Preparation - Mongolia
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
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Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Lourenties,
France
Sunday, May 7, 2006
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In my preparation for Mongolia, I found a few very helpful and knowledgable people on Lonely Planet's forums. This entry is a copy/paste of these discussions, that can be found on the threads cost of mongolia and Mongolian Adventure Help!!!
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Posted By: MissJZB
I was in mongolia last august too. We went east and BOUGHT horses, which costed us about 135 euros per horse. (there were 2 of us). We made a trip of nearly four weeks. We bought food on the market before we set out, and tried to buy food in local shops if we crossed a town. For the rest people mostly offered us food and stuff. Water just comes out of the rivers. This will just cost purifier. At the end we sold the horses again, for about 70 euros each. So if you can calculate, the whole thing cost an insignificant amount. :) Most money we had to spend in the capital, no camping there...
Go for it...
Greetz
MissJZB
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Posted By: jumblina
If you buy horses for twice the price you manage to sell them for 4 weeks later, doesn't that say something? Unless they were injured, I'm sure horses don't depreciate that fast. If you buy/sell horses, get someone you trust to help you...
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Posted By: peace_frog
MissJZB,
I already asked you in another thread, but here is the question again: how much ground did you cover each day? how long did you spend on horsebask per day?
And I forgot the most important question: the saddle ! LP says you can buy english-style saddles from the russian army in UB. But I also heard that the wooden saddle, with a consequent thickness of wool, was the most comfortable. Which type did you use?
Any advice welcome
cheers
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: jumblina
There is no wool on a traditional wooden saddle, unless you put it there - just wood and a few metal decorations. You might want the genuine experience, but if you watch a Mongolian after a long day in the saddle, he'll be doing anything except sit straight on it to make himself more comfortable! Standing in the stirrups, sitting over to one side with the thigh over the saddle, sitting behind the saddle on the horse's bum...
The pommel of the Mongolian saddle is also very high, and the stirrups are short (of course you could change that but it's partly because the horses are small), so the inside of your thighs get bruised very quickly.
In other words, if you want to be comfortable, get a Russian army saddle! They're pretty much just big cushions - less support for you than an English-style saddle (which you might also find) but softer and specifically designed for long-distance riding rather than dressage.
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Posted By: Haribo
I am owner of horses in Mongolia and experienced.
About the distances you can cover, it depends on the age and the strongness of the horse (quality), the rider and the baggage. In june the horses are not fat (!!) and therefore not so strong! Horses will not put so large distances back and need larger rests to eat.
The price of a horse depends of the horse quality and where (in which Aimag) you will buy. Are not sure about the possibility to sell it after your ridings trip. The mongolians know that you have to sell your horse. Please know, that mongolians never will sell their best horses, if you are not experienced they will try to sell you the worst horse. Should you fall down, it can be, that the horse will go back to the herd.
About saddle: Try to get a saddle of the "altaic style". Especially the locals in western Aimags and in Khovsgol like to use. The mongolians call it "zeregiin emeel" (zereg = soldier, emeel = saddle). Such saddle is also "comfortable" for westerners and also I use such a saddle.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
Thanks Jumblina and Haribo,
the wool idea is from an argentinian friend who showed me what their cowboys put on their wooden saddles.
For choosing the horse, I plan to go with a guide for the first days, cauz I don't know these horses. I'll see how they behave, how to take care of them, etc...
And I'll see if I an get into an agreement to bring back the horse. Won't get me a better price, but maybe this way the seller may let me have a better horse. Kind of a rent.
Haribo, any idea of in which aimag I can find the fittest horses after the winter?
And still the same question: how much ground can you cover, approximately, in one day? Is it more like 20km or 40km ?
Thanks for all the advice
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: Haribo
The typical "horse Aimags" are Sukhbaatar, Selenge, Kheentii, Bulgan.
There live specialised horse breeders, also for horses with an open end price..
Check the age of the horse, if it is soft enough for your riding style, the fat, and very important is to make a several hours rode before you buy the horse. To speak with an breeder about the price will need bit time, you have to drink tea, to speak about your family and country, after all start to speak about price. Perhaps the seller has a saddle to sell, but donīt be sure. Prices of saddle are high in contrast horse prices can be.
