This photographic essay explores Khui Doloon Khudag, the open-steppe setting of Mongolia’s national horse races on 12 July 2026, tracing its atmosphere, cultural significance and emergence as Naadam’s principal racing ground.
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KHUI DOLOON KHUDAG: NAADAM ON THE OPEN STEPPE
Plate note: Khui Doloon Khudag Location Map. July 2026. CPinMongolia.com
Khui Doloon Khudag (Хүй долоон худаг), locally abbreviated as “Hui 7 Hudag”, is the broad grassland where the National Naadam horse races are held, approximately thirty kilometres west of central Ulaanbaatar.
Naadam 12 July 2026. Source: unknown.
It is not a Western-style racetrack enclosed by rails and grandstands. The courses extend across open country, and much of the experience comes from seeing horses, riders, trainers and spectators gathered within the landscape itself.
The races are long-distance tests of each horse’s speed, endurance and preparation rather than short sprints. They are organised according to the horses’ ages, with the distance adjusted for each age class. The youngest horses run approximately 10–12 kilometres, while mature horses may cover around 24–26 kilometres.
The horse is regarded as the principal competitor, although the skill, balance and courage of the young rider remain essential (Mongolian National Broadcaster 2023).
Plate note: Looking out through the beautifully carved wooden doors of this traditional Mongolian ger (гэр). Although designed to be dismantled, transported, and reassembled, the ger is much more than a portable dwelling. During Naadam, it becomes a carefully prepared place of hospitality, where family, friends, and visitors gather to eat, drink, and share in the festivities. The carved wooden door, often decorated with traditional Mongolian ornamental motifs, reflects the care given not only to the ger’s practical construction but also to its beauty as a welcoming social space. The horse seen through the doorway is referred to as “Ikh Nas”. The name is left untranslated. Literally meaning “Great Age” or “Mature Age,” Ikh Nas is also the traditional Mongolian term for a fully mature horse, especially within the classification of horses used in horsemanship and racing. The name therefore carries both the dignity of maturity, and its cultural resonance within the Mongolian equestrian tradition. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: T. Monhtsetseg. CPinMongolia.com.
Plate note: A group of Buryat Mongol horsemen (буряадууд) assemble at the Naadam races, their leader and horse positioned at the centre. Their traditional dress—including distinctive deel (дээл) and hats—differs in cut, colour, and ornamentation from that of the local Khalkha Mongols, while the horse’s ceremonial tack and decoration also reflect Buryat equestrian traditions. The riders travelled from Buryatia, Russia (Buryat: Буряад Улас), immediately north of Mongolia, a journey of around 600 kilometres or more depending on their point of departure, to take part in both the Naadam races and the accompanying festivities. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: T. Monhtsetseg. CPinMongolia.com.
Mongolian horsemen wearing jackets embroidered with the Soyombo symbol on the back. The Soyombo, created by Zanabazar in the seventeenth century, is Mongolia’s best-known national emblem, here carried into the equestrian setting of Naadam and the enduring traditions of Mongolian horsemanship. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: T. Monhtsetseg. CPinMongolia.com.
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Young riders have long been one of the most recognisable features of Naadam racing. Current national regulations, however, require riders in the National Naadam to meet minimum-age, registration, insurance and safety requirements. They now ride with very light saddles and minimal tack rather than simply riding bareback. These measures reflect an effort to preserve the distinctive form of Mongolian racing while placing greater emphasis upon the welfare and protection of participating children (State Great Khural of Mongolia 2022).
Plate note: A young boy, still too young to race, walks towards his family’s horses to help tend them during the day’s events. The horses are tethered in the traditional Mongolian manner to a zele (зэл), a long rope stretched between upright posts to which horses are tied. In Mongolia, familiarity with horses begins long before a child is old enough to ride in competition, and caring for them forms an important part of learning the traditions of horsemanship. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: T. Monhtsetseg. CPinMongolia.com.
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During Naadam, the quiet valley changes almost overnight. Gers, horse lines, family encampments, food tents, traders, vehicles and spectators spread across the grassland, creating the feel of a temporary steppe town. Hot khuushuur (хуушуур, deep-fried meat pastries) and airag (айраг, fermented mare’s milk) belong to the social atmosphere, but Hui 7 Hudag is more than a place from which to just watch the finishing line.
Plate note: Saruul Demberel, Monhtsetseg’s niece from her father’s side, and her husband, Damdinsuren Orosoo, travelled more than 500 kilometres from their home in Sükhbaatar Aimag, in eastern Mongolia, southeast of Ulaanbaatar, to take part in Naadam and its celebrations and to meet up with family. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: O. Udiyana. CPinMongolia.com.
Plate note: Gerelmaa Haltsgai, a former school classmate, stands at left with Tsagaanshuhert Monhtsetseg at right. They are old school friends, and for many of their generation in Mongolia, such friendships are carefully maintained and often endure for life. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: O. Udiyana. CPinMongolia.com.
Plate note: T. Monhtsetseg offering a sip of airag, fermented mare’s milk, from the hosting family’s large traditional Mongolian beaten-silver cup. Offering airag to newly arrived guests and visitors is an expression of hospitality and welcome, marking their entry into the social space of the ger. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: O. Udiyana. CPinMongolia.com.
