>>1745711My Dad had wanted to ride on the steppe for a long while and we were checking off a huge bucket list item for him. We were in the country for 7 days and did a 3 day trip to a mountain temple and back when we first got there, hung around the capitol for a day, then decided we wanted to go horseback riding again (because it was a blast) and went out to one of the smaller desert areas and did a 2 day trip. Both times we stayed in a Mongolian ger (yurt) which is super comfy and a few nights in a tent.
Mongolian ponies are short, stocky, and half the year they're exposed to some very brutal winter conditions as the Mongolians just let them run off in the fall and then collect them again in the spring. The Mongolian horse herd is nationally owned, so when spring comes, they just go out and collect however many horses they need for the year. Because of this, the horses tend to be half wild.
They don't really have a "stop" so you aim them uphill and jump off if you want to check something out. They'll also thunder down the steppe at the slightest provocation and just love to run. I'd see a mountain and I'd point the horse up it and get to the top where I'd look out over the steppe and see nothing for miles except for the occasional cairn with prayer flags fluttering off of them. They're also stubborn and you have to assert your dominance over them or, as what happened to one of our companions, the horse will continously go off to join other herds and someone will have to ride back and get you. My horse was apparently a bit of a "handful" according to our guide, but he was an awesome horse and I never had problems with him. Ive also been riding since I was 5, so I'll chalk that to experience.
