The Blue Wolf Totem Charity Ride in Mongolia

By: Gyöngyi Molnár Posted: 26/11/2021

In this article, we will interview Julie Veloo, a long rider and founder of the "Gobi Gallop" endurance ride.

This time, she is presenting a new equestrian event, the "Blue Wolf Totem Charity Expedition", the longest charity horseback expedition in the history of Mongolia, which will take place in 2022.

As Julie puts it, this is "a once-in-a-lifetime, 3,600-kilometer horseback expedition for 15 lucky riders through history and across the height and breadth of Mongolia".

Julie Veloo also runs Veloo Foundation, which she founded in 2007. Their primary mission is to help orphans and other similarly disadvantaged children in the developing world through a series of educational, health, community outreach and employment initiatives.

A percentage of the price that riders pay to join the Blue Wolf Totem Charity Expedition goes directly to help this foundation.

While this riding adventure is organized, in theory, only once, they plan to turn it into an annual fundraising charity ride in 2023 – the Blue Wolf Totem Experience.

Below, Julie explains in depth both this expedition and the future annual event.

Blue Wolf Totem Charity Expedition

Julie, today we’d like to talk about your new adventure, the "Blue Wolf Totem Charity Expedition". Please tell us the most important aspects of this horse riding adventure.

This is a once in a lifetime charity ride. It is 84 days and 3,600 km across Mongolia with special emphasis to visit as many historical, cultural and social sites as we can possibly squeeze in.

You will start close to the Chinese Border and ride wild through the Gobi desert visiting monasteries, energy centres, animal refuges and a whole myriad of other cultural, historical or natural sites.

The route has been planned and scoped out with care and a focus not just on the famed historical and cultural sites that abound, but also on the lesser known markers of the history of human development that dot this wild land.

Whether we are riding to ancient “Deer Stones”, Stones standing solid and alone in the midst of the steppe and harkening back to a time before the clans were united or visiting the hideout of a famed "Robin Hood" horse thief from the early 20th Century.

We will be experiencing the fullness of the real Mongolia. It is going to be an adventure that nearly defies description!

You can expect desert nights draped with stars, remote and secret monasteries, famed prehistoric deer stones and burial sites and wild, high desolate wilderness refuges.

Astonishing wildlife and wild life refuges and spending time high up in the far north of the arboreal Taiga with the last Reindeer Riders on the planet.

And then cresting sweeping mountains to the land of glaciers and the home of the Eagle Hunters.

This is what the Blue Wolf Totem Ride will be.

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How many kilometres do the participants ride, during how many days in the “Blue Wolf Totem Charity Expedition”?

You will cover between 20 and 70 kilometres a day depending on what there is in the neighbourhood that merits investigation. We will ride on average 50 km a day with a rest day after every 10 days of riding.

Our horses are some of the best on the planet and both the horses and our whole team are well prepared for this epic adventure by years of being part of the Gobi Gallop, which, at 700 km is the longest annual charity horseback ride on the planet.

The horses’ welfare is very important to us so we will be changing horses 3 or 4 times during the ride and riding horses that hail from the local community in areas where it is particularly rocky or mountainous.

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When will it take place?

The Blue Wolf Totem Expedition is a once in a lifetime ride which will be leaving May 2nd 2022 and finishing July 28th.

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Can you tell us more about the itinerary and the places you will visit on this expedition?

Starting at Khamariin Khiid Monastery in the Gobi Desert and finishing at Altai Tavan Bogd in the far west of Mongolia where the Eagle hunters fly their wild eagles on the hunt.

The route has been carefully crafted to showcase the best of Mongolian history, culture and natural beauty.

There are so many places included on the 3,600-km itinerary that it is hard to list them all – essentially we ride from a revered energy centre and monastery deep in the southern Gobi Desert across the wild, wide steppe to the birthplace of Chinggis Khan in far north Mongolia.

From then we travel south through the lands and battle sites of Chinggis Khan down to our base camp outside of Ulaanbaatar then continue on south of Ulaanbaatar to the famed Hustai National Park to see the Przwalski Horses.

Leaving there we head to the 8 lakes region (through Overhangai and Arkhangai provinces) including a much anticipated stop at Tsenkher Hot Springs.

Then up past some of the most stunning archaeological sites with dozens of deer stones, people stones and bronze age monuments on our way up to Khovsgul Province – home of the Reindeer Herders.

We forge on with pack horses for a week or so to the farthest most northerly point in Mongolia - a sacred spot for Mongolians and on our return through the Taiga we visit both the East and West Reindeer Herders.

From there we travel across Zavkhan province where we see some of the most jaw-dropping beautiful sand dunes with rivers running through them, wild free ranging camels and stunning rocky outcroppings which have remained unchanged since time immemorial.

Then we head to Bayan Ulgii Province where the Eagle Hunters live.

