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Netta Burnside confesses she has anxious moments thinking about riding 1000 kilometres across Mongolia. She is one of 35 contestants picked from 10s of thousands around the world to join this year’s Mongol Derby, an endurance race touted as ‘the mother of all equine adventures’. BY ALAN TITCHALL
“I have led a life full of self-indulgence. I shall never represent my country at a sport unless they make sitting around and talking bollocks an Olympic event. In that case, I would be a gold medalist for certain. Why do it? Cause I can. And it helps make the world a little less boring.” The honest, working Kiwi mum approach worked. The organisers thought her approach delightful. “They phoned me from London just splitting themselves laughing and they said ‘finally someone that every day folks can relate to’,” Netta recalls. “The race is filmed as a documentary and I guess they were looking for certain personality types. I’m not sure what pigeon hole they have put me into? I think it might be the ‘desperate house wife’.” The race is two weeks long, starting in August, and traces Chinggis Khaan’s 13th Century horse messenger service when he commanded vast tracks of central Europe. Netta saw the inaugural 2009 race on BBC television. “I’m a bit impulsive. I said to [husband] Gordon I am going to do it.”
At least she can ride a horse. Netta was raised on a Taranaki diary farm with a family of equestrians. Both parents were passionate about horses and she has been competing since the age of eight. An expanding business and raising a family saw Netta take a break from horses until very recently when, in another impulsive mood, she turned to Gordon. “I said I’m going to ride again and compete in the NZ Horse of the Year show and I am going to win.” Gordon didn’t look up. “I’m sure you will,” he said quietly. And 12 months from the day, although she hadn’t competed for years, Netta won her division in Saddle Hunters on a beautiful, black horse called Brand-X Royal Chancellor. The stud that bred the horse that they called ‘Mt Tulloch Royal Chancellor’ weren’t amused. “I said to them Mt Tulloch doesn’t sponsor me – Brand-X does.”
Riders have to sign a legal agreement acknowledging these inherent dangers and they will be weighed before the race to make sure they are no more than 85 kilograms, not to say our petite Netta will have any issues here. Mongolian horses are tough, nuggety beasts, about 12 hands high and, like their customary riders, are built like brick outhouses. Long-limbed westerners usually look pretty ungainly on these ponies in comparison – an observation that hasn’t escaped Netta. “These ponies have eight paces while our horses have four. We will be riding 14 hours a day and standing in the stirrups a lot of the time because you cant sit and rise to a trot – of which these horses have three or four of them.”
There are stations along the way to refresh one’s horse, rest a sore bum and chow down on the local dried mutton yak meat. “Don’t expect any fancy pants four course meals, you’ll be eating what the nomads eat - most likely mutton and fermented mare’s milk,” warns the Mongol Derby website. Competitors have to navigate their own way from one station to the next and are allowed to carry just 10 kilograms of gear, but they have the luxury of a GPS and emergency locator beacon in case they ‘arse off’, or their nag gallops off in the wrong direction towards Russia. Riders are warned that the response time of the back up is dependent on geography. “This really is the toughest horse race in the world and that is a title it holds for good reason,” iterate the organisers. I am not the first interviewer to ask Netta what she fears most about the race? “I don’t mind falling off, but I don’t want to have to walk – I am inherently lazy,” she confesses with a burst of laughter. It’s not mentioned how many times last year’s winner ‘arsed off’ or how sore his bum was at the end of the race, but the South African competitor completed the race in just eight days. The inaugural race last year featured 26 riders, aged between 21 and 65 from eight countries (12 were female and there were three Kiwis from different corners of the globe). Riders averaged 100 kilometres a day at about 10 km/hr, and on cooler days some riders managed about 140 km in a day. Two fell off their horses and didn’t finish the race.
Fewer than two percent of the 700 horses that took part in 2009 required treatment, which was all minor first aid (six mobile veterinary teams made of international vets are involved in the race). This is a fact the organizers push after much criticism last year from horse interests predicting the worse for both animals and riders. Netta’s race, which starts August 7, will be caught on TV by 60 Minutes, which has permission to film her at different points enroute. Netta will also make a video diary. “It will be great for me to have something to watch in the future. I would hate to get to the end and say wow what happened?” The TV programme makers will also film Netta at home and at work before the race. “This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the industry,” she says “Actually one of the harder decisions I need to make is which quarry to film in!” I get a glimpse of what Netta will likely say when they film her at home as ‘just another house wife’. “We live in a world that is far too PC, far too cautious, and far too eager to cover its arse by not taking a risk. I want to show other mothers and my kids that it’s OK to stick your neck out and take a risk, I’m not an advocate for recklessness by any means, it is a calculated risk – but it’s OK to scare yourself once in a while.” Netta turns to Gordon with that impulsive look. “At first I just wanted to compete in the race, now I want to make top three!” “I‘m sure you will,” he says without looking up.
Q&M Vol.7 No.3 June-July 2010 |
If you are wondering how the director of quarry machinery dealer, Brand-X, committed herself to one of the world’s longest and toughest races on a Mongolian pony that doesn’t look much bigger than a Great Dane, then this part of her application might explain it.
Six months later Netta is chewing over the logistics and the “horrendous” cost – about $30,000. Contestants have to make their own way to the start line at Ulaanbaatar and stump up with at least £1000 that goes to a charity in Mongolia.
The working ponies in Mongolia that Netta will ride won’t have grand names or stud heritages, or dressage manners. As the Mongol Derby warns contestants on its website, “Do not underestimate how hard riding over 1000 kilometres is going to be! If you’re considering applying , it’s important that you read and understand this warning. These horses are small and semi-wild, and the terrain is massive and wild.”
Netta and the other competitors from the around the globe will get a fresh Great Dane - sorry, Mongolian pony - every 40 kilometres. However, there’s no support crew or back-up if they fall off and contestants have to fend for themselves along the 1000 kilometre route, which means finding food and water, and the possibility of fending off stray dogs and even rabid wolves (yes wolves).
Collectively they raised £71,000 for Mercy Corps projects in Mongolia, a charity that supports rural communities, and this year Agronomes et Veterinaires Sans Frontieres (AVSF), which works with the local herders to help mitigate the spread of animal diseases, will also benefit.