2024 Mongol Derby Rider - Shelby Van Weelden

08/10/2024

Shameless easy post as I reflect on comments and messages sent after my last post 🥰

This was everything I brought with me to stay alive for 10 days. And I wouldn’t change a thing!!! I needed everything I brought and didn’t have anything that I didn’t need 👌👌

I trialed gear, took advice from previous derbies, researched, etc to get things just right. I made lots of changes throughout the almost two years of prep but this was it. These were perfect for me!

I prioritized my sleep equipment. I knew I needed to sleep well to recover mentally and physically so I didn’t short change myself in any of that (even though I literally counted ounces to make sure I had the lightest weight options available). From those who did the derby this year with minimal sleep equipment, many regretted only having a bivy sack or no sleeping pad. So I was 100% happy with this decision!

My gear weighed EXACTLY 5.0kg (11 #) (maximum amount allowed). It was placed in my saddle bag or my backpack. All overnight stuff went in the saddle bag, all daily essentials went in my backpack. Water and GPS equipment was not included in weight. Rider weight was less than 85kg (187 #), dressed to ride.

First picture shows the tack provided (saddle, saddle pad, bridle, hobbles). Saddle was provided by the derby and was a Franco C. I put Tucker River Plantation fenders with a Blevins buckle. I had Barefoot Safety Western Stirrups with cages. I put Gorilla Glue tread tape on the footbed to help with holding the stirrups with my feet in wet conditions.

I wore:
-Black Diamond Alpenglo Pro Hoody Yellow Sunshirt (picked color due to being easy to find if lost, easy to find in pictures for supporters, and it was on sale!)
-Ridge Merino wool quarter zip base layer mid-weight shirt
-FITS TechTread Summer Pull On Full Seat Breeches in Ice Blue (I tried to find the perfect breeches for a year and landed on these and also picked the color because the darker ones made me much hotter…annnnd! On sale 😁)
-Get Your Nickers Performance Riding Tights (wore under my breeches and slept in them at night)
-Darn Tough Micro Crew Socks (had two pairs for the 10 days, rotated between the two)
-2 All In Motion Sports Bras (one worn, alternated between the two)
-Ariat Terrain Waterproof boots
-Just Chaps Neoprene Chaps
-Uvex Exxential II MIPS helmet
-Wells Lamont HydraHyde Hybrid Glove
-Rab Microlight Down Jacket
-Black Diamond Highline Stretch Shell Rain Coat
-REI Rainier Rain Pants
-Buff CoolNet UV Buff
-Cheap seamless underwear, one pair for every day
-Ombraz Teton Armless Sunglasses
-Spare clothes packed in small Big Agnes stuff sack

Gear:
-Osprey Dyna 15 pack with 2.5L water bladder
-Thermarest NeoAir NXT Sleeping Pad
-Thermarest Vesper 20 degree Quilt (I never knew about quilts instead of sleeping bags but I’m never going back! Quilts were amazing…integrated with my sleeping pad and felt as close to sleeping in a bed while camping!)
-Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Pillow
-SOL Emergency Bivvy XL (went with XL size in case I needed to get my gear in it to stay dry)
-Ge**er Dime Multitool
-Black Diamond Headlamp
-Goal Zero Solar Panel Charger with carabiners to hold it on my pack
-Phone charging cord
-Sawyer In-line Water Filtration System
-Body Glide, Chapstick x2, hand sanitizer, sunscreen in small bottle, small container of deodorant, extra hair ties, small thing of soap (I lied, this is one item I didn’t use but I’m still glad I had it if I needed it so I wouldn’t change it)
-10 strips KT tape with corners already cut and ready to use
-Zip-ties
-Gorilla tape (small amount just wrapped around bottle of electrolytes)
-Small container of Relyte Pina Colada Electrolytes
-Sticks of Relyte Energy electrolytes, variety
-Sea to Summit Gear Ties x2
-Imodium, Zofran, Advil PM, Excedrin Extra Strength, Tums, Pepto Bismal tabs, Sport Legs
-4 Chomps beef sticks, 1 Honey Stinger Waffle
-6 body cleaning wipes (don’t remember the brand, got at SOKO. Antimicrobial and larger than a normal wipe)
-Cottonelle Biodegradable Wipes and toilet paper
-Rite in the Rain notepad and pen, envelope of questions to reflect on from a friend
-Mongolian money, ID, credit card
-Ziplocs to store stuff
-Contractor trash bag to line inside of my saddle bag and keep my stuff dry
-American Flag and IAFF Patch (for gifts to herder families)

