2019 Mongol Derby: Better Together?

2019 Mongol Derby: Better Together?

*THREE DAYS TO GO*

Who to ride with, or whether to ride with anyone else at all, can be a defining decision. The race has been won by riders working together, riders on their own and riders who couldn’t be separated or who late in the day rode over the finish together.

Like so much of the Derby, who you end up riding with can be the result of a choice, good (or bad!) luck or circumstances. Some riders join up together, some team up before they arrive and some team up at some point en route. Some riders ride the whole way on their own, some get ditched by their team members, some part on good terms and some are forcibly separated. So here are some of the advantages and disadvantages to either way of getting over the line:

LONE WOLF - ADVANTAGES

- you can go at your own speed. No-one will hold you back, or force you to go at a pace your horse isn’t quite up to. You can get in and out of each station very quickly and are in total control of your race.

- there is something really special about riding one of these fantastic little horses completely on your own in the landscape. There is nothing that compares.

LONE WOLF - DISADVANTAGES

- if anything goes wrong, you’re on your own. No joke when you’re really hungry, lost and there are no gers on the horizon. Or worse, you have a terrible fall. It can happen, even to the best riders.

- it can be lonely. Having said this, perhaps you are in the middle of outer Mongolia in the wilderness because you wanted to be on your own? Or maybe you’re a misanthropist. Or just a plain old-fashioned arsehole?

WOLF PACK - ADVANTAGES

- horses are herd animals and some have a strong preference for travelling with a friend/ friends. You can even ask the herders for horses that go well together. After all, there’s nothing like wrestling with an uncooperative arse of a horse on your own in the middle of nowhere to make you realise that man is also a herd animal...

- 1000 kilometres is a loooong way. The steppe is beautiful, the horses are great but in between the great experiences and the terrifying experiences is a lot of just sitting on a horse.

- IF you make it through on good terms (a big if), you will have something amazing in common for the rest of your lives.

WOLF PACK - DISADVANTAGES

- not all riders are created equal. Mismatched teams are either a lesson in teamwork, or a recipe for disaster depending on the temperature, whether it has rained and the general attitude of the horses at the most recent station. Not forgetting the general attitude of the riders.

- luck isn’t fairly distributed. Even the most loyal team can be divided if one rider is forced to sit out a lengthy penalty while the other team member(s) have the option of riding on.

- some riders snore.

So, Derbyists - did you ride on your own? Was it lonely? Did you make a friend/ bring a friend? Did you finish in the team you started with? Happy memories, bad memories, funny memories —> the best will win a cup of coffee from my local independent coffee van when you next find yourselves in my corner of NZ on a Friday morning.

*PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Dunwoody*