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Published: July 20th 2013
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Some of the team
Pahlam, Renchen, Doda, Ich Tenger, d'Tangnion, James, Ashley Naadam Festival
Our van rolled into the festival headquarters of the Genghis Kahn Polo Club to find the crew hard out setting up camp, 4 Gers; kitchen, store/boys room, dinning entertainment centre and another sleeping Ger. After checking the horses were none the worse for wear after their 14 hour trip, Hamish and I wondered off to have a look around and check out the polo field. He was pleased to find the field almost at the race finish line so was assured we would be in the thick of the action.
The Naadam is a festival of Mongolian games, archery, wrestling and horse racing, traditionally the games of men although women now participate in archery and girls in horse racing. The Genghis Kahn Polo Club was there this year introducing the game of polo trying to spark some interest in the horse mad culture. The games take place in most communities throughout Mongolia Ulaan being the big one
On returning to camp we learned that while everybody had been busy the horses had done a runner, sure enough there was a dust cloud nearing the horizon generated by horses clearly headed for home. Apparently
NZ Team
Edward(reserve), Simon, Ashley, Jarrod, Hamish they are the equal of the cat and dog stories, some have been found 100’s of miles back at their old home, there being very few fences from one end of Mongolia to the other. Nobody seemed particularly perturbed, more amused by them and eventually a couple of the team jumped into a vehicle and sped off across the Steppe to head them off, followed by Chukda on a little pesky horse that had been hobbled.
We could see Ger camps being set up from horizon to horizon, strings of race horses being led around and in amongst it all the local herders moving their big mobs of goats, sheep, horses and cattle, never seeming to get mixed up by a neighbours herd or scattered by vehicles or horses charging around them. Another small note, when the herds are brought around the Ger in the evening they just sit in a big group together, sheep and goats staying together until the herder gives the word sometime the next morning, and we are not talking the crack of dawn here.
To get out of the way of all those working we head off to find our camp, after a
40 minute drive we find a large comfortable Ger camp where we catch up with the rest of the New Zealand contingent, Simon MacDonald (Crash) and Jarrod Thompson. The rest of the contingent dribbled in during the night, 2 young undergraduate teams from Harvard arrived after midnight to bring the Genghis Kahn Club team total, including the boys at the field, to about 50.
I will break this down to at least 2 blogs, the first dealing with racing, wrestling and Mongolian in general and secondly the three days of polo.
Driving to the field the next morning we passed a roadside slaughter house. This was a larger family operation. The Mongolian motorist pulls up at the family Ger beside the road, from a flock of sheep or goats a beast is selected caught and slaughtered to be loaded into the car on the spot. This happens all up and down the roadsides.
A bit further down the road is the Mares milk Café, in this case a couple of small tents in the paddock where you would be served this delicacy, something like bitter yoghurt, with the slight buzz of say chewing tobacco Hamish assures me.
The women sell milk on the roadside as a part of their daily life.
As with the fields or the Steppes of China it’s a long way from Mr Hummer ripping up and down the roads. Many wouldn’t have it any other way but as many have been settling in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar in search of a different life. Another thing I think we have to take into account is the short window of reasonable weather they get 4 maybe 5 months max which does not help with getting a lot done. Ulaan has the dubious honour of being one of the coldest cities in the world. No wonder they are/were so dam tough, horse and rider as they gathered in well directed hordes and conquered half the world.
Most of that morning was spent watching the gathering for the first race, fathers or trainers leading their young chargers up to the security barrier where they are left to take the race into their own hands. The horses 2 year olds and the riders mostly aged between 6 and 9. Nothing is spared to ensure less weight, a lot riding bare back or in only socks, this
goes for the horse as well, they are trained to the bone literally, Harriet muttering under her breath about bony horses. Perhaps a case of horses for courses. I just kept marvelling at these gutsy little boys and girls, as many as 4 hundred for this race which is 15 ks although they have to ride 30, they trot as a big group from the finish line to the start, turn around and race back, it's an amazing site watching them charging across the Steppe, imagine what it must have been like for the cumbersome European Knights having 200,000 wild Mongolians charging down on them.
After the race these little guys are led back to their respective camps and if it's one of the winning horses, chased around by people on foot and horseback as to touch a winning horse brings good luck for the year.
Mongolian traditional Wrestling is the other big sport, Mongols are passionate about their wrestlers these are their sporting heroes. The Japanese Sumo world came looking at the Mongolians and took 100 kids with them who had the winning bloodlines going back to their grandfather’s Grandfather, some of them took the Sumo world
Crash, Ashley
"Which horse is the best" by storm
9 o’clock sharp for chukkas... see you there.
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pattycake
non-member comment
Exciting!
Sounds like a lot of excitement goes on over there, very interesting really enjoying the blogs and the photos. Man you will certainly have some stories to tell. Regards to all. Patty x