{"id":890,"date":"2017-05-17T12:33:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/?p=890"},"modified":"2021-01-11T19:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T19:56:31","slug":"890","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/2017\/05\/17\/890\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Office of Global Education and Study Abroad is pleased to republish this article from The Record<\/em> with Pierce Buckingham ’10.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Adventure of a Lifetime
\nBy Karen Huggard<\/p>\n

On the windswept plains of the Mongolian Steppe last August, a group of extreme adventurers recreated the famed postal relay routes of Genghis Khan. Dubbed the world\u2019s longest horse race, the Mongol Derby pits riders against each other in an endurance race across the rugged territory of northern Mongolia. Although more than 40 riders attempted the 1008-kilometer course with its varied terrain of flat grasslands, steep hills and valleys, river crossings, and rocky passes, only 27 finished\u2014among them Pierce Buckingham \u201906.<\/p>\n

No Horsing Around
\nOver the course of ten days, Buckingham and his competitors had access to 1500 semi-wild Mongolian horses spread out among the course\u2019s 28 checkpoints. All of the horses had been ridden before by local herdsmen, but most had not been ridden consistently or even recently. With their saddles, backpacks, and helmets, the derby riders \u201clooked a lot different, smelled a lot different, and acted a lot different\u201d than the local herdsmen, according to Buckingham. As a result, many of the ponies spooked easily and proved difficult to mount and control.
\nAt six-foot-three-inches tall, Buckingham was at a further disadvantage on the small-framed ponies; in choosing a new horse at each checkpoint, he recalls, \u201cI had to play charades with the herdsmen to pick out a horse strong enough to carry me.\u201d He didn\u2019t rely on charades alone, but also used his ten years of experience as a racehorse trainer to his advantage. \u201cI\u2019d look at the horses\u2019 gums for scars. When horses really take off, riders pull on the bit so hard that it cuts their gums. So I\u2019d choose a horse with cuts or scars, because I knew it would be fast.\u201d
\nChoosing that type of horse had its disadvantages, though. \u201cYou had to know where you were going before you got on, because once you were on, it would take off like a shot. You wouldn\u2019t be able to stop for a few kilometers, and you didn\u2019t want to be headed in the wrong direction.\u201d Using GPS, Buckingham clocked a top speed of 28 kilometers per hour at full gallop\u2014about 17 miles per hour\u2014a pace some ponies would maintain for a full ten kilometers before calming down.<\/p>\n

