Your eyes aren’t deceiving you! We had to do a double-take as well, as the 2022 Mongol Derby — aka the longest horse race in the world at a stiff 1000 km / 600 mi distance to be covered on half-wild Mongolian horses — is back in quick succession with a second race following up the one that just completed. After consecutive COVID-19 cancellations, the race doubled up this year to allow those who’d signed up for 2020 and 2021 to have their time on the Steppe.
46 riders hailing from all over the globe have arrived at training camp and are hard at work learning the ropes of their GPS navigation and training on horseback ahead of the August Mongol Derby kickoff tomorrow, August 10. Each rider brings with them a mixture of experience, both in the horse world and out, but we’re keeping a particularly close eye on the proclaimed eventers, which for this round include:
- Alice Gully (GBR)
- Kate MacTaggart (GBR)
- Kristi Slattery (USA)
- Lisa Smith (USA)
- Mary Donohue (USA)
- Rachel Liebelt (USA)
You can take a gander at all the bios for this group of riders here. Remember, once the race begins, live GPS tracking will be provided on The Equestrianists using the initials of each competitor.
Ahead of kickoff tomorrow, let’s take a look at pre-race training, as the on-site team for the Mongol Derby is excellent at keeping us up to speed:
You can follow along with @mongolderby on Instagram and Facebook for more, as well as daily blogs and updates on The Equestrianists. We’ll keep you up to speed with more updates like this in the coming days!
