A cultural connection

A couple years back Greg Schatz and his wife, Deborah, were giving a horse packing demonstration at a Montana Wilderness Association event. In the background there was an older fella watching the Columbia Falls couple, leaning up against a tree.

Deborah was intrigued by the man and struck up a conversation, while Greg continued his demonstration. When Greg was done, he walked up to the pair and Deborah looked at Greg and said, “Hey, you want to go to Mongolia?”

Turned out the man leaning up against the tree was Cliff Montagne, the director of Bioregions International, a nonprofit group that shares ideas with other regions of the world, particularly with Mongolia, which has a lot in common with Montana, despite being a half-world away.

Montagne was attracted to the Schatzes way with horses and their knowledge of the backcountry and he thought they’d be of value to Mongolian herders tucked in the Northwest region of the country, who were also trying to start their own outfitting businesses for tourism.

One thing led to another and the Schatzes were on a plane to Mongolia earlier this summer, embarking on an unforgettable trip and cultural exchange in the towns of Ulan Uul and Rechinlkhumbe.

The journey involved three trips by plane and a 10-hour ride in an old Russian four-wheeled drive bus. The road was a two-track rut in the grassland, a sea of green and mountains that looked a lot like the Rocky Mountain Front, but went on what seemed like forever.

Only two rivers had bridges, the rest they drove across, the Schatzes explained.

The program isn’t a heavy-handed American-knows-best approach, Greg noted.

“We weren’t pushing American stuff on them,” he said.

It was a sharing of ideas. For example, the Mongolians showed them how they attach a pack to a horse and then Greg showed then how its done in Montana. An interpretor bridged the communication gap. The Schatzes also taught them Leave No Trace methods, such as using a fire blanket to avoid scarring the land from campfires.

The Mongolians were very interested, Greg noted. They treat the land and water with great respect. They don’t cut down live trees and use only dead wood to make their fires. Water is sacred, so they don’t fish much and they utilize 300 different medicinal plants.

“They ask for forgiveness before they kill a plant,” Greg said.

The Mongolian landscape in that region of the country looks a lot like the Flathead or Helena valleys, the Schatzes said. They spend the seasons moving their herds from grassland to grassland, going higher in the mountains in winter to graze the windswept slopes where temperatures drop to 60 below.

There are no fences. It’s all open range. The herders stay in gers — moveable round tents. But in the summertime, some of them simply slept on the ground — no tent, no pad, just on the grass, their arm under their heads.

All told, the Schatzes spent 14 days in the Darhad Valley, along with a medical team, soil experts, members of Montana’s Crow tribe and other staff from Bioregions.

They slept in a tent of their own. The Schatzes are no strangers to the backcountry. Greg grew up in South Dakota, Deborah in Minnesota and the two met in college. They decided to move out West after they were married and they’ve been here for 26 years. Greg is a homebuilder. Deborah is the office manager of a local real estate company. When they first moved here they joined the Backcountry Horsemen of the Flathead and they’ve been packing in the region’s wilderness ever since.

Greg estimates they’ve probably logged 25,000 miles in the backcountry. Deborah also trains horses, has worked with them since she was a kid. In Mongolia, horses aren’t just for riding. They milked the mares and fermented the milk into a drink. Their diet was mostly meat and dairy products.

Butter, salt and tea makes a wonderful brew, Deborah noted.

She’d like to go back to Mongolia and teach horse whisperer training techniques to the herders. It’s a more gentle approach to training and breaking horses. Mongolia is rife with horses — all the same breed the Schatzes said. They’re not very tall, but they are stout animals. Greg had a stirrup break and his feet nearly touched the ground.

Deborah would also like to show them how to grow vegetables — crops that would grow fast, like spinach, that would be mature by the time the herders had to leave the valley floor.

The Schatzes hope to return some day soon, share more ideas. There’s a sea of grass and mountains just like home out there.