Backyard Herding in Mongolia

[Latestarter]

wow... what a trip!

 

[HomesteaderWife]

I loved the photos especially of the wild and domestic horses! I've long admired the horses they ride in Mongolia- short and stout. I'm curious to know if you have photos of those handling eagles or on horseback?

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

Amazing! You are so blessed to have such opportunity, thank you for posting!

 

[Wehner Homestead]

This sounds like a once in a lifetime experience and your pictures are astounding! Thank you for sharing!!

How do they typically prepare the goat?

 

[Roving Jacobs]

This is as close as I got to people looking majestic on horseback. This is in Sükhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.




The eagle hunters are much further North than I was. I did see a baby vulture the size of a plucked turkey. The mother was hovering ominously overhead so we didn't get too close.


Some day I would love to come back and see the eagle festival or naadam, the wrestling/archery/horse racing festival. It's really an amazing country to visit and everyone was so welcoming. It is pretty much on the opposite side of the world from me in Ohio though and it took literally days of travel to get there. I left from Cleveland on a Saturday at around 1 in the afternoon, then traveled through Chicago, Istanbul, Kyrgyzstan, and finally landed in Mongolia on Tuesday evening. Mongolia is 12 hours ahead of EST so that ate up some of it but it was still a long flight. Coming home I went through Beijing and D.C. and arrived the same day I left despite being in planes and airports for 27 hours.

It was worth it though. I loved seeing those wide open skies and vast mountains.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

How do they typically prepare the goat?

Our cook was very impressive and I don't think we ever ate it the same way twice. They don't have access to a lot of spices or firewood so things were commonly just quickly stir fried with noodles or boiled. They slaughtered a sheep for us on our last day in the field and that got barbecued but that was a luxury. Most things got some salt, pepper, and dill but that's about it in terms of spice. There's a cool youtube channel here that shows traditional Mongolia foods.

We didn't get to try it this way but for celebrations they will take a whole goat, chop it up, then sew it back into the skin with root veggies and hot rocks. They cook it in the skin, basting it with fat and burning away the hair with a blow torch. When you cut it open you can eat the skin and meat and they pass around the hot rocks which are said to have healing properties.

 

[Baymule]

Post more pictures! I am loving this!

 

[mystang89]

Thanks much for sharing this! There style of living is something I think many people need to remember.

 

[promiseacres]

 

[Mini Horses]

I see the yurts and wondering, are the nomads using them? If so, were there any discussions as to how often they moved and how they transported? Were some type of tents used for that group of people? Do/are the people/herders actually just using any open countryside? I'm thinking in contrast to USA where you do not have these options. So, what seems to be the Mongolian structure for life as a livestock owner? Are ?there villages where others live and such.