A UNIQUE MONGOLIA HORSE FESTIVAL SHOWCASES IMPRESSIVE HORSE-RIDING TALENT (2023 Updated)

No Trip to Mongolia is Complete Without Having Attended a Local Horse Festival and Witness Extraordinary Horseback Skills.

Mongolian nomads ready for competition with their uurgas (lasso poles).

Dear Pip,

Our trip to Mongolia is turning out to be one unique cultural highlight after another. We spent the day sharing the excitement of a local horse festival in the Orkhon Valley, organised by Tsaidam Ger Camp, where we stayed for the night. The festival aims to preserve nomadic tradition and promote the talent and capabilities of Mongolia’s nomadic herders.

The Orkhon Valley is in Central Mongolia, about 360 kilometres southwest of Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. The Orkhon Valley, a cultural landscape comprising 1,220 square kilometres, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Mongolia’s history, culture, and people are intimately linked with horses, with children learning to ride almost from the day they can walk. In a country with 13 times more horses than people, I can understand how Mongolia has become known as the land of…