Steppe Riding

All geared to go

The first part of our Mongolia tour was to tackle Mikes dream of riding into the rolling hills for 3 days on horseback. Equipped with mass amount of Advil and other pain killlers we saddled up after lunch on the first day. There was about 10 of us riding all together on horses of various sizes and speeds. We soon found out which ones were the fastest and the ones who would listen to your commands. Years ago when I was about 11 I took riding lessons in the summer for a few weeks and when I asked my teacher how long it would take before I would be able to go faster than a trot she said "about 3 years of riding every weekend." I immediately quit the lessons which was good because I think that it only took about a hour before all of us were on our horses in a full gallop together in the middle of a valley. It was a definite rush of excitement which made you forget just how much you knees and but hurt, at least for the first while. 

Cornelius and I

My horse also had a small obsession with being the first, he didn't take to kindly to me wanting to take it easy after about 5 hours of riding and no longer being able to feel my legs.