Extreme distance jockey is abandoned in MONGOLIA after falling violently sick during the world’s toughest horse race – as she reveals shock response from organizers

A jockey who completed an extreme distance has been abandoned in Mongolia after falling seriously ill just days before she was due to compete in the world’s toughest horse race.

Dede Anders, 49, was looking forward to competing in the nine-day Mongol Derby in 2024, but on Monday she began to feel ill. She knew she would not be able to complete the 1,000-kilometer trek across the Mongolian steppe.

But when she raised her concerns with medical staff at the derby, Anders said she was brushed off and told to “sit it out”. told Cowboy State Daily.

When she again indicated that she did not feel well enough to ride a “semi-wild” Mongolian horse for days, the event organizers arranged for a taxi back to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, for her. However, they did not arrange a hotel room or a flight back to the United States. They were left to find their own way home.

Anders from Wyoming said she was looking forward to the derby.

She told the Powell Tribune how she jumped on wild horses as a child and how she became a barrel racer and team roper when she was old enough.

“I’ve been riding my whole life,” she said. “I grew up on a little ranch in Greybull, and I ride almost every day when I’m home.”

When she heard about the Mongol Derby, an infamous and dangerous race founded in 2009, she thought it was a dream come true.

“Every little girl reads books about Mongolian horses, Black Beauty and all that stuff,” she said.

‘I had been watching endurance racing for horses, so I took a chance.’

She filled out a questionnaire for The Equestrianists, the organization that organizes the Mongol Derby, and sent in videos of her rides.

For months she didn’t hear from the group, and she began to lose hope.

‘Last October I saw an article about the derby in another magazine and I was so angry I didn’t even want to read it, but that same evening I got a call,’ Anders says.

Race organizers told her at the time that she was on the waiting list for the 2025 Mongol Derby. But when another rider withdrew from this year’s competition a few months ago, Anders was able to take their place.

“I may be crazy, but I’m ready,” she said Cowboy told State Daily last month.

She decided to take up cycling to raise money for Wyo Hoofbeats Equine Assisted Learning, a nonprofit organization that provides equine-assisted learning and psychotherapy programs to the elderly, vulnerable children and families, and individuals with mental health issues.

But she said her first goal would be to finish the dangerous race.

“I have brothers who challenge me if I don’t finish, so that’s another motivating factor,” she said.

After months of preparation, Anders arrived in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, on August 1 and was driven along with other riders to the derby’s starting point eight hours away.

On Monday she started feeling sick.

“It’s a gastrointestinal issue,” Anders said. “I was throwing up and stuff like that.”

She was then examined by two doctors at the base camp.

“They said I didn’t need anything, but they didn’t do anything for me,” Anders said. “They told me to sit it out.”

“One of the doctors didn’t even touch me or ask a single question,” she continued.

“The other one took my pulse for a few seconds. They didn’t take my vital signs, didn’t ask if I had diabetes or what medications I was taking,” said Anders, a former U.S. Army medic with a doctorate in medical science and emergency medicine from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee.

“They just told me it would be over in 24 hours.”

But Anders realised that even though she was not considered ‘seriously ill’, she was still not healthy enough to complete the journey.

She said she had discussed her concerns with the race director, Katherine.

“Katherine came to my yurt and spoke to me at least twice. I told her I was sick both days,” Anders said.

Eventually, race officials called for a driver to take her back to Ulaanbaatar, but they did not book a hotel or flight back to the US for her.

“They put me in a vehicle for eight hours, sick with a stomach and intestinal illness, with a driver who barely spoke English,” Anders complained.

‘I had to book a hotel from base camp through Expedia. The driver stopped in town and gave me my passport so I could finally check into a hotel.’

She now says she wishes the derby organisers had done more.

“I was too sick to get on a horse for 620 miles. But I was also too sick to get in a car for eight hours and be dumped in a city without a passport or a flight home.”

Anders indicated that she has since contacted the event organizers, but has not yet received a response.

“Now I’m stuck here and they don’t give a damn,” she said, adding that the first flight she can catch isn’t until Sunday — and will only take her as far as Seattle, Washington.

“I just want to go back to the US,” she said.

But she also hopes to receive compensation for travel and entrance fees.

“I paid about $30,000 to do this,” Anders said. “My entry fee alone was almost $17,000 — and I didn’t even get my blood pressure checked when I was sick.”

Anders says the experience she was looking forward to was generally “a bit of a mess” and “not very organized.”

“I wake up at 1:30 in the morning and I’m throwing up on the Mongolian steppe and I hear Miley Cyrus’s song Party in the USA playing at full volume and everyone is drunk,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

“I told the race director that if I wanted to see Miley Cyrus race at 1:30 in the morning, I would have gone to some random trailer park in Wyoming.”

DailyMail.com has contacted The Equestrianists for comment.