To celebrate International Women's Day, we jumped at the opportunity to speak with Lieutenant Grace Neuhaus about her military career and recent experience racing the Mongol Derby! We are so excited to share Grace’s adventures and achievements, and her uplifting insight into working hard and giving things a go!
Please briefly explain your military background:
I'm from a military family, with two (formerly) serving parents - yet joining defence for a career was never really on my radar. I was a full-time University student studying a Bachelor of International Relations / Bachelor of French Studies (which I am now studying online in my spare time). My original intention was to serve part time while studying to earn a bit of money, so I enlisted in January 2021 as an Army Reserve Officer Cadet, but I quickly found that I was spending more time at work than studying! I worked through my commissioning courses and completed the Reserve program in December 2022 (which was then called the AROCC), and then posted to 3rd/9th Light Horse (South Australian Mounted Rifles). This coincided with the merge under 1st Armoured Regiment, so I was offered the chance to pause my university studies and spend 12 months on Continuous Full Time Service (CFTS) with C-Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment.
I absolutely loved full time life and after about five months of CFTS, I accepted an offer to transfer to SERCAT 7 - I completed the full-time Regimental Officers Basic Course (ROBC) this year and haven’t looked back.
What inspired you to join defence?
My parents - growing up around all their stories, seeing how their service had shaped them as people and seeing the lifelong friendships they had fostered made me want to experience that community for myself. Also, the appeal of a challenge!
What do you enjoy about Army?
I love my job, the people I get to work alongside every day and the variety of our work. I don’t know many other professions where you get such diverse roles and responsibilities. From barracks to field, to some of the random tasks and opportunities that pop-up, no two weeks look the same - it's awesome!
What has been your greatest challenge about being a female in Armoured corps?
I think the biggest challenges have not come from how others perceive me, or my gender, but how I perceive myself. The hardest part is often the internal pressure I put on myself to meet a standard that feels higher simply because I’m a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field. I’ve learned that this self-imposed pressure is something I have to manage carefully. The need to show I belong and can perform at the same level as my male counterparts has sometimes pushed me beyond my limits, but it's also been a driver for growth and resilience. Over time, I’ve come to realise that being my own toughest critic can be both motivating and exhausting, and finding a balance between striving for excellence and practicing self-compassion is essential.
At the end of the day however, all you ask of anyone is to judge you on who you are as a person, and your ability to do the job at hand - not your gender, age, background etc, and I feel this does ring particularly true in defence. As long as you’re competent, confident and a good person, you can earn peoples respect, regardless of who you are or how you look.
I also draw from the fact that there are so many incredible women who have come before me and are more than willing to share their experiences and mentorship.
What advice would you give to other females who are thinking about enlistment?
My advice would be to find a mentor - male or female - who you look up to and lean into them as a sounding board whenever you’re doubting yourself. Your networks and connections will always be your strongest asset - so having people on hand you can reach out to for help or even just a sanity check is absolutely invaluable. You shouldn’t view diversity as a challenge nor a barrier - it's just a different set of inherent strengths that you can bring to the table. I don’t think women should be singled out, or put on a pedestal, any more than anyone else - ultimately, the goal should be to normalize gender diversity in all military roles, so that that excellence and work ethic can be recognised regardless of gender.
What is the Mongol Derby?
The Mongol Derby is the worlds ‘longest and toughest’ horse race. It's a 1000km endurance race across the Mongolian Steppe on semi-feral native horses.
How did the race work?
The race was broken down into a series of ‘horse stations’ every 20-40km. After successfully navigating to each station, we would have to ‘vet-out’ our horses, ensuring they were fit, sound and their heart rates were below a certain threshold. (This part was particularly stressful, as if they weren’t below 56bpm within 30mins of arrival, you’d face a 2-hour ‘vet-penalty’, which could, and often did, shape the race). At each station, we would fill up our water, grab something quick to eat, check our maps and get ready to ride out again. Depending on who you were riding with and how hard you were pushing - we could be in and out in under 10 minutes.
Each day we’d have a riding ‘window’ from 7am to 7pm. If you hadn’t made it into the next station by curfew you’d have to find somewhere to camp out. With very limited camping equipment on us (we were only allowed to carry 5kg of gear, so most people only had their sleeping bags and a few extra layers), you would often be looking for local families to stay with. The nomadic culture on the Steppe is rich in hospitality, often we were able to walk up to the Gers (tent-houses) of local families who would take us in, no questions asked - despite not sharing a word of common language.
Although the race was based on individual effort, we had an unspoken pact among the riders - that if you came across someone on the Steppe you’d ride together until someone had to be left behind (slow horse, vet penalty, etc). As a result, I got to ride with so many amazing people from all kinds of backgrounds - sometimes you’d forget you were even racing.