17/09/2024

Another Mongolia post! 🥳🇲🇳🥳

Now this picture was actually at the beginning of start camp, but I’m posting it to be a “cheers” to the adventure we had. (I’m the 4th silhouette from left).

Mongolia: Cheers to you!

I’m going to recap my feelings after my experience at my current time in my life (knowing that it will probably morph as time passes on…I will share more on my feelings down the road too!). I will also post pictures with memories and of my gear and injuries as I can make time to do so.

But back to my thoughts and feelings of my experience...

It was absolutely, 100%, the most amazing experience. Truly once in a lifetime. It was wild, eye-opening, surreal, magical.

I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Gratitude for many things. Grateful for this opportunity and the ability to compete, travel and experience Mongolia and the Mongol Derby. Grateful to live in America. Grateful for the Mongolian people and them welcoming strangers from around the world and showing us their lives. Grateful for being able to do so much of the derby. Grateful to have not been grievously injured. Grateful to experience the Mongolian horse. Grateful for heating/air conditioning, hot water, a Coke, food availability. Grateful for a hot shower after 10 days without. Grateful for conditioner in my hair after almost a month without. Grateful for SO MUCH support from friends and family. It’s the big things and the little things, and I’m so thankful for them all.

But with so many things in life, there’s some bad with the good. And there are certainly things I’ve struggled with through this experience. And they are things I wasn’t expecting and wish I didn’t feel this way. But to be open and show you all sides of this experience, I feel like I should share it with the world.

The derby did not go as I had planned but yet I was very well prepared. My expectations of the Derby were not met…most notably that I did not do the whole thing and I did not finish in the race class. And I am a perfectionist and super competitive. So to not do the whole derby and not be a competitor in the end has really pushed me in ways that I’m working through. I have tried to reframe my thinking to see that doing the derby in this way may be how I’m going to move past those barriers in other aspects of my life. Of course it hurts now and it sucks, but I’m hoping in the long run and in a few months, I will look back on it and see what I experienced for what it was.

When you pour all your money, time, effort, mental space, and growth for two years into a once-in-a-lifetime experience of extreme proportions that only lasts two weeks and can be derailed in less than a second...it just makes you feel lots of things.

It also highlighted my prep work. I think I learned so much more about myself during preparation for the derby and I didn’t expect that. I expected to find myself more out on the steppe. I wanted to be pushed to the absolute limits out there but I never got there. Tythe would say it’s because I’m doing things I love (riding horses all day outside in the wild). I say it’s because of how I prepared. It’s probably both. Between those two things, I don’t know if I would have found my limits in this adventure. Which again, is an expectation I had and didn’t experience but that I wanted to experience. It’s the world’s longest and toughest horse race after all! (I will detail my prep later).

My mind races with all the thoughts while trying to process the experience. But I feel lots of things and I’m still trying to make sense of it all.

So a month after crossing the finish line, I feel: immense gratitude for what I have and what I did; a sense of pride in doing as much of the derby as I did; satisfaction in my prep work; discontent in how the race turned out for me; joy in the experiences and friends I made; stunned by the beauty and wildness of Mongolia and the culture.

24/08/2024

Hey everyone!! We’re still working on getting as much money as possible for St. Florian Burn Foundation! …TSHIRT and SWEATSHIRT (fall is coming, y’all!) sales close at the end of today!! ALL proceeds going to St. Florian, thanks to Banacom Signs & More LLC!

St. Florian Burn Foundation is an incredible IOWA based non-profit that supports the area’s burn survivors (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota). One of their biggest programs is Miracle Burn Camp! It’s a week long summer camp in Iowa for child burn survivors. I’ve heard campers’ stories and also know several that help as staff for it…it’s a great program! And the kids pay nothing to go because of donations to the non-profit!

