mongolian saddle. Made of wood and does not look comfy at all

Initially, we planned for a 3 day, 2 night ride but because of the rain, we only managed to do a 2 day, 1 night ride and a separate half-day ride.

The half-day ride brought us past Lake Khuvsgal and up to a hill where we picnicked on local “curry-puffs”, which were yummy and reminded me of Singaporean food. The view was amazing and the horses (ponies actually) were calm- maybe a bit too calm as we were hoping to go faster at some places.

The breathtaking view of Lake Khuvsgal from horseback

Our trusty steeds

Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to canter much, as (a) the ponies don’t seem to know what canter is. (b) some trails are only 30cm wide (by the cliff!) so it’s pretty dangerous to canter.
We were also introduced to the local flora, most of which seemed to have medicinal properties to cure sore throat, fever, flu etc. Amazing right?

Gorgeous green trails- a haven for riders

Our guide, Jaime, spoke great English. The owner of the horses also joined us, along with his dog which followed us throughout the trail.

Taking a well-deserved break

We started off the 2 day, 1 night tour by driving to see a reindeer family. And yes- they do have real reindeer! Apparently, they aren’t easy to ride (and normally no one rides them) because they have loose skin and it’s difficult to keep a saddle in place on their backs. After the reindeer expedition, stayed with a local family. We spent the time chilling and exploring the Mongolian woods. The night was cold, but luckily we had our own “heater” in the house, which was fuelled by fire-wood.

A common sight along the trails - traditional Mongolian houses or "gers"

The next morning, they brought over our ponies- all 6 of them (2 for us, 1 for the guide, 1 for the herd leader and 1 young foal that just tagged along the entire way). The weather wasn’t on our side and it started raining not long after we started riding. At one point, the rain got so hard that it got difficult to see! Luckily, we had our rain jackets which kept our bodies dry and warm. Alas, our rain jackets could only do so much- our breeches and gloves were soaking wet by the time we arrived at our lunch check-point. Thankfully, the family who hosted us for lunch had a big “heater” and we were able to dry ourselves a bit and fill our tummies before getting back into the saddle! We continued on in the rain; which was, thankfully, not as heavy as before and only reached our camp-site in the early evening.

That pretty much sums up our riding experience in Mongolia. Here’s some information about how we planned our trip:

Time of travel - Aug 2009 (for 16 days)

Place - Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar, Gobi Dessert, Terejl National Park & Lake Khuvsgul

Cost : Around S$4000 in total
Air Tickets: We booked our air tickets in Singapore (you will have to go from Singapore to Beijing to Ulaanbaatar- we paid around S$1500 altogether)

Accommodation: Hostel style. There are lots of hostels to choose from in Ulaanbattar itself (e.g., the Gobi hostel, UB hostel, Golden Gobi etc)

Tour Agency: In Ulaanbattar, we used this agency. It’s run by an English-speaking couple. They were very helpful in arranging for accommodation and tours, which range from a few days to several weeks. You can contact them for more information.

We took the following tours:
- Gobi Desert tour (6D5N) – no horse-riding on this tour
- Terejl National Park – day trip. I would not recommend it. We did a 2 hour trail ride which was only so-so.
- Lake Khuvsgul, also known as the Switzerland of the East. It was really beautiful and we did a lot of horse-riding here. The duration of the tour is pretty flexible and you can choose how many days you want to ride.