Billy Crouch races semi-wild horses across Mongolia

OVER 800 years ago, Genghis Khan wanted to conquer the world from horseback. As the founder and first ruler of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan created an infamous postal system to convey important information from one side of his fledgling empire to the other.

This was later dubbed Genghis Khan’s post mail route, and it stretched over 1000 kilometres through the Mongolian steppes.

Earlier this year, Billy Crouch from Bonnie Doon, who spends most of his time working for Fineblade Civil in Murrindindi Shire, travelled to Mongolia to race semi-wild horses along this 1000 kilometre route on a 10 day adventure known as the Mongol Derby.

Billy shared details of the race and stories of his wild adventures in Mongolia.

“I knew about this race 10 years ago, and it was something that had always blown my mind.

I remember laughing with another long-distance friend of mine, and I said I was going to sign up for that race. She said good luck, and then 10 years later I’ve signed up for the race and been over and completed it.

“We completed it in nine days. The Mongol Derby is 1000 kilometres, or it’s actually a little bit more, but it’s sold as a 1000 kilometre endurance race. It’s registered as the longest and toughest endurance horse race in the world, so there is nothing bigger,” Billy explained.

The race itself is split into 40 kilometre lengths, where riders receive a random new horse every 40 kilometres, for a total of 29 horses ridden during the race.

“We’d never laid eyes on any of the horses, never ridden any of them. You’d pull up to a horse station, and there’d be about…

Image: Local man Billy Crouch, who lives in Bonnie Doon and works in Murrindindi Shire.