I donīt know how you plan to transport your baggage and nothing about your own weight. If you plan a tour in the steppe (not in the mountains), you can make 20 or 30 km per day (perhaps sometimes farer). I wouldnīt go farer during a 2 or 3 weeks trip. Plan several rests.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
Haribo,
I do plan to "try out" the horse, of course. I will see if I need a second one for carrying the gear, still keeping the vital stuff on my back in case I fall. I weight a good 85kg, expecting to go down to 80kg after 2 weeks travelling, by experience.
Thanks again for all these infos.
Cheers
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: MissJZB
Hi adrian,
I answerred in the other thread already, but about the saddles: We used the traditional mongolian ones, and I did fine (I rode on it for 3 and a half weeks, so...) These will be cheaper than other saddles you can buy at the central black market. We first bought, chinese one, which look like western saddles, but these turned out to be of poor quality (as we noticed during a mini-test trip we did with rented horses). I can't tell you about the russian ones... So I found them comfortable enough. The thing that's the least comfortable is the position of your knees. Because the stirrups are short, a consequence of the horsebackriding style in mongolia, you tend to sit with your knees bent and a little in exorotation. This can be handled by just letting your feet dangle for a while out of the stirrups if you get tiered. (providing you don't have a restless horse). I don't know if the horses will except other riding-styles. We tried to do it like were used to in belgium... steering with our legs and all... but that didn't work. steering is with the reins only... maybe it's the same with stirrup length?
Jumblina is right that the saddles can occasionally hurt your thighs, but when this occured, I just put a fleece on my saddle for a while. Mongolians do stand up in their stirrups, etc but that's when they are trotting or galloping, which you wont do a lot if you do a longer trip. About the price at which we sold them: off course the horses didn't devaluate. We just didn't have the right information about prices, so in fact we payed too much at first because we didn't know how low we could bargain, without insulting the people we bought the horses from. It is probably inevidable that you pay more than a standard mongolian resident price, which is about 90 to 100 000 Tg. And when you sell them after a long trip the horses will be tiered in fact, plus mongolians will not give you the price they would pay another mongolian, they will try too buy it at a lower price.
Greetz
MissJZB
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Posted By: Haribo
Donīt use the traditional wooden saddle of the "Khalkh" mongolians especially with your weight of 85 kg! an example:
http://www.mongoltour-nomt.mn/images/84.jpg
Again: I appriciate a mongolian saddle of the altaic style (zeregiin emeel). an example:
http://boojum.com/CAVSADSV.jpg
Renew the leather straps to the stirrups according your legs. Locals will help you for small money. Your backside and your knees will appreciate.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
Again, thanks for all the input (and the links, Haribo).
One more question about the camping: do I need to bring in a bigger or a second tent for the horseriding gear and supplies? Can I find such tents/shelters in Mongolia?
Another thing: I am considering bringing in horseriding material for gift (maybe bargaining). What would you recomend that could be useful to Mongolians, if my idea is relevant (actually from LP Mongolia)?
Cheers
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: Haribo
You can find tents of bad quality in Ulaanbaatar. Bring only one small but not heavy tent (Think of the horse.) with you and store all your baggage during the night in the tent. Also tie your horse in front of the tents open door during the night that it can not be stolen.
Buy from the horse seller, hobbels and ropes. During the rests make a small fire with collected dry dung that the horse has the possibility to relax in the smoke (check the wind direction), it can be necessary in order of the flies.
About gifts you can check other threads.
Horseriding material is a good gift in countryside. Bring bridles (pony size!) and carabiners, Metal locks of different sizes which you are using for bridles, cinches, snaffles etc. are highly welcomend! The quality in Mongolia is very bad and often selfmade.
Haribo
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Posted By: MissJZB
We just put it in the "fore-tent"... :s how is it called in English???, you know the little space that is sheltered by the outer tent, but not within the inner tent... I guess it depends on how big your tent is, but I think it will not be necessary. Especially don't bring 2 tents!
We exchanged... again I'm lost for the english word (halster in dutch)... -the thing you put around the horses head, when your not riding, but when you want too lead it somewhere, or tie it to a rope- for a foot-lock as you might call it... It's something the mongolians use to put around the legs of their horse so it doesn't run off too far. We used our thing too tie the horses to a rope at night, but one of them, often tried to pull it off. They thought it looked very beatifull, so we swapped... I think it was like a trofee to them...
