A New Zealand woman will race 1000km across Mongolia on horseback next month - and hopes to complete the mammoth charity ride in less than a week.
Bay of Islands horse trainer Chloe Phillips-Harris, 25, will traverse Genghis Khan's old postal messenger route for 13 hours each day, racing 34 other riders from around the world as part of the annual Mongol Derby.
The race - the equivalent of galloping from Cape Reinga to Wellington - comes with a maximum luggage weight of just 5kg and riders must change horse every 40km.
"You use the nomadic people's horses ... so a lot of it comes down to picking the right horse and horsemanship and managing the horse when you're on it," Ms Phillips-Harris said.
"It's 26 horses all up so being able to get on and know your horse straight away and not get bucked straight back off is going to be a big challenge."