Mongol Derby 2025 – Day 1 – A fork in the road

Equestrianists.com - Full Article

Holly Conyers
4th August 2025

Day 1 of the 2025 Mongol Derby has drawn to a nail biting close. Since thundering across the start line at around 11AM Mongolian time this morning as a pack of 45 strong, our field has already covered some serious ground to spread out across the steppe. The gauntlet has been well and truly laid down by four early contenders for the lead, the gap between them too close to call. Anna Boden (ABO) and Bertie Siggers (BSI) appear to have formed a dynamic duo, having ridden side by side since shortly out of the start gates on a pair of perfectly matching dark bays to storm up the course. Riding similarly impressive debut days were Sam Phelps (SPH) and Kami Bitting (KBI), who have banded together since riding out of HS2. The quartet had been in the lead pack all day, until a dramatic turn of events at HS2: SPH and KBI turned on their hocks to shoot out of the station back the way they had come straight into the incoming tide of riders behind them, while ABO and BSI rocketed off in the opposite direction. The pairs have each found a hospitable family to accommodate them for their first night out in the wilds of the steppe, but whose navigational nous will give them the edge coming into HS3 tomorrow, and will these nascent partnerships last? It’s all to play for...

Read more here:
https://equestrianists.com/updates/mongol-derby-2025-day-1-a-fork-in-the-road/

Mongol Derby 2025 – Pre-Race Training Day 3 – Ready for lift off

Equestrianists.com - Full Article

Holly Conyers
3rd August 2025

Bootcamp for our intrepid cohort of Mongol Derby 2025 riders has drawn to a close, and we’re delighted to report that all 45 of our contenders have passed with flying colours. Briefings complete, saddlebags packed and one last sleep in an actual bed to go, we are satisfied that they’re as ready as they’ll ever be to strap themselves into the Derby rollercoaster. While a few more riders briefly parted company with their horses today, all are in one piece and currently tucked up asleep, dreaming sweet dreams of imminent Derby glory. A relatively smooth (albeit sweltering) day by Derby standards, even blessed by the timely arrival of two riders’ errant baggage. An auspicious way to wrap up Start Camp, but who will have had all the luck to take an early lead this time tomorrow? Make sure you’re tuned into our socials at 10am(ish) Mongolian time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for: blast off for the 2025 Mongol Derby.

Riders awoke today to another morning of blazing sunshine for their last day of bootcamp. A delight for most, but a rude awakening for some. A few bleary eyed members of the field and crew were last spotted in the early hours of the morning performing a passionate rendition of Ginuwine’s “Pony” and rocking a disco-ball crash helmet after plundering the Start Camp bar. We applaud their appropriate choice of equine-themed anthem for this important rider and crew bonding ritual. A few rejuvenating showers later this morning, and everybody was ready to face the day. On the agenda: a medical briefing, the course run-down and one final test ride complete with fully packed saddlebag...

read more here:
https://equestrianists.com/updates/mongol-derby-2025-pre-race-training-day-3-ready-for-take-off/

Mongol Derby 2025 – Pre-Race Training Day 2 – X marks the spot

Equestrianists.com - Full Article

Holly Conyers
3rd August 2025

Day 2 of Pre-Race Training on the 2025 Mongol Derby dawned bright and sunny, with not a cloud in the endless steppe skies. Our riders leapt out of bed like children on Christmas morning. Today was the day: their long awaited first brush with the mythical Mongolian horse. But Santa had some tricks up his sleeve with these gift horses. While some riders took flight on perfect ponies, others returned back down to earth with a rather hard bump. Bootcamp has well and truly begun, and our riders have had a real taste of what the steppe has in store. With just one more day of training to go before they set off to tackle the longest and toughest horse race in the world, we take a look at how they’ve fared today.

But before we let our jockeys anywhere near an actual horse, we thought it best to give them a bit of an education on how to pilot their steeds in vaguely the right direction. While horsemanship talent is obviously a pretty useful skill out on the steppe, navigational nous comes a very close second. Riders in the Derby are completely responsible for navigating themselves between the Horse Stations which make up the checkpoints along the 1,000km Derby course. They must ride from HS1 to HS2 to HS3 and so forth in the correct order until they finally reach the finish line at HS29, but the route they pick between each of those stations is entirely their own problem...

Read more here:
https://equestrianists.com/updates/mongol-derby-2025-pre-race-training-day-2-x-marks-the-spot/

Mongol Derby 2025 – Pre-Race Training Day 1 – The red carpet rolls out

Equestrianists.com - Full Article

Holly Conyers
1st August 2025

All those Derby dreams are finally starting to feel alarmingly real. Our 45 contenders for the 2025 Mongol Derby crown are now safely bedded down for their first evening out on the steppe in Mongol Derby Start Camp. In just three days’ time on Monday 4 August, they’ll be exploding off the start line of the 2025 Mongol Derby. Ahead of them lies a weekend of action-packed Derby bootcamp, led by our crack team of Derby veterans and crew. Start Camp Day 1 may not have involved much more than a lengthy bus ride and rider weigh-in, but a couple of hopefuls are already facing the first challenge to their Derby campaign: the perils of the Ulaanbaatar airport lost luggage system.