I think any equipement that looks foreign, (has bright colors or a different material then they're used to) may intrigue them... Bridles maybe? the bit looks different than we're used too and is made of 2 seperate parts. I would consider a western model as better quality, but I don't know if they would be happy to use it, or if it would fit their horses... No coverage for the horses back which is adapted to western like saddles (they looked at ours very suspiciously)...
greets
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Posted By: Haribo
Sorry, I made a mistake. MissJZB is right, I didnīt mean bridles but head-collars as very good gift. The locals like it very much but bring in a small size. True, no coverages.
Haribo
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Posted By: jumblina
re #21: as far as English goes - the words you're looking for are:
fore-tent - I would say 'porch', but not sure that's the technical term either!
halster = headcollar or halter
the 'foot-lock' is called a hobble
Might come in handy another time ;-)
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Posted By: peace_frog
Many thanks again.
Any comments on the bit? Better to have a european one?
For the tent, I took a 3kg very large one with optimum space/weight
I realize I will need a booklet with all the english vocabulary, if I want to communicate at all on horseriding ! If you have a suggestion for a lightweight one...
Salut
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: psykell
During the northern summer of 2003 I did a horse trek across central and northwestern Mongolia with a friend from NZ. We bought three horses and travelled 1000km without a guide from Tsetserleg (central) to Ulaangom (north west) over two months.
Our three geldings came from Tsetserleg 450kms west of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Meaning 'garden' or 'nursery', the area boasts the richest pastures and is reknowned for it's well fed herds, including an abundance of yaks. While we negotiated the price for our horses down from US$150 each to US$100, many herders thought we'd been ripped off. A resale price of US$60 at journey's end meant it effectively cost us $40 for the use of each horse for the whole two months. They do 'depreciate' in value, cos you've ridden them for the last 4 - 8 weeks - of course they're going to have lost some weight! Hiring them from one of the tourist outfits would have cost between US$5 a day or US$5 an hour, depending on how gullible they thought we were. Anyone considering riding in Mongolia for a few weeks or more should definitely put in the extra effort to find a herder selling reasonable horses. If reselling them at the other end seems too daunting, you can make them a gift to a family or set them free - they will join a local herd and continue life as it was before they met you - eating grass and wandering the steppe.
Camping alone in Mongolia is fine if you know what you're doing. Remember your GPS or compass at the least and get some topographical maps over here. Even with these aids it is very easy to get lost. The maps were made 10 yrs ago, the towns have changed their names, some have moved, others are derelict, seasonal water sources only flow at certain times of the year (well, obviously...) and roads that were once dirt tracks are now bigger dirt tracks with gravel on them qualifying as major roads. Confusingly, peaks that are under a certain height (can't remember if it was 100 or 200m) aren't marked meaning that you will be surrounded by hills but the maps will tell you are on flat ground. It takes a bit of getting used to.
Whatever you do, even in the summer, take warm clothes with you as well as t-shirts and shorts. We got snowed on twice during the middle of August and rained on every day bar one. Mind you we did ride predominantly in mountain ranges where clouds seem to hang out. Go figure.
If you want to take off on horses on your own make sure you do a trial run with a local guide for a few days so they can show you how to handle the horses, even if you ride at home. Mongolian horses are used to different things and if you try to use western practices on them they will think to themselves, "this person doesn't know what they are doing" and then fuck off on you. And even when you treat them right they will still try to escape! These are tough horses who are running wild most of their lives. The herders only bring them in to the stables at night, the rest of the time they roam around the countryside. In winter they're left to their own devices, usually sheltering from the sub-zero temperatures in forests where it's a bit warmer. They are not tame, they just tolerate our presence. Generally they settle down once you've got the saddle on. Dom's horse developed the habit of trying to kick him with his hind leg every time he tried to get in the saddle. And mine used to bite me on the arse when I tightened the saddle straps. Lots of things seem to piss them off too, making them tetchy and difficult to handle. Be it flies (on hot, windless days), hailstorms (we experienced a hell of a lot!), rain, white rocks, camels (our fellas were terrified of them!) or bridges. They didn't seem to care too much about the ger dogs despite the buggers latching onto their tails and growling and barking menacingly, or the mosquitoes which sat on them in droves and sucked til they burst.
