Horse Riding Tip
by Patty
Horse riding in Mongolia
Horse Riding Tip in Mongolia for Ladies Although Tsarana spoke English fairly well, I was only nominally advised of what our itinerary was at any time. A supposedly 1-hour horse trek was actually a 1-hour trek into the park, checking out an ancient temple (from the 1700's, ruined by the Russians) and a tiny local museum, another ride, lunch, another 1-hour ride back. Now, I am not a rider. But Mongolian horses are small, and extremely responsive, so I actually thought I was getting pretty good at it. Although my teenage guide wanted to gallop, which I eventually did try, but man, even trotting was killing my boobs. You need a good sports bra for horseback riding. So I wound up going across the steppe holding my chest to minimize the bounce. My guide thought this was pretty funny and apparently told Tsarana. Tsarana asked why I didn't gallop. I told him, and he said, "Mongolian women like this can gallop," and I thought yeah, well, they can have nipple on the knee at the age of 40 too. No thanks. The lead guide, a swaggering, middle-aged Mongolian guy who wore the traditional robe opened with his torso completely exposed, tieing the sleeves around his waist, and every time we stopped, he got off the horse, made the teenager tie everything up, and he'd lay down on a rock or the grass and lounge about looking like, Ladies, come and get me! He spoke only in a whisper, which, for a language with no vowels, meant you could just hear wisps of sound every once in awhile. Lunch was spaghetti - Tsarana's favorite, apparently - and honestly, not half bad. |