Our jockeys rose bright and early this morning, gathering together in Ulaanbaatar to hail their first ride of the Derby: the bus to Start Camp. A good test of the reserves of endurance and patience to be drawn on in the 10 days to come, all passed with flying colours. Photographer Kathy was on hand to document the first moments of their Derby journey. Uta Hesterberg (UHE) reported feeling “excited, nervous, petrified and elated” – a pretty accurate summary of the classic pre-Derby jitters. Our 2022 joint Gaucho Derby champion Anna Boden (ABO) was an exception. Introducing herself rather confidently as “rank: legend”, she leaped on the bus while expressing her hope to minimise the saddle sores this time round...

Read more here:
https://equestrianists.com/updates/mongol-derby-2025-pre-race-training-day-1-the-red-carpet-rolls-out/

Mongol Derby 2025 – Rider rollcall

Equestrianists.com - Full Article

Holly Conyers
28th July 2025

Hello, Derby fans. We meet again. At long last, the wait is over. It’s been an agonisingly slow, dreary year since our 2024 Mongol Derby riders galloped across the finish line somewhere in the Mongolian wilds. But never fear: the Derby drought is almost over. In just a week’s time on the 4th of August 2025, the start flag will go down on the 14th official Mongol Derby and we’ll all be saved from existential boredom by another 10 days of Derby thrills and spills.

While the crew are busy scrubbing tack, charging GPS trackers and herding up champion racehorses from across the land, riders are beginning to descend on Ulaanbaatar. Months – if not years – of careful preparation are about to be put to the test in the longest and toughest horse race on the planet. Over 1,000km of self-navigated racing across the untamed Mongolian steppe, atop just marginally more tame horses.

As these intrepid adventurers wing their way to start camp from far flung corners of the globe laden with copious quantities of anti-chafing cream, you may be asking yourself: just what kind of screw must you have loose to take on this monumental equine adventure? We’ve been wondering that ourselves, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce you to the cast of the 2025 Mongol Derby: behold, the riders...

Read more here:
https://equestrianists.com/updates/mongol-derby-2025-rider-rollcall/

FEI Endurance World Championship for Young Horses ready to test tomorrow’s stars in the hills of Haute-Loire

Inside.FEI.org - Full story

30 July 2025 Author: Bella Fricker

The FEI Endurance World Championship for Young Horses is set to take place for the first time in the stunning hills of Haute-Loire, France. This prestigious 120-kilometre event will bring together the world’s most promising young horses and their human partners to compete over a course that tests endurance, skill, and partnership. Excitement is building among competitors and spectators alike as they look forward to a memorable championship in this beautiful new setting.

Terrain and Technicality

Athletes will face a technically varied course designed with the development of young horses in mind. “The terrain alternates between hard, rocky tracks, dirt trails and grass paths,” explains Event Director Yves Cuerq (FRA). “Most of the route runs under the canopy of trees, offering welcome shade, and while there are rolling hills to test both horse and rider, there are no overly severe obstacles.”

To protect the young equine athletes, the course has been carefully marked and modified where needed to ensure comfortable conditions for all – equine and human athletes, their teams, and the public. “We’ve worked closely with officials and technical delegates to adjust both the start and finish areas,” Cuerq notes. “Our goal was a track that is sufficiently technical to challenge the competitors, but not so simple that it encourages excessive speeds. Each junction is manned by a security officer, and directional arrows and painted markings will remain in place permanently, thanks to our partners in the local authorities.”

Ground preparation has been meticulous...

Read more here:
https://inside.fei.org/media-updates/fei-endurance-world-championship-young-horses-ready-test-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-stars-hills-haute-loire

Fieldbrook native Jenn Laidlaw heads to Mongolia for ‘longest and toughest horse race on Earth’

Times-Standard.com - Full Article

By Robert Schaulis July 23, 2025

Next month, Humboldt County’s Jenn Laidlaw is slated to be the first Lost Coast local ever to compete in the Mongol Derby.

A 1,000-kilometer (more-than-600-mile) journey across the Mongolian steppe, the Mongol Derby is billed as “the longest and toughest horse race on Earth.” Riders mount semi-feral horses each day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and traverse contours of the country that messengers in the employ of Genghis Khan rode nearly 900 years ago.

“There’s no marked course, no packed lunches, no beds to sleep in,” the event’s website reads. “That’s the whole point. It’s just you, your team of horses and a thousand kilometers of Mongolian wilderness. The course consists of horse stations (morin urtuu in Mongolian) at 35-kilometer intervals where you swap your horse and refuel. You change horses at every station and deliver your mounts to the next in great health. How you navigate between them is where your adventure begins.”

The course-sponsoring organization, the Equestrianists, says it hopes to “deliver the greatest equine adventure in the world: high passes, huge valleys, wooded hills, river crossings, wetland, dunes and of course open steppe.”

It’s a far cry from Fieldbrook, the community just northeast of McKinleyville...

Read more here:
https://www.times-standard.com/2025/07/23/fieldbrook-native-jenn-laidlaw-heads-to-mongolia-for-longest-and-toughest-horse-race-on-earth/