British woman wins world's longest race after battling 600 miles across the Mongolian steppe on semi-wild horses.

 

A British woman and her Australian teammate have won the world's longest horse race after a week trotting 1,000km across the Mongolian steppe.
Annabel Neasham, 27, an eventing champion from Oxfordshire, crossed the line in first place with Adrian Corboy after the gruelling Mongol Derby. The pair almost didn't finish the race after getting stuck in the harsh terrain but managed to forge on while another four teams had to pull out.

 

People say when they finish, they could easily do another 1,000 kilometres. Well… I think I'm good with this,' Neasham said after crossing the line. The famous race took them across mountain passes, green open valleys, wooded hills, river crossings, wetland and floodplains, sandy semi-arid dunes, rolling hills, dry riverbeds. Not only do competitors have to battle the elements and rugged terrain, but they also ride on semi-wild Mongolian horses that don't always cooperate.

 

The saying is that three-quarters of them are dangerous while the other quarter refuses to budge when their riders ask. Neasham and Corboy's victory was born out of their near-defeat, stuck in the remote marshes unable to move and contemplating giving up.' We were stuck, properly stuck, in a bog. We were about ready to hit the help button when a young herder came out of the fog and led us through a swollen river,' Neasham recalled wasn't actually the racecourse but he led us the right way. That was the point we won the race.

Riders spend 13 to 14 hours a day in the saddle recreating Mongol leader Genghis Khan's messenger system across the steppe. They switch horses every 36km, making the trip more difficult as their 30 horses are unfamiliar and not certain to follow their instructions. Only half the riders usually finish every year, making crossing the finish line a great achievement in itself.