Help me Race the Mongul Derby

Hello, my name is Patricia Scibek and I deeply appreciate you taking the time to read my story. It is with great excitement I am able to announce I have been invited to race in the 2027 Mongol Derby – the world’s longest (1,000 km / 621 mi) and toughest horse race across the Mongolian Steppe. This is the outcome of a process which took over a year and a half of interviews and vetting. Every year hundreds – if not thousands – of people from all over the world apply to ride in this endurance race with 40 – 44 equestrians ultimately being chosen. (To say I am overjoyed is an understatement!)

The racing fees total $19,000.00 which must be paid in monthly installments starting from the date of sign up. I’ve been scraping by with monthly installments but any and all ongoing support to help me cover the remainder of the fees - as I still have rent and monthly bills due - would be tremendously appreciated. Racing fees cover everything from vetting horses, medical staff, emergency response, equipment, and more during the ten days I’ll be crossing the Mongolian Steppe.

I am in the processes of seeking and securing sponsorship for the fees, but this has been proven so far to be unfruitful. In the mean time I am in need of immediate financial support to continue to secure my position.

Any money donated will be used to pay these monthly installments leading up to the race and ultimately my dream. Any amount you’re willing to contribute is greatly appreciated. If you are unable to contribute monetary support at this time, a share with your family, friends, and network would mean the world.

To read more about the race, see a detailed breakdown of racing fees, and more head to the link below:

https://equestrianists.com/guides/mongol-derby-more-details/

*Note: Racing fees are for 2027, the cost is not the same as the 2024 race shown.

(If you’d like to know more about my equine history, how this dream came to be, and the training which will be going into this, please read below.)

My equestrian journey started at eight years old after years of me dreaming of horses. I learned how to ride in Solen on the Standing Rock Reservation where I would be gifted my first horse who taught me everything I know. As the years went on my journey continued to West Virginia where I would switch from Western barrel racing to English jumping as well as becoming certified in Natural Horsemanship. In 2010 I would relocate to Cairo, Egypt where horses became an even larger part of my life. I would soon be riding through the Sahara where I would learn more than I could’ve ever imagined as I was left alone with up to 25 horses at a time to train and exercise.

In 2014 I would move back to the United States and ultimately settle down in Seattle, Washington. There I would go on to rehabilitate traumatized horses where I gained immense wisdom in ground working and went on some rather wild rides as I worked to regain the trust of these beautiful creatures. After a few close calls with kicks however, I realized if I wanted to continue to ride into my later years, I would have to shift careers – it is at this juncture where I enrolled at the North West School of Animal Massage on Vashon Island and completed trainings in equine massage (2021) and acupressure (2022).

As for the Mongul Derby, my application was the result of me finding out about the race during a bout of COVID in June 2022 in which I binge watched the TV series “Marco Polo” while in quarantine. Which ultimately led me down a rabbit hole of research into the horse culture of Mongolia. Soon I found myself reading the details of the Mongul Derby thinking “I could do this.” It had long since been a dream of mine to endurance ride, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to breach that barrier and this seemed like a good place to start. When I applied, I honestly didn’t expect anything…but as the weeks and months went by, I kept getting contacted and clearing every level of the interview process. On November 30th 2023, I awoke to an official invitation in my inbox to race. I’m confident in my skill set and am excited to embark on this challenge where I get to employ every single piece of knowledge I’ve gained throughout my equestrian career from natural horsemanship to acupressure, massage, and all those little snippets of wisdom one gains from listening to horses.