06/28/2025
In 2019, headlines quietly whispered something extraordinary.
But out on the Mongolian steppe, the wind was screaming it.
This wasn’t a movie.
There were no stunt doubles, no warm beds, no camera crew.
Just one man… 70 years old… and 1,000 kilometers of unforgiving terrain.
Robert “Bob” Long wasn’t what you’d call a jockey.
He was a cowboy.
From Idaho, by way of Wyoming.
He’d spent his life in the saddle, fixing fences, doctoring cattle, riding rough trails that don’t make it onto Instagram.
But in the summer of 2019, Bob did something no one else had ever done.
He entered the Mongol Derby—the longest, toughest horse race on Earth.
And he won it.
Seven and a half days.
620 miles.
Across rivers, mountains, deserts, and an endless sea of grass.
Trading semi-wild horses every 40 kilometers, just like Genghis Khan’s messengers did 800 years ago.
He was up against 41 riders from 12 countries—many decades younger, trained by elite endurance coaches.
Bob? He rode 60-mile days on Arizona trails, trained colts in Idaho, and listened to old winners.
And then he just… went.
With a GPS in one hand and grit in the other.
No glamor. No drama. Just focus.
And when he crossed that finish line—first, at 70—he smiled.
Then took a swig of fermented mare’s milk, as tradition demands.
Because Bob Long didn’t chase glory.
He earned it.
One mile, one horse, one relentless day at a time.
They said he was too old.
They said the Mongol Derby chews up Olympians and spits out Navy SEALs.
They didn’t say anything after Bob rode past them.