Make a difference to this great organization and buy some merch! Link to shirts is listed and if you want koozies or stickers, let me know and I can send them your way!

If you want me to deliver your order to you because you don’t want to pay shipping, mark it for pick up and I will get it to you if you live in the area! 🙂

More Mongol Derby stories will be coming as I have the chance to sit down and update 🙂

22/08/2024

Well, I’m sitting in the Ulaanbaatar Chinngis Khaan Airport waiting for my first of three flights home. This has been SUCH an experience since I left on 7/30. Really, all the prep work leading up to this last month has been such an experience. There’s so much to say, so many memories. And I will dive in to them!

But for now, as a whole experience, it was an adventure of a lifetime. It wasn’t the experience that I expected but was one that I knew could happen (moving from race category to adventure category). So I’m trusting that the experience I had was the one I needed. The Mongol Derby has about a 50% completion rate. So really it was a 50/50 shot of whether I was going to do the whole thing. And I did do as much as I possibly could!

Quick recap on that, I was on a Naadam horse at the start line (how fortunate!). He was unreal in his athleticism. We took off from the start line and were at the front of the pack. He was jumping over clusters of marmot holes, jumping shrubs, weaving around obstacles…just eating the ground in front of him. These firecracker horses could go around 40km/Hr (25-30mph). I was honestly just trying to be a good passenger and balanced on him as he navigated his home terrain (which he knows way better than I do). Eventually, we were running in 1st or 2nd place and he jumped a shrub but on the other side upon landing was a marmot hole, causing him to fall and subsequently causing me to fall. I landed pretty hard on my left side. I jumped up as quick as possible to see the rest of the field run past. My horse was gone, still chasing the lead. He got up from the fall and kept running. Knowing that this was NOT going to be how my derby ended and knowing I was going to take some bumps and bruises along the way, I was ready to get back on. The crew vehicle found my horse not far away on the paved road. They gave me a quick lift to the horse and I jumped back on and we were off. He ran and cantered almost the whole leg to horse station 1…I don’t remember the exact distance but they were all generally around 30km (18 miles). He came in and first pulse check was 46. His levels of fitness, athleticism, and speed were unbelievable. We went from first place to not moving and being in last place to coming to horse station 1 in 8th place. I rode for two more full days before coming in to horse station 5 for the night on night two. Overnight, I rolled over on my left side and felt a pop in my ribs along with sharp pain that woke me up in tears. In the morning of day three, I asked the medic if she could KT tape my ribs and give me pain meds that were better than Advil. She was worried about a possible broken rib and pneumothorax so she pulled me from riding until I got an X-ray in Ulaanbaatar. Devastated is how I felt. I will share more about that later, but it resulted in two full days being off the steppe. Luckily nothing could be seen as broken, so I was allowed to come back and keep riding.

I rode a lot of the derby with Marni Hamilton, just coming and going but seeming to always end up in the same areas frequently. And from between horse station 18 and 19, I got to ride the rest of the derby with Hannah Morgan and Claire Morgan ❤️ These girls and I got to share such great memories! Then Fred in this picture was also a rock star. As he said, his “shoulder was being held on by shreds”. He came to the derby injured after a fall just prior to the derby and knowing he needed surgery. He rode much of the derby with that lime green deel belt as a makeshift sling. He’s also approaching 70 years old. I got to ride quite a bit with Fred, too. Watching him get it done while compensating for his injury and sleeping on the hard ground almost every night was incredible. All of us crossed the finish line together, Hannah, Claire, and Marni in race category and Fred and myself in adventure category.

And Tythe was there to greet me at the finish line!! ❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰

I’m still a little banged up from falls but physically felt really good. I didn’t struggle with knee, ankle, foot pain. I had no real issues with gear. I felt all my prep work was spot on (granted I missed two days of the derby, so I can’t say for sure, but I felt at the end of it that I could keep going for a few more days).