Where you intend on camping makes a big difference on how to find water. In the mountainous areas there are a million and one streams to get water from, mostly created from defrosting snow and ice up on the peaks. Further down on the steppe these streams peter out a bit and you'll need to filter most of it because of all the cow, yak, dog, horse, sheep, goat and human waste that runs into it. (Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds!) In the drier areas, semi-gobi there are wells and springs, but some of them have dried up and you will need a map and a water divining device to find them. Best bet is to camp near a ger as they will always be relatively close to a fresh water supply. Failing that you can drink horse piss. Just kidding. Be careful drinking from the lakes, a hell of a lot of them are actually salt water lakes, not fresh water. And in summer there are unbearably thick swarms of mosquitoes lining the shores and hovering maliciously for many kms around. The bastards also lurk heavily in the forests, along with giant bumble bees, flies, midges and other creepy flying things. Take a bandana along to wrap around your mouth and nose. And perhaps skiing goggles to keep them out of your eyes!!
Wolves are a very real threat too though you might no always be able to see them. We saw one wolf on the trip and came across two horses that had been attacked by wolves. And we met quite a few dudes with guns who were going off to hunt wolves in the forest. A fire left burning at your campsite at night is a good deterrent!
It's hard to say about expenses. If you spend most of your time camping and eating rice your expenses will be very low, to the point of being non-existent. If you stay at a guesthouse in UB, go out to dinner every night and drink beer your expenses will be very high! ;)
Hope that helped! You will love Mongolia!
kell:)
try contacting: Jennie (English chick) or Mendee (Mongolian dude) at www.stepperiders.com they do short horse treks about 50km out of UB. They are cheap!! and it's an authentic Mongolian herder experience where you can milk the goats, make airag, ride yaks - not some tourist ger camp with concrete dinosaurs. Tell them Kelly sent you!!!
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Posted By: Haribo
Donīt set your horses free after riding. No breeder will take unknown horses in his herd, everybody would think that he is a thief. If you give a horse as gift say the word "beleg" (gift) that the recipient knows.
Haribo
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Posted By: Haribo
Re #24
Adrien, do you speak German?
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
haribo, sorry I'm too bad in german grammar, and I forgot all vocabulary....
Psykell, thanks for the experience. I now have to decide between riding from Bulgan/Tsetserleg or from the eastern part of Mongolia
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: MissJZB
I think most horse riding material that looks foreign interests a mongolian. They always were very eager to examine ours...
Maybe reins or a halter... (doesn't take up too much space)
We actually swapped one of our halters, which we used to tie the horses to ropes at night to prevent them from wandering off, for a sort of "foot-lock" as we liked to call it. This is a mongolian system for keeping horses close, it is tied to the 4 legs of the horse. It is stillable to move (mongolian horses know how to do this without faling down), but in a more clumsy, slow kind of way. A few mongolians were intigued by the halter, since they don't use this and thus don't know it. I think they saw it as some kind of decoration at first. They asked us if they could have it and when we explained what it was for, they came up with the exchange. It was a win-win situation, since one of the horses had repeatedly tried to get the halter off it's head and wounded himself a bit while doing this.
A sort of whip?
all mongolians use this to sprurr their horses, but it also looks quite different from what we're used to... we didn't bring this from home, but we both received one as a present. Later we exchanged one of tht "whips" we received for another one, as token of friendship. turned out to be very usefull and an awesome souvenir (all hand made off course...)
maybe a bit?
theirs are shaped in another way then ours. They consist of 2 different parts and usually don't fit the horses mouths very well. But I have no idea if a mongolian would be willing to use an other sort... maybe so
Stirrups would be too havy i suppose, and blankets and stuff to put on the horses back is probably not suited for the shape of a mongolian saddle... (we made the mistake to take western protection pads and stuff, because we thought we would buy chinese saddles, as other people had advised us, which look like our king of saddles. We used mongolian saddles after all, but still went with our back-protection, which we thought would be superior anyway. But it turned out more difficult to saddle the horses, because the pads had to be placed pretty exact if we wanted to protect the whole saddle-horseback interface so to speak. (the support base was different)
oh yes and if you would be planning on bringing some kind of horse snack to reward your horses for something... you'd better forget it, because they wont eat anything but grass! we tried it and the animals just turned their noses and went on grazing... guess they weren't into foreign food :)
Isabel
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Posted By: Haribo
Mongolians never tie a horse with 4 legs! It is dangerous for the horse. They tie a horse always with 2 or with 3 legs (2 forefoots or 2 forefoots with 1 hindfoot). If you donīt want, that the horse move to far away, you can tie additionally with a long rope at a small wooden stick you have to knock in the earth. Use grassy places and change regular.