What horses did you ride?
The horses all come from the local community - and are ‘borrowed’ from the herding families for the race. The way in which Mongolian people manage their herds is so vastly different to anything I’ve experienced. Horses are the lynchpin of nomadic life, used for racing, or herding, and horses that are not required for work are turned back out to the Steppe to live wild with the herd.
Part of the challenge was getting to understand the horse you were riding, and then at each ‘horse station’ we would check the horses and quickly refresh ourselves, then draw our next horse allocation out of a hat! As a result of the random ‘horse lotto’, you never really knew what type of horse you were getting on for the next leg of the race - an experienced (but slow) herding horse that would get you to the next stop in one piece, a ‘Nadam’ (race) horse that would take off with you for the first 10km and then completely run out of steam, or something more-or-less completely wild – it really was pot luck!
Race highlights:
The first night particularly stands out to me - after a hectic start to the morning (50 horses at the start-line taking off at once and galloping in every-which direction, lots of thrills and spills!), I ended the day riding with one of the British Reed brothers - Gus. We both had slow horses and had lost the larger group we were trying to keep up with and got caught out just before sunset. Not expecting to have to camp so early on, we nervously went up to the nearest Ger we could see and in a combination of broken Mongolian and sign language managed to explain our situation. The family took us in instantly, showing us how to hobble our horses, offering us food and Airag (traditional fermented mares milk) and even erecting a tent for us to sleep in outside. We spent the evening grazing the horses by a river at sunset and challenging their kids to wrestling matches in the twilight (neither of us performing particularly well). It was a bit nerve wracking at first, and definitely a culture shock - but an awesome way to start our adventure on the Steppe.
Crossing the finish line with the two Josh’s on day 9 was absolutely magical. We set out that morning all knowing that we were more-or-less uncatchable and guaranteed a podium place. We had all drawn the best horses and rode the whole morning just chatting and almost forgetting we were racing at all. The three of us had absolutely nothing in common, other than our love for horses and passion for this race, but felt like we could work together seamlessly and agreed to share the win and cross the finish line side-by-side.
There were also lots of little moments - certain legs of the race which were absolutely breathtaking, wholesome moments shared with locals, vets, fellow competitors, catching up on all the drama at night at the horse stations, and some of the amazing (and not so…) horses we got to ride.
Race low lights:
There was one night I rode out on my own just before curfew, hoping to find a family to stay with - but no such luck. I ended up in the only shelter I could find - an abandoned goat shed, festering carcasses and all. With no food other than some chips and water that one of the kind vets bought around to me later - it was a pretty grim night.
Another low point was around day 7 or 8 - Josh and I knew we were fairly competitive by this point, and ambitiously set out to complete 4 full legs that day. We were pushing really hard all day, on what was one of the warmest of the race. By the end of the day, we were both dehydrated, near-delirious, and incredibly sore and miserable - it was an absolute low point! We rode in the final stop for that day only 20 mins before the curfew and were pretty wrecked. That night however, we had caught Texan Josh Edwards, who to this point had been up the front with the race leaders, but was set-back with a string of bad luck. It actually turned into quite a beautiful moment as the three of us - all from such diverse walks of life - formed our little alliance that would carry us through to the finish line.
What inspired you to race the Mongol Derby?
I have been lucky to have been around horses most of my life, and the derby was always one of those things you hear about other people doing, but never consider a possibility. I was travelling with a few friends when it came up in conversation, and when they asked why I hadn’t done the derby yet, I couldn’t think of a single reason - so I put my application in the next day.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Instead of resisting a ‘wrong turn’, welcome it. Embrace the chaos - chase it even - say yes to anything and everything you can, because the worst experiences always make the best stories.
How would your friends describe you in 3 words?
Dedicated, humble, unique.
What skills have you learned in Army that help you in everyday life?
Probably too many to count!
Time management and task prioritisation - as a chronic perfectionist, I've had to learn (often the hard way) that it is impossible to do everything, all the time. Sometimes things will slip through the cracks, and it’s often a matter of learning which things are ok to let go, and where you need to focus the bulk of your efforts.
The importance of relationship building - learning how to work effectively with people from different backgrounds, differing personalities, command styles etc. This skill comes in handy daily, working with such a diverse range of soldiers and officers.
Resilience - emotional, physical and professional.
What adventures are next for Grace Neuhaus?
My next big adventure - hopefully the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Spain next December, which I unexpectedly qualified for in Melbourne a few months ago!
Interviewed by Deb Herring
Committee Member
The Top Ender Magazine
Photo: All images of Grace Neuhaus with thanks to @The Equestrianists and photographer ©Kathy Gabriel