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Mongolian Horses

The one thing you must do when you come to Mongolia is horseriding.

The Mongolian horse (Mongolian mori or mor') is the native horse breed of Mongolia and the Mongol people, and the breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, outnumbering the country's human inhabitants. Despite the small size compared to European breeds, Mongolians reject the term "ponies", because quite rightly, they're not ponies!

In Mongolia, the horses live outdoors all year (at 30°C in summer down to the freezing -40°C in winter) and search for food on their own. The mare's milk is processed into the national beverage Airag, which has a very unique taste, and some animals are slaughtered for meat. Other than that, they serve as riding animals, both for the daily work of the nomads and in horse racing.

Mongolian horses are of a stocky build, with relatively short legs and a large head. They have a certain resemblance to Przewalski's Horse. The mane and tail are very long, and often get used for braiding ropes. Especially the tail hair can be found on almost any violin bow worldwide. The hooves are very robust, and very few animals are fitted with Horseshoes. Mongolian horses are frugal, arduous, somewhat wily, and tread safely in rough terrain. In Mongolia, most animals are kept roaming free, and only a small number of riding animals get caught and tethered. Once the animal has become familiarized with carrying a rider, it will be calm, friendly, and very reliable.

The Mongolian saddle is very tall, with a wooden frame. It only allows marginal control of the gait. In most situations, the horse will decide the gait on its own, while the rider is occupied with other tasks (such as herding cattle). Very often, a Mongolian horse will choose to canter.

Racing horses with a child in the saddle will run in full gallop over 35 km at a time. They are trained to keep running even after losing their riders. In such a case, they need to be stopped in the finish zone by aides waiting there especially for that purpose.

The exact origins of the breed are hard to determine. Riding horses are documented with the nomads of the central Asian steppes since 2000 BC. Tests have shown, that among all horse breeds, Mongolian horses feature the largest genetic variety, followed by the tuwinian horses. This indicates that it is a very archaic breed suffering little human induced selection. The data also indicate that many other breeds descend from the Mongolian horses.