Donīt bring bits as gift. Stirrups in western style would be very well.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
I contacted Jenny, as psykell recommended, and I should start with her.
Then I plan to start from Tsetserleg and go to Kharkhorin, either via Ogii Nuur and then southwards along the Orkhon, or directly through Khotont, but this last one seems more into the mountains.
That's a first plan, anyone knowing the place can tell me if it's completely stupid?
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: Haribo
It would not be my route. It is one with the highest frequency of tourists (foreigners and mongols). This and the good infrastructure (road, etc.) is the reason for many tourist companies to start there the tours. Perhaps better to start bit west of Tsetserleg and ride more west towards Khangai mountains.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
Haribo, thanks for the advice. Maybe I will go to Therkiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park, from Tsetserleg.
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: Haribo
I think, in your situation a good option. The lake and the volcanos are an attraction. Forests, mountains and lakes give a good clima. Yourself will be not so very far from the infrastructure and you will meet tourists, because it is popular for foreigners and especially for Mongolians, but you will avoid the typical tourist groups with the route UB-Kharkhorin-Zezerleg-Ulaanbaatar. If you donīt like to many contacts with tourists who visit Tsagaan Nuur, ride towards northwest.
Haribo
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Posted By: MissJZB
Yeah, my mistake, ours was with 3 legs... anyway I wouldn't just use a wooden stick... mongolians even advised against the things we broght and we had we had a bit havier stuff; 2 metal pickets to be exact, and of another calibre than the things you use for your tent. this worked out fine, but I wouldn't risk anything lighter, just to be sure
Isabel
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Posted By: Haribo
With a small wooden stick I mean a wooden copped picket, 30 to 40 cm long, at the head with a diameter of perhaps 8 cm. In the upper third cut a kerf in the stick where you can tie the rope. Then knock the stick in the earth (step on it) until the rope knot contacts the earth. This method is often used from Mongols during longer rides.
Haribo
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Posted By: peace_frog
Ok, thanks to you all.
I'll be leaving for Moscow tomorow, and arrive in Mongolia at the end of the month.
Cheers
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: MissJZB
Hi
if you're really adventurous, maybe you should take local transport to some town there, try to buy a horse there and just get around with a map, a gps, and a tent. We did this last summer, only we went further east. We travelled back to the capital by horse and wanted to trek through th Khentii region, but we just saw a bit of it, due lack of time.
Good luck, any more questions just ask!! (btw: a horse is down-right cheap there: it'll cost you about 135euros and less if you can bargain, because I can tell you the normal price for a mongolian who wants to buy a horse is about 90 to 100 000 TG, which is about half this amount. Knowing this in advance would help!! (I didn't and we still got a good deal, I guess, cause since you're a tourist you're bound to pay more than a local) If you're lucky, like we were, you can sell the horse after you've done your trip. (we sold it for about 70 euros, more like the local price off course) that still makes 65 euros per horse, but this is nothing compared to renting them, and then you'll also need to pay a guide (which will probably be the owner of the horses, unless it's an touristically organosed trip)
Greetz
MissJZB
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Posted By: peace_frog
MissJZB,
planning to be horseriding in mongolia in june, and something I can't find in the books: what about the horses:
how much ground can you cover in one day? how long can the horse carry you during a day?
Desperately looking to get an idea about that.
Thanks
Adrien
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Posted By: Haribo
I am owner of horses in Mongolia and experienced.
About the distances you can cover, it depends on the age and the strongness of the horse (quality), the rider and the baggage. In june the horses are not fat and therefore not so strong! Horses will not put so large distances back and need larger rests to eat.
The price of a horse depends of the horse quality and where (in which Aimag) you will buy. Are not sure about the possibility to sell it after your ridings trip. The mongolians know that you have to sell your horse. Please know, that mongolians never will sell their best horses, if you are not experienced they will try to sell you the worst horse. Should you fall down, it can be, that the horse will go back to the herd.
About saddle: Try to get a saddle of the "altaic style". Especially the locals in western Aimags and in Khovsgol like to use. The mongolians call it "zeregiin emeel" (zereg = soldier, emeel = saddle). Such saddle is also "comfortable" for westerners and also I use such a saddle.