It was very interesting to see nomadic herding culture and even the Mongolian culture in the city. And it absolutely makes me thankful for: running water, safe water, hot water, air conditioning, heating, food availability, a comfy bed, safe and tame horses.

But I will always treasure experiencing a different culture, seeing a different way of life, sleeping under the Mongolian stars, meeting wild and adventurous people from around the world, and riding insanely fast and athletic horses in an area not riddled with fences or property lines. I got to gallop a horse at full speed for 11km straight along a river and along with a nomadic herder and his herd of wild horses! The horse also passed the vet check with glowing remarks!

Well, im about to board a plane to Beijing and gotta go! More to come. Can’t wait to have a Big Mac! 😝

03/08/2024

Here is the link to watch my dot cross the steppe! My call sign is SVW.

https://equestrianists.com/live/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEVXkNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYpZMveB1ycagMNssBeQTUwP2EGZibjTgdDshVaAL7SJA4KEwBFxgT8wpg_aem_u20d98zVkb6zsHDW9YpiRw

Also, follow the Mongol Derby to see pictures and videos daily through the race. They’re also on Instagram, just search Mongol Derby 🙂

Few more updates to come before I head out to the wild in a few short hours!

As the race enters Day 5, the competition at the front has heated up. Gaucho Derby veteran Daniel Van Eden, Endurance Athlete Holly Masson and Mongol Derby veteran Rendel Rieckmann, have managed to secure the lead so far. Their excellent horsemanship, careful navigation and teamwork across the cours...

03/08/2024

Ok! Next post update! SWAG!! All money goes to St. Florian Burn Foundation! 🥳🥳🥳

Link for t-shirts and sweat shirts:

https://www.storessimple.com/banacomsigns/shelby2024

If you hit “pick up” and live in the CR area or see you semi frequently or are okay waiting until I see you next, I will get you your shirt!

Plus I have some koozies and stickers still available! Comment here what you want!
Koozies - $5
Stickers - $3

Venmo works for koozies and stickers! Or cash when I give to you!

St. Florian Burn Foundation helps support burn survivors in various ways, but most notably for their Miracle Burn Camp every summer. It’s an Iowa based foundation but helps surrounding states too 🙂 All of these reasons plus hearing survivors stories, knowing some cool people who help with the camp every year, and being in the fire service are all the reasons why I chose this charity!

If you want to just give a donation, that is great, too!!

Otherwise…get your SWAG!!

02/08/2024

Let me just say…I am soooo freaking blessed and lucky to have such an amazing support system behind me as I am preparing to take on the Mongol Derby in just a few days.

I am currently sitting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia awaiting the start of the derby on 8/7, but training days begin 8/4. I am feeling ready and at peace with how I’ve trained so far. However, jury is still out on if it has actually been successful training 😝 the only way I will know is when I cross the finish line lol. If I don’t cross, then it was not successful training (but I have enjoyed it!). But like I said, I do feel good at this present moment. I was stressed about the unknowns a few weeks ago because how do you prepare for that?! But I’ve now moved in to knowing that worrying about the unknowns won’t change anything…they will always be unknowns and therefore I can’t train for it.

But seriously, the amount of love and support I have felt over the last almost two years of prep has been immense and it blows me away. From the guidance, encouragement, tips, donations, kind/supportive words, pushing me to do more and to do harder things, gear recommendations, going through tough workouts, long rides, coming to my send off party, and understanding as I work through the prep and giving me grace to do so without much guilt (I still feel guilty for not being around as much with everyone in my life!). I seriously cannot express my gratitude enough to all of you. I hope to do you proud over the next few weeks!

I have soooo many updates and I will work through posting them but I have been in such a place of overwhelm since May. Between work, prep, keeping our house going, travel, and just being busy with miscellaneous things, I haven’t taken the time to update everyone on the happenings. I frequently would have 50-100 text messages unread at the end of every day since then, and I’m sorry that my responses have been delayed. But being present and operating in the real world around me made me fall quite behind in communication on the phone.

But I guess maybe that was prep to be without my phone for the next few weeks with almost no communication. But you can all track me! I will post that info later.

