2019 Mongol Derby: and so it begins

As I sit writing in freezing New Zealand, the riders are sleeping peacefully in their warm and cosy gers on the start line next to the racehorse monument in Mongolia.  They've been weighed in, they have their gps units (loaned from the race organisers this year, removing one of the funniest and most brilliant random elements, but great news for the riders), they've been taught how to hobble a horse in case they want to camp out, received their race handbook, looked at the course map and they've even completed a training ride without too many dramas.

Sadly, the race has claimed its first casualty in the form of Pip Chisholm, who had a fall and won't be riding off the start this morning.  And both Jesse Byrne (AUS) and Katie Angus (UK) fell foul of marmot holes on the training ride; they're fine and riding on but Vasin Govender (SA) hurt his shoulder when he got bucked off and elected to sit out the of the training ride to save himself for the race.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

A short note on marmots and marmot holes: as cute as these little animals are (they pop up and down, are small and furry and make a little chirrup chirrup noise) they end several riders' races in spectacular fashion.  If a horse puts a foot in one of their little burrows at a gallop, it can somersault with the inevitable consequences for its rider.  It's a bit like the dread rotational fall I've heard eventers talk about.  Oh, and don't eat them raw or you run the risk of catching the bubonic plage.

Plague aside, all that remains is for the riders to pick their first horses and go!  

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