The course was longer than anything the wrestling ground or the archery range had required. It went east from the camp along the Orkhon's southern margin, the cleared ground stretching across the valley floor for a distance that most competitions did not need.
The Naadam race was not a sprint between animals. It was a test of what a horse was, its breeding, its conditioning, what the land it came from had built into its bones over generations. The course covered a span of ground that left nothing to riding skill or tactics. It measured only the animal.
The crowd distributed itself along the course's full length rather than concentrating at one end. Men had been walking the grounds since before the morning meal to find their viewing positions. By the time the first horses were brought to the starting area, the course was lined on both sides with people for as far as the valley floor would hold them.