We finish the ride at Altai Tavan Bogd, the highest peak in Mongolia and the place where Russia, China and Mongolian borders meet. Riding up glacial rivers between the soaring mountain peaks in an area decorated with some of the most impressive petroglyphs on the planet.

We will finish off our ride surrounded by history, culture and stunning natural beauty.

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Who are the participants?

At the moment we have 16 riders hailing from around the world. Most represented is Canada with 7 riders, but we also have folks from the USA, Australia, Belgium, England, and Switzerland.

We have riders in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s AND 70’s. Our riders are hairdressers, surgeons, housewives, lawyers, vet techs and everything in between. We even have an Inuit man from the far north of Quebec who is in search of his cultural and historical roots which run deep in Mongolia.

A very diverse and eclectic group. The one thing they all share is their passion for riding adventure, their love of Mongolia and their desire to help the children.

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Do riders bring their own horses to participate in the expedition or do they ride local horses?

We provide all the horses and the tack. We use locally sourced tack designed and built for the comfort and safety of both, the horses and the riders.

We do edit the local tack a bit though to provide break away stirrups and toe caps for the riders’ safety.

We generally provide 2 horses per rider and so the endurance aspect for the ride focuses not just on the riders’ endurance, but also on the horses.

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What kind of physical and mental challenges will the riders have to face during this ride?

This is going to be one of the most interesting parts of this ride I think.

There is something about getting out and getting away on horseback and literally riding away from the world that forces people to reconnect with their primal, human selves.

I have seen it happen on other treks when after 2 weeks people just simply don’t want to go back to the world and when they do, they find it loud and intrusive and weird.

The silence of horseback, the stillness of the wild, the rightness of crossing this magical, unmarked ground at the same place the humans and horses have done for millennia is something that will leave no one unmarked.

We will all have so much time for our own thoughts and time just to be.

On the other hand, of course there will be weather challenges and probably some interpersonal stuff but those things, assuming I have done my job of putting together a supportive and positive team, will all just be dealt with as they arise.

The physical challenge of the ride will see all of the riders getting stronger and stronger as we go on and I think that the empowerment of that will be something really beautiful to see.

I guarantee that we will all get off the horse at Altai Tavan Bogd (sacred spot again where the borders of Russia, Mongolia and China meet) feeling fitter, more relaxed, happier and more at peace than we ever have in our lives.

I can’t wait to see the transformation in the people.

I am going to be writing a book about this ride actually and a large part of it is going to be exactly this – how this ride is transformative to so many people in so many ways and how riding the wilds and witnessing life as all of our forefathers did affects our health, happiness and ability to interact with our fellow man.

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Blue Wolf Totem Experience

As we have already mentioned, the "Blue Wolf Totem Expedition" will take place only once, but the "Blue Wolf Totem Experience" will be an annual equestrian event starting in 2023.

Julie, please tell us the details, what can we know about this new horse adventure?

There were SO many people who wanted to join us for the Blue Wolf Totem Expedition but didn’t have the time that we decided to create a special annual fundraising charity ride that would encapsulate the absolute best of the Blue Wolf Totem Expedition.

Would be true to the historical and cultural focus of the Expedition, but still be short enough that regular endurance adventurers would have the time to come along and join us for it.

This is a really wonderful collaboration with famed Mongol Derby Winner, Heidi Telstadt to put on an 11 day ride that encapsulates the heart of the Blue Wolf Totem Expedition but also has a serious endurance focus.

We will be staying in our very own custom ger camp, undertaking serious endurance rides, including a 100 mile day for those up to actually riding like Chinggis as our #ridelikechinggis says.

There will also be mounted archers, a day with 500 or so horses, an Eagle Hunter, wild, open throat singing concert and really SO much more.

We will ride some of the actual track of the Blue Wolf Totem Expedition and see Deer Stones, people stones, famous battle sites from the time of Chinggis Khan and much more.

This is going to be an authentic Mongolia historical experience packed full of new things to see, learn and experience and a way to ride Mongolia that has never been done before.

We will be bringing together all of the highlights of a ride here in Mongolia, mixing in the true unbroken horse culture, throwing in a dash of luxury (staying in your own ger with a BED and a chef creating delicious culinary treats) and lots of options for people to ride as much or as Little as they would like…

At only US$6000 it is also very affordable for the world class ride that it is AND US$1000 of that goes directly to help Veloo Foundation make a difference, one child at a time. We expect that this introductory price will increase in 2024 however.

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Thank you Julie for sharing your passion with us

Julie, thank you so much for this interview and for sharing your time and experiences with us.

What you do is more than a horse riding challenge. Thanks to Veloo Foundation you can help other people, support the nomadic culture and contribute to the survival of Mongolia's horse herds.

We wish you the best of luck on the Blue Wolf Totem Expeditionand let’s hope that many riders join the Blue Wolf Totem Experience in the future.

You can find more information about Veloo Foundation on their website. Go to Blue Wolf Totem Expedition for more details.

/ Photos: Veloo Foundation y Horse Trek Mongolia /

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