Child Jockeys

Bound for the Gobi Desert, mainly bumping along off road for about 300km, we passed the usual herds of animals, several Steppe Buzzards, had lunch in the middle of a high plateau then drove towards a village. Our guide was told that there was to be a horse race just beyond the village. In Mongolia the jockeys are children aged between 6 and 16 years, mainly boys, but there was one girl in the race we watched (see extra photo). Incredibly only a few of them were wearing helmets. The children here are so at ease in the saddle, they look like mini adults.

It is so dry and windy in the Gobi, it feels like being in a hair drier!