Mongolian Outback Days 8 & 9 - Horseback at Orkhon Falls

When I think of Mongolia, I think of its people and their horses. Is traditionally said here that "A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without wings." The Mongolian horse is a native breed to Mongolia, short but strong with a large head in comparison to its body, and save for one special horse, a shortly cut mane. Mares and geldings have their hair cut short each spring. Its allowed to grow through the winter to provide warmth, but is cut again the following year. However, the mane of the single stallion of the herd is left alone for its entire life. The manes are used for spiritual (e.g., spirit banners) and utilitarian (e.g., rope) purposes and the tails sometimes trimmed for violin bows.

The Mongol horse is hearty. It’s largely left alone to fend for itself. Even in the winter it forages for its own food, digging back the snow to eat the grasses in the winter. Even today, their hooves are not trimmed or shoed because they have hard hooves and live like wild horses. They are also not bathed. The long maned stallion’s job, in addition to getting busy with all of the mares, is to protect the herd of 15-50 geldings and mares from wolves. As there are more horses than people in Mongolia, you would see herds and herds of these magnificent beasts, with their flat topped haircuts while exploring the countryside.

The Mongolian horse has remained largely unchanged since the days of Genghis Khan. It’s stamina is widely credited with enabling the conquests of the Mongolian Empire in the 1200s. Each warrier would typically bring with him 3-5 horses, but up to 20, which he would continually alternate and remount while racing across long distances. Because the horses could all forage for their own food, unlike European horses, strong supply lines were needed less and an army could press forward more quickly.

And during our three days in Orkhon, we would spend a lot of time with them. Each day, twice a day, we mount horses together and ride them wherever we wanted. In the US, due to liability concerns, if you rent a horse you typically are going to go on a walking trail ride. In Mongolia, you hop on and do what you want to do.

Like most kids, Milagro and Vicente LOVE horses. Over the days, Milagro’s riding style evolved from that of holding on to the pommel horn with blistered hands for balance to learning to trot while standing, and even galloping with a centered, straight back using knee pressure for balance. There was a bit of frustration and a couple tears in between, but she ended with a huge smile on her face. I was proud of her.

We rode into the plains and herded goats and sheep for fun. We galloped to the main falls and jumped into the icy waters.

We crossed streams and happened upon a different set of falls with a group of 6 singing German women who had camped the night in tents and were either divorced or had left their husbands behind.  We also jumped in the waterfall water.  Holy moly was it cold.

Back at camp, we all tried airag, the national drink. Each of us drank down a little fermented mare’s milk, which you can buy for 3000 MT ($1.25) per 1.5 liter bottle. It was a different experience as I wasn’t used to drinking alcohol and having a meal at the same time. It was also a little sour. But there was no way I was leaving Mongolia without trying it.

In Orkhon, we sadly separated ways with Helena and Espen. While we’d both booked trips the same company - Adventure Riders - their itinerary was now taking them elsewhere. We’d played soccer with them for 5 or 6 nights in a row and would miss them. Milagro and Vicente made thank you/goodbye cards for them which was special.

On the lighter side of things, while I had always tried to be respectful and non-intrusive when flying the drone I’d brought on our trip (e.g., waking up early to fly it before others were awake), the morning I flew the DJI Spark in Orkhon it came across a middle aged woman pooping or peeing in the middle of nowhere without any cover halfway along the trail to the waterfall. I felt bad.

She was out here likely due to the infamous Orkhon Waterfall bathroom. As I noted in a prior post, all the bathrooms in rural Mongolia we came across were stand up shacks with a slit in the floor. People pretty much got used to it, or at least grew to expect it. Well, the bathrooms in the Orkhon Waterfall area were particularly bad. So bad, that many people, including women, would opt for just hiking somewhere and doing their business off the grid.

The worst bathroom in Mongolia...

Because they filled to the top.

And if that’s not enough to make sure you understand the good (and the good is absolutely spectacular) along with the bad for an adventure like this, here’s a 3 year old waking up in the morning for you ;-)

In all seriousness, there was about as much complaining as you’d expect from two adults and two kids packed into a car or ger for 9 days straight, but the kids were tremendous troopers and it was a great opportunity to spend so much uninterrupted time with them, especially for me coming from the days of 70 hour weeks back at Small World Labs.