So thank you everyone, from the bottom of my heart, to get me where I am. It takes a village to make dreams come true and the love that it takes to push someone in to their dreams is such a selfless act. And I sincerely, absolutely, 100% thank you for it.

Now it’s time to race across the steppe and make you all proud to have supported this adventure!! I will think of you all when the going gets real real tough.

Much love! ❤️❤️❤️

08/06/2024

Only 2 months out!!! It’s getting real!!!

Go to sleep with a dream, wake up with a purpose

The 2024 edition of our World’s Longest & Toughest horse race, the mighty , is nearly upon us. This year's race kicks off on August 7, we'll have a live map so you lot can watch your rider's tracker dot fly across Mongolia.

Stay tuned as we near kick off, we'll be posting all the ways you can follow and interact with this year's race.

📸

07/05/2024

Ran in the Iron Horse Half Marathon on Saturday in the rain while Dani ran in her first ever marathon! She pushed me to sign up for another long run…I was going to do a marathon but opted to do the half due to being on high dose prednisone and not wanting to risk injury this close to the Mongol Derby and to the Mongol Derby Bootcamp this upcoming weekend. But this girl did it!!! Cheers to you, Danielle Northrup!! You killed it!! Proud of you and your determination to push through even though I backed out and it was a stormy/rainy race! (And your headphones dying 👀)

17/04/2024

Well everyone…meet Tuck. The newest member of Empty Pockets Ranch. A legit endurance horse. 320 LD miles, 760 endurance miles, 27 out of 27 completions. Has done back to back 50s and placed in the top 10 in the nation for high mileage horse last year.

I am beyond blessed to have this pony (okay, Arabian…but he’s 14.2hh lol). He’s 9 years old and been competing in endurance for two years.

I was contacted about Tuck last year, wondering if I would be interested in buying him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money to do so. With the Mongol Derby payments coming out and building a riding arena, it just wasn’t feasible. Time goes on and Brittany reached back out about a month ago asking if I would be interested in him again. Still wasn’t the right time to add another horse.

But you know…

Sometimes fate slaps you upside the head and tries to give you all the things to push you down a path. And that’s what happened with Tuck. So read on if you want to know more about this fateful meet up.

I rode in my first endurance event last year, Iowa’s only endurance ride. I rode my 23 year old quarter horse, Willow, with two of the coolest people…Amy Foster and Stephanie McKenna. Well, Stephanie is best friends with Brittany, Tuck’s owner. And Brittany and Tuck were in the running for the AERC Rookie of the Year. How cool?! But come the end of the season, Brittany was looking to rehome Tuck so she could focus on her family time and be home more for the different kids’ events. This is when Stephanie made a plug for me to take Tuck.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I ended up rehoming Little Donk to a more donkey appropriate home just before being contacted about Tuck. So my expenses of taking care of another horse/donkey freed up from having 3, going back down to 2. I also was coming to an end on my payments to the Mongol Derby. So really, I was going to just keep paying for 3 equines no matter what lol.

My husband was going to surprise me with a trip to Cape Girardeau, Missouri from 4/7-4/9 to see the solar eclipse…a trip planned for months but I didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing. Turns out, rooms were going for about $400/night in that town 😱 thinking we may have to alter our plans, he told me what he had hoped to do for this surprise trip. Well, I was planning on picking up Tuck on 4/10 in the Kansas City area. But blessings to Brittany, she offered us a room at her house! …just outside the area for a total solar eclipse! So we switched the plans to go see the solar eclipse in Arkansas and pick up Tuck on the way home!

Not only that, but I haven’t stressed once about bringing Tuck home. This is something that would probably stress me out, especially at this time in my life. Is he the right horse? Can I afford it? Do I want another horse? Can I provide everything he needs? Is this the right time? And none of that has made me stressed. I have felt cool as a cucumber this whole time. So I can’t help but think, God….what a blessing. I’ve felt very at peace with being him home and not stressed at all. He’s fitting in nicely with Chex and Willow and in fact, his presence has had a positive impact on them, too.

Plus my husband likes him, too. 😎

So I guess after the Mongol Derby, I will keep doing endurance events 😝 …let’s see what little Tucky can do!