If it was easy, it would be boring

Of course, after an amazing day like yesterday, we were bound to have some more bad luck today. After all, the Derby isn't called the longest, thoughest race in the world for nothing and if it was easy, it would be boring.

Every once in a while during the race, we would get updates about the front of the pack from the vets and other crew. We knew Bob had been in the lead for a few days but we had no idea where the other riders were and if anyone was going to give him a run for his money before the finish line. We knew the first riders would finish today so we were all excited to hear who would win this years' Derby. When we got to HS22, we found out that Bob had indeed finished and was the oldest rider to ever finish, and win!

At the next station, we heard Wiesmand had finished in second place. Quite impressive considering he was riding with us all the way at the back on day 1. Meanwhile, we were still on track to finish on day 10. We we're looking forward to another day of enjoying Mongolia. That morning at the horse line, I chose a beautiful Appaloosa as my mount. The herders tacked him up and then one of them handed me the reins and walked away. This is where I broke one of the LPA rules: don't do stupid shit. Instead of having the herders hold the horse while getting on, like I usually did, I figured this horse must be easy since the herder walked away. So I tried to get on by myself. By now I was a little tired and not as flexible as I was on day one. So of course it took me too long to swing my leg over and the horse saw an opportunity to bold off. I wasn't even on yet, so before I knew it, I was back on the ground. It wasn't much of a fall but of course someone managed to capture it on camera, scaring my friends and family back home. As I was on the ground, I watched my horse bolt with my saddle and my first thought was: please don't take off with my stuff! Thankfully the herders were quick to respond, one of them jumped on his bike and after a high speed chase around the station managed to bring my horse and gear back to me. Crisis averted!

The herder thought I would want another horse after this but I had seen how fast this guy was, no way I was going to swop. With his help I managed to get on safely this time and Esther and I took off into the marshy area that was the next leg. The horse turned out to be one of my favourites. He was so comfortable, very forward going but still easy to control and very fit. Also, he didn't dump me when we had to cross a pretty deep stream. Both Esther and I were a little nervous about crossing as it was pretty wide and we couldn't tell how deep it would be in the middle. We didn't have a choice though, as there was no way around it so we just plunged in, this was actually one of the things that scared me most during the race. There was another obstacle a few kilometres from the station: a long bridge over the river. The notes for this leg said it was best to dismount but I wasn't sure if I would be able to get back on my horse so we rode across it. The horses were a little nervous but did well and we made it to HS22 in one piece.

At HS22 there were two different herds of horses grazing near the gers. We had seen plenty of herds while riding but while we were waiting to have our horses vetted, the two stallions of these groups started fighting. They were rearing, kicking and running around, trying to get their mares together and chase the other off. It was pretty cool to see how they protect their herd and control their large group of mares and foals, all by themselves. We got on our horses just after Alanna, Holly and Mike had ridden off. We watched the two girls set off, but Mike went a different way and right in front of us, his horse tripped in a marmot hole and he fell off. We stopped to see if he was doing ok. He was banged up but was able to get back on and the three of us continued our way to HS23. This was the most boring stretch of the Derby: it was a straight road, along the power lines, on a plain, with nothing around for miles. It seemed to take ages but we stuck to our plan of 15 minute canters/5 minute walks and made it to the next station, eager to start the third leg of the day and finish the day 'early'.

Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way. For starters, there wasn't a lot of food at HS23, just some dry bread and a little bit of mutton meat. This made us even more keen to get to the next station but the leg was quite tricky. The most direct way let us right into a bog. It was so marshy and wet everywhere, we would only be able to walk, meaning the leg would take us forever. We tried to get back to a trail that Esther had spotted but couldn't find it so we had to go way around to find a road. At first, we made pretty decent time, but we were taking a big detour. We were looking for a trail to take us closer to the station but they all seemed to lead just slightly the wrong way. We went cross-country for a bit, took some trails that ended up leading the wrong way, took some more detours and eventually, finally, ended up on the road we should have taken all along. We were quite sure we were headed straight for the station but it was less than one kilometre away and we still coudln't see it. We were riding on a floodplain so it seemed flat, we should be able to see a ger by now.

The horses we got, had done pretty well, considering they were really small. Esther was riding a little Palomino that the herders' had deemed to small for me when I tried to pick it (go figure), while I had a little grey. By this point they weren't to eager anymore though and we were hot, tired and hungry. We also still hadn't spotted any gers and were worried the station had moved/we'd gotten the coördinates wrong/had finally started hallucinating.. It turned out the station was right over a little hill. Thankfully one of the crew vehicles was parked on the raise so we rode towards it, if nothing else, they could tell us where to go. I was so happy once we spotted the gers, we had made it another day! The herders asked us to chose our horse for tomorrow from the horse line so they could let the others loose. It's hard to judge them based just on their looks but I spotted a little paint horse that looked just like my pony back home, so of course I had to pick him. I was excited for the last long day of riding tomorrow!