Haribo
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Posted By: MissJZB
Peace frog,
We did about 25 to 30 kilometers a day, sometimes 35, but very seldom 40. This was with all our bagage packed on the horses, which made it difficult to trot (also one horse was a littl bit skinnier than the other, so it got a wound on his back from friction of the bags. we had to pack differently to spare it, but differently ment somewhat less stable, another reason for not trotting too much). We also tried to avoid this because we planned a long trip and didn't want to tier the horses to much.
I guess it depends indeed on your horses and your persuasive power :). We had fine enough horses, pretty patient and quite (because I hadn't that much riding experience when we took off, this was an important feature), but the downside was they tended to be a bit slow sometimes, although this was increasingly true when we had done more and more kilometres.
I think it also depends on how much days you ride in a row... if you take more frequent resting-days, I guess you will be able to do a bit more kilometres.
But on the whole, I think it is not just how long the horses will carry you , but also how long you can stand to stay in the saddle and put in the work. I think we did an average of 6 hours a day (actual riding), but sometimes 8. (your butt will know about it!)
I think haribo's is valuable advise. In fact we had a bit of luck selling the horses (a kolonel of the border police actually bought them and I guess he was richer than most mongolians). If you want to try it, I think the best bet is on doing it close to the capital, where people don't have such large herds and horses are worth more. Also, don't expect to get too much money for it and try to find a friendly person first, who can help to negotiate and/or find a possible buyer. About the falling down, I don't know... ours weren't too eager to gallop back to the herd. But we had a period in which one of the horses became increasingly stubborn and more difficult to handle, which we ascribed on the fact that we went further and further away from their grazing lands. However, this deminished again to normal level.
Is your question hereby answerred?
I hope you're not disappointed...
MissJZB
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Posted By: peace_frog
Disappointed? Why should I ?
Thanks for the input, just what I neededto hear about.
As for the saddles, Haribo, your advice will definitely be useful!
Another quick question, if you have time: about the shelter: I plan to camp, so I will bring in my tent. But do I need to bring a larger or a second tent for all the gear/supplies? Or can I faind an affordable solution in Mongolia?
Thanks
Peacefrog
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: MissJZB
We had a rather small 2person-tent, where we put all our gear. the horse stuff, was under the outer tent, but not with us in the inner tent. Don't worry about theft if you're putting up your tent next too a ger (which you can always ask). I guess they would store your material for the night if you'd ask. I don't think in the region we travelled (which is the east) people would ask money for this, but I don't know about other regions where I ve heard people do ask for money in exchange for shelter... But anyhow... it won't be expensive I expect. Don't bring the extra or bigger one. this means extra weight and extra burdun...
Disappointed... I don't know what you were expecting... but I'm glad you're not, because off course there's no reason. Going slow is often more worthwhile than racing through some place with some kind of motorised vehicle...
Isabel
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Posted By: peace_frog
I was planning to go west, starting from Bulgan for example, as Haribo pointed it out as a "horse aimag". Maybe I will rather have a go on the eastern part of Mongolia.
Your advices and info a really useful, exactly what I was looking for
Many thanks again
Adrien
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Peacefrog
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Posted By: psykell
Hey Adrien,
How far you can travel also depends on the type of terrain. We'd do between 20 and 40km. If you're travelling in a straight line you obvioulsy will cover more ground. And if the terrain is flat you will also cover more ground. But if you're travelling through mountainous areas, up and down the hills, and zig zagging along rivers then you will slow down.
We spent about 8 hours a day in the saddle, sometimes 10hrs. You must keep in mind that sometimes you can't afford to stop just cos YOUR bum hurts. If there is no water for the horses then you must keep riding until you find some. That was always the most important thing when planning our trip and daily route. How far do we need to travel to get to the next water? How long will that take? Sometimes instead of riding for 30km (our ideal average) we'd stop short at 15km cos we knew we wouldn't be able to make the next water source after that in one day. My mongolian friends will easily do 100+km in a day, at full pelt (galloping). But then they may not ride that horse again for a few days.
Rest days - we took these maybe every 2 or 3 days. It really depended on where we were and whether we wanted to stop there for too long. The horses certainly appreciate the chance to stop and have a munch to build up their weight again. If you see good lush grass then it's always worth stopping for them to have a munch. You can't always assume that the good grass will be available all the time - grab it while you can!
hope that helps,
kell:)
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Posted By: peace_frog
ok, thank very much kell, that's useful info.
I will contact those you mentioned in the other thread.
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Peacefrog
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