The accompanying Culture Naadam (Соёлын наадам) brings traditional music, performance, clothing, visual culture and presentations of pastoral knowledge into the same gathering. It is organised as part of the wider Naadam programme rather than merely as an attraction added for tourists (National Naadam Organising Committee 2023).
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Why this valley, and not another?
Khui Doloon Khudag is now so closely associated with National Naadam racing that it can appear to be the festival’s timeless home. Its present official role is, however, comparatively recent. The National Naadam horse races began to be held there in 2006, in Argalant sum, Töv aimag. That year also marked the large state commemoration of the eight-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Great Mongol State. The move therefore took place during a period when Naadam was being organised and presented on an enlarged national scale (National Naadam Organising Committee n.d.). The available official history records when the races moved, but does not provide a single detailed statement explaining why this particular valley was selected.
The reasons can nevertheless be understood from the requirements of National Naadam racing and from the character of the site. A national race needs long, unobstructed courses for several age classes; broad areas in which large numbers of horses can assemble before the start and disperse after the finish; and room for trainers, officials, support vehicles, temporary businesses and many thousands of spectators. Such requirements became increasingly difficult to accommodate near the expanding built environment of Ulaanbaatar.
Khui Doloon Khudag offers a practical balance between distance and accessibility:
(i) It lay sufficiently close to the capital for officials, participants and spectators to reach it during the national holiday, yet far enough beyond the densely settled city to permit long-distance racing over open land.
(ii) Its wide grassland also allowed several overlapping Naadam activities to unfold without forcing the horse race into a tightly enclosed sporting precinct.
(iii) The site is especially appropriate because Mongolian horse racing is culturally inseparable from distance and landscape. The course does not remove horses from the steppe and place them inside a purpose-built racing arena. Instead, it preserves a visible connection among pasture, weather, horsemanship, seasonal movement and the gathering of people and animals across open ground.
(iv) Spectators encounter not only the formal competition but also trainers’ camps, tethered horses, family groups, food, music, dust and social reunion.
(v) The geography of the valley thus allows a modern national event to retain much of the appearance and rhythm of a steppe gathering.
This openness has gradually been combined with more formal organisation. The state and municipal authorities manage roads, traffic routes, parking, public transport, designated commercial areas, security, emergency services and viewing arrangements during the festival.
The National Naadam law also provides the broader regulatory structure under which the races are held, including official authority over venues, competition rules and participant safety (State Great Khural of Mongolia 2022).
Plate note: The social landscape of Khui Doloon Khudag after the races. Spectators, riders, and families move away on foot, by light motorised vehicles, and on horseback, some returning to Ulaanbaatar, others continuing into the gatherings, hospitality, and celebrations that follow. As the racing ground begins to empty, the day’s public spectacle gives way to the social life of Naadam. Location: Khui Doloon Khudag, Naadam, 12 July 2026. Photograph: T. Monhtsetseg. CPinMongolia.com.
Khui Doloon Khudag therefore carries a productive tension. It is valued because it feels expansive, temporary and closely connected to the steppe, yet the scale of the National Naadam requires increasingly permanent systems of access, regulation and crowd management. The place must function at once as grassland, racecourse, public festival ground and national ceremonial space.
Its historical significance lies less in an unbroken ancient use, than in the successful modern joining of landscape and national celebration. Proximity to Ulaanbaatar made it administratively workable; its breadth made long-distance racing possible; and its grassland setting allowed horse culture to remain visibly situated within a recognisably Mongolian landscape. Through repeated use since 2006, Khui Doloon Khudag has itself become a place of memory. Families and friends return to the valley, trainers and riders recall earlier races, and the temporary city that appears each July has become part of the site’s identity.
“Happy Naadam!” (Сайхан наадаарай!)
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Editorial Note
The photographs remain the primary record. The accompanying plate notes are offered only as brief points of cultural and ethnographic orientation, allowing the reader to encounter each image in its context.
The original colour photographs supplied by my dear friend Tsagaanshuhert Monhtsetseg, and her daughter Otgonbaatar Udiyana, for which I am very grateful, have then been edited and reproduced in black and white for this publication, reflecting the visual style adopted throughout this ethnographic study and this channel through which it is presented.
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FURTHER READING
Mongolian National Broadcaster. 2023. “Үндэсний хурдан морьдын уралдааны үүсэл түүх” [The Origin and History of National Horse Racing]. July 7, 2023.
National Naadam Organising Committee. 2023. “The 15th Edition of the ‘Culture Naadam’ Will Be Organised.” National Naadam Festival.
National Naadam Organising Committee. n.d. “Үндэсний хурдан морьдын уралдаан” [National Horse Racing]. National Naadam Festival. Accessed July 12, 2026.
State Great Khural of Mongolia. 2022. Үндэсний их баяр наадмын тухай [Law on the National Great Festival Naadam]. Revised edition. June 28, 2022.
End of transcript.
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© 2013-2026. CP in Mongolia. “Out and About 19: Khui Doloon Khudag: Naadam on the Open Steppe” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 12 July 2026. Last updated: 17 July 2026.