Mongolia Horseback Riding & Nomadic Steppe Trek
Eight days on horseback across the Mongolian steppe, riding the same short, hardy horses that Mongolian nomads have relied on for thousands of years. This is not a trail ride -- it is a genuine cross-country trek through river valleys, mountain passes, and open grassland with a local herder guide who has ridden these routes since childhood.
Mongolia has more horses than people, and the relationship between Mongolians and their horses is older and deeper than almost any other horse culture on earth. On this trek you ride 4-6 hours each day through terrain that changes from forested river valleys to high mountain passes to open steppe that stretches to the horizon in every direction. Your guide is a local herder -- not a tourism professional but a working horseman who knows the land, the river crossings, and the families whose gers dot the route. Nights are spent in traditional ger camps and with nomadic families. The pace is set by the horses and the landscape, not by a schedule.
- 4WD Support Vehicle
- 1-12 guests
- 8-Day, 7-Night
- Fulltime English Speaking Guide & Experienced Horse Handler
- Available June - September
INCLUTIONS & EXCLUSIONS
Inclusions:
- Airport transfers (arrival and departure)
- 4WD support vehicle throughout (carries gear, follows the ride)
- All Mongolian horses, riding equipment, and safety briefing
- 6 nights in traditional ger camps (twin or double)
- 1 night in Ulaanbaatar hotel
- All meals throughout the tour (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
- English-speaking guide and experienced horse handler
- Entrance fees to all listed sites (Erdene Zuu, Kharkhorin Museum)
Exclusions:
- International flights
- Mongolia visa fees
- Travel insurance (required, must cover horse riding)
- Alcoholic beverages
- Personal purchases and souvenirs
- Tips for guide, driver, and horse handler
from our gallery
Your guide meets you at the airport and brings you into Ulaanbaatar for a single night before the tour heads west. The city is worth exploring on your own — the State Department Store sells quality riding gear if you need anything, and the nearby restaurants serve excellent Mongolian food before days in the countryside.
Over dinner, your guide explains the week ahead: the route, the daily distances, the horses, and what the steppe will actually feel like from the saddle. Early start tomorrow.
The drive west through the Mongolian steppe takes most of the morning, and the landscape is part of the experience — rolling grassland in every direction, the occasional herder moving livestock, and a sky that seems larger than any you have seen. By early afternoon you reach the Orkhon Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage area and one of the heartlands of Mongolian nomadic culture.
Your first ride is deliberate and unhurried. Mongolian horses are different from what most riders know — smaller, stockier, with a ground-covering walk and an opinion about everything. By the end of the first few hours you will have the feel of your horse and a sense of the valley ahead. Dinner in the ger camp is hearty and the steppe outside is completely silent after dark.
Today you ride through the core of the Orkhon Valley — the river meandering through wide grassland, granite ridges rising on either side, and eagle circles overhead marking the thermals that rise off the steppe. This is the kind of riding that defines Mongolia: no roads, no fences, and the sense that you are covering ground the way people have covered it here for a thousand years.
The midday stop at a nomadic family’s ger is one of those unscripted moments that stays with you. You arrive on horseback, are invited inside for tea and dried curd, and your guide helps translate a conversation about livestock prices, winter survival, and their children’s school in the nearest town 80 kilometers away. It’s honest and unhurried.
A slightly shorter day in the saddle, with time given over to living at the pace of the steppe. The morning ride takes you up above the valley onto the higher pasture where the family moves their herd in midsummer — the view from the ridge back down to the Orkhon River is one of the best on the route.
The afternoon is spent at the nomadic family camp. This is one of the most valuable parts of the tour and one of the hardest to describe: sitting inside a ger while the family goes about their evening, watching how the stove works and how the space is organized, and realizing how efficient and complete a life built around that single circular structure can be.
The Orkhon Waterfall is a destination most visitors never reach because the road access is poor. On horseback, it is a natural endpoint for a day’s ride — through increasing river noise, down through a basalt canyon that appears suddenly in the flat valley, and out onto the viewing platform above the 20-meter drop.
The basalt formations around the falls were created by volcanic activity thousands of years ago, and the black rock contrasts sharply with the green steppe above. Your guide explains both the geology and the Mongolian folklore that has collected around this place over centuries of nomadic life in the valley.
The ride toward Kharkhorin follows the Orkhon River north and takes most of the morning. The valley widens as you approach the ancient capital, and by midday you can see the white stupas of Erdene Zuu Monastery rising from the flat plain. The juxtaposition is striking: the ruins of an empire that once ruled from Korea to Hungary, and a monastery built from its stones.
Your guide leads you through Erdene Zuu in the late afternoon, when the light hits the white stupas from the west and the surrounding mountains go blue. The evening in the ger camp near town is quiet — a good night before the final riding day tomorrow.
The last morning in the saddle has a different feeling — you know the horses now, your body has adjusted to the rhythm of the ride, and the steppe has started to feel like a familiar rather than an overwhelming landscape. The farewell ride is unhurried.
After handing the horses back to the handler, the support vehicle drives you east across the steppe toward Ulaanbaatar. The city reappears gradually — first the apartment blocks on the horizon, then the traffic, then the noise. Most riders find the contrast jarring. Dinner in the city tonight is a chance to sit with the week and decide what you want to eat that isn’t mutton.
A final morning in Ulaanbaatar moves at your own pace. The National Museum of Mongolia puts the landscape you have just ridden through into historical context — eight centuries of empire, nomadic culture, and the Soviet period that tried to erase both. It is worth two hours if your flight allows it.
Your guide transfers you to the airport with time to spare. The week in the saddle — the Orkhon Valley, the nomadic families, Erdene Zuu, and the waterfall — covers some of the most historically and scenically significant ground in Central Asia. It is a route worth returning to.
