Lament of a Mongolian Herder

As soon as I found out my trip to the UK was going to take me through Mongolia, I decided I wanted to be a Mongolian Horde and go galloping across the steppes. (I know a horde is a large group of people, humor me).

So, while staying out on the steppes, I organised to go on a two hour horse ride. When the appointed time arrived, I wandered down to the front of my ger (Mongolian nomad's tent) camp to await in great anticipation for the arrival of the horses and the local warrior who would be my guide.

But, after all the lead-up, my life as a horde got off to a very undignified start as the warrior and I went trotting off with me firmly attached to a lead reign. We trotted for about 10 minutes before coming across a couple of young men herding sheep and goats. The warrior joined in - with me attached - and it seemed my Mongolian Horde adventure was going to be more a Mongolian Herder experience.

Things got better a short time later, when the warrior released me from the lead reign and I got to join in the herding on my own. Undoubtedly I was getting in the way as they had no English (apart from "tank you" and "okayyyyyy") and I could not for the life of me work out what they were trying to do with the herd. It was so incomprehensible that had I not known that there was no way three men were going to waste their time entertaining me for $3 an hour, I would have thought the whole thing was for my benefit.

Anyway, after half an hour or so they had done whatever they were doing and my warrior and I separated from the other men, rode up a hill, then got off the horses, sat down and admired the view. At this point it became apparent that the warrior had no idea what to do with me (go galloping across the steppes maybe??) soooooooo we went and chased the goats again. At least this time we were only chasing them in one direction so I felt like I was contributing.

After we'd harassed the animals for a while, for lack of anything better to do (invade China??) we rode to a nearby ger so the warrior could have a chat to a lady milking her goats. Then, as we still didn't have anything else to do (invade Europe maybe??), we went to the warrior's ger to have tea and cheese and look at photos of him at different stages of his life.

By this time the two hours was up so we galloped the 300m across the steppes back to my ger camp, pulling up in front of some very impressed elderly Finnish tourists.

Finnish lady: "How long have you been riding for?"
Me: "Two hours."
Her: "Oh, so you must have gone a long way."
Me: "No, just over there. We chased goats, then had tea."
Her: "Well it looked very exciting."

PS. I actually enjoyed every second of my Mongolian Herder experience, and everything about Mongolia, the country is so beautiful and the people are truly wonderful and hospitable. The tour company we were booked through run five day horse riding trips across the steppes to the mountains and I'm really keen to go back and do something like that in a few years, so if anyone else is keen let me know!!