Orkhon Valley II

Waking up freezing the next morning, I braved the cold outside and made my way to the nomadic family's tent to warm up. They laughed at my suffering which was no doubt quite funny with how I was charading that it was so cold. I ate some breakfast while watching TV with them, just various programs on temples, a drama on nomad life, Ulaanbataar, really simple stuff. Emily soon came in after and we went out for a horse ride. It was another cloudy day and I was on the horse that I befriended yesterday, the nomad took us around the perimeter. There were a lot of poop littered around, bones as well. After the horse ride, we said good bye to the nomadic family and went on our way towards Hustai National Park.

Not too long after we started the trip, Gana got a bit excited and pulled over asking if we wanted to take photos. I didn't understand what was going on until Emily pointed out that there was a foal, newly born! All of us went down the car to get a closer look. Gana went straight for the baby and started touching it while calling us over. I was so afraid but the mother was too tired and didn't seem to be too protective or maybe it was used to humans? I approached the baby, Gana encouraged me to touch the baby's body and head, he kept repeating "Is good! Is good!" So my guess at that time was that it was a really auspicious event in Mongolian culture. We were doubly surprised when Gana rode the baby horse, not putting his whole weight on it but just pretending to ride it which was apparently also extremely lucky. He encouraged me to do the same to which I reluctantly and in a panic ended up doing. Bobbi later clarified that only males were allowed to do this and that he who does it will be lucky for life. Good for me, I guess? Gana wouldn't stop at that though, Emily and I watched in horror as he pulled out the mother's placenta and started playing around with it like a little kid. He was trying to find something to feed the baby horse, I think some part of the placenta. He also rolled it around in dirt, at this point I have no idea what he was doing. I was able to get tons of photos that I felt were really once in a lifetime and was so giddy and happy with how everything turned out. I still couldn't stop laughing in the car at how the events of the day turned out.Read more