Nothing Typical about It
\nFor nine days straight, Buckingham averaged a grueling 70 miles per day. Starting at 7 a.m. and riding till 8:30 p.m., he took advantage of every minute that the course was open. Water, a snack or a meal, and a fresh pony were provided at checkpoints spaced approximately 40 kilometers apart. Meals were simple, typically consisting of mutton stew, goat or yak milk, and stale bread. Mongolian families along the way came cheered the riders on, often offering them local delicacies like Aarull, dried milk curds, or Airag, fermented horse milk.
\nSome checkpoints provided tents for sleeping, but racers could also ride further and camp under the stars or stay with a herdsman and his family. A booklet with translations of phrases like \u201cI\u2019ve lost my horse,\u201d \u201cWhere\u2019s the next town?\u201d and \u201cCan I stay here tonight?\u201d\u2014coupled with more charades\u2014helped Buckingham find shelter on the nights he chose to sleep on the Steppe. Each time, he found the Mongolian people warm and hospitable, willing to share what little they had with a stranger. After staying with one family who had no water or food to spare, he was careful to stop at tents with a large number of livestock and a solar panel\u2014signs of prosperity that meant his stay wouldn\u2019t be an imposition. Although the language barrier was difficult, Buckingham says, \u201cSmiling and looking appreciative is a universal language.\u201d
\nThe Mongol Derby is ultimately about adventure and danger, though\u2014not tourism or cultural exchange. The warning at the bottom of the official website says it all: \u201cYou cannot overestimate the risks involved in taking part in these adventures. Your chances of being seriously injured or dying as a result of taking part are high. Individuals who have taken part in the past have been permanently disfigured, seriously disabled, or lost their life. These are not holidays. These are adventures and so by their very nature extremely risky. You really are putting both your health and life at risk. That\u2019s the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lost Days
\nAlthough derby participants typically travel in small groups, for two days and nights Buckingham rode the windswept plains of the Mongolian Steppe alone\u2014isolating days that blurred into each other. Severely dehydrated on the third day because of a broken water filter, Buckingham encouraged his group to continue on while he remained at a checkpoint to rehydrate. It took him two days to catch up.
\n\u201cI was in even more of a race mode those days, pressing the horses to see what they could do. I didn\u2019t have time to worry about what would happen if I fell off and couldn\u2019t send an emergency signal, or if I got thrown and injured my spine, or if I got dragged by my horse. I had to be in the moment, thinking of how I would get from point A to point B.\u201d He could have sacrificed time and waited for a group that was a day behind him, but his competitive edge wouldn\u2019t allow it. \u201cThe entire time,\u201d he says, \u201cI had no other thought but to catch up.\u201d
\nHe did have some company on his solo ride: \u201cHerders who saw me riding came over on their horses to gallop with me for a while. Even the little kids would come out on their horses and ride with me. Then they\u2019d pull off,
\nand I\u2019d push on.\u201d
\nMaking those days even more challenging was his malfunctioning GPS, which lost the race route and showed only the checkpoints instead. \u201cThe only information I had was an \u2018as the crow flies\u2019 line, so I had to think a little bit more. I figured the race coordinators had done it to everyone\u2014taken away the race line to make it even more of an adventure.\u201d But when Buckingham casually mentioned it to someone at a checkpoint, he learned he was the only one who had lacked the information for two days. Although he had to swim across a few rivers, he says, \u201cI made it, and it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pierce<\/a>
Photo courtesy of Richard Dunwoody<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Key to Success
\nAs a thoroughbred-horse trainer, Buckingham is used to 12-to-16-hour work days in the South Carolina heat, sometimes going several months without a day off. No amount of physical labor, however, can approximate the physical demands of the Derby, which Buckingham found more taxing than he ever imaged. There is no way to truly prepare for the event, he claims; only through sheer willpower can riders endure the pain. \u201cYou have to get over the fact that your body hates you, your brain hates you, and the horse doesn\u2019t really want you on its back,\u201d he says. \u201cAt that point, it\u2019s more mental than physical.\u201d He also notes, \u201cIn the Derby and in life, it\u2019s easier to do things you didn\u2019t think were possible when you surround yourself with like-minded people.\u201d
\nThe Derby came at a time of transition for Buckingham; after ten years of six-day work weeks training horses for owners the likes of the ruler of Dubai, he was getting restless. \u201cMy wife and I were looking for a change and needed a little adventure in our lives to spunk things up. Reading an online article in December of 2015, I saw a suggested article from Outside magazine about a guy who had completed the derby a year prior. I read the article, looked on the Mongol Derby website, talked to my wife about it, and knew I wanted to do it. We decided if I was still as excited about it in the morning, I would submit my application.\u201d
\nSeven short months after he first learned of the Derby, he was waiting in the Moscow airport for his final connection to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. \u201cThe timing was right,\u201d Buckingham recalls. \u201cI thought, I\u2019m in shape, I have the time to do it, I\u2019ve been working my tail off for ten years, and it is time to do something for myself. I needed
\nan adventure.\u201d
\nThere is no doubt that Pierce Buckingham has chosen a life outside the norm. His philosophy? \u201cYou can\u2019t stay in a box, look at other people living life, and think, Why can\u2019t I do that? Test yourself and your limits. Live life with a purpose. Only you can make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Office of Global Education and Study Abroad is pleased to republish this article from The Record with Pierce Buckingham ’10. The Adventure of a Lifetime By Karen Huggard On the windswept plains of the Mongolian Steppe last August, a group of extreme adventurers recreated the famed postal relay routes of Genghis Khan. Dubbed the world\u2019s longest horse race, the Mongol Derby pits riders against each other in an endurance race across the rugged territory of northern Mongolia. Although more than 40 riders attempted the 1008-kilometer course with its varied terrain of flat grasslands, steep hills and valleys, river crossings, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-experiences","tag-mongolia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2718,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}