Thrown from his horse on three occasions and repeatedly soaked while camping in a downpour, Chris Walker wondered whether the Mongol Derby was really for him.

The property developer and farmer from Gloucestershire was, at 55, the oldest of the competitors in this year’s 1,000km (620-mile) race across the steppe.

Despite the hardships of his eight-day journey, Walker was delighted to finish third in the annual contest, only missing out on first place after incurring a time penalty. The joint winners were Deirdre Griffith, an American, and Willemein Jooste, of South Africa, who passed Walker and his Irish riding companion Patrick Heffron in the final hours of the race.

The Mongol Derby, described by the organisers, the Adventurists, as the world’s toughest equestrian endurance race,