Mainer to Participate in 620-Mile Horse Race Across Mongolia

POLAND, Maine - A Maine woman is set to embark on a most unusual horse race.
 
Amanda Charlton Herbert is one of just eight Americans selected to compete in the toughest horse race in the world, the 620-mile Mongol Derby.
 
The Sun Journal reports that she will be riding 28 semi-wild horses during the ride across desolate Mongolia, a country sandwiched between China and Russia.
 
The race, which begins Wednesday, aims to recreate Genghis Khan's relay postal system from the 1200s. The system was similar to the American Pony Express several centuries later.
 
The 26-year-old Herberg, from Poland, Maine, says the race is both a test of her endurance as well as a test of her ability to read and work with different horses.