Islamabad Day 1 & Day 2

I have been having a nice holiday moving from Oman to Pakistan and enjoying a "break" at Kot Feth Khan. Lots of wonderful things seen and done including mad bull racing, lots of agriculture, and riding within inches of camels and the horses thinking its normal.

I have attached a short video of the maddest sport I have ever seen - Bull racing. Basically you yoke two fast bulls together, stand on a tea tray behind them and use firecrackers to make them run!!

Definitely 10/10 for a bonkers sport.... I'd quite like to have a go.....

On sunday morning we headed out at 5.30am to Islamabad airport to meet the English Team arriving from Heathrow.  They were treated to a VIP reception, bypassing the crowds and enjoying the private lounge with Prince Malik and the Sports Minister of Pakistan.

The team was whisked to the hotel to settle and relax after a red eye flight, the hotel is ideal with wifi, snooker table and fluffy pillows!

Inspecting local teas

After a short nap we headed to grounds to inspect the layout and try the horses. A local competition was running so we got to watch some good desi style and catch up with our friends from previous competitions. 

Raja working his horse

My next task was to sort out the horses, Prince Malik brought 5 for the team and we had to borrow a further 3. However I knew all of Prince Malik's horses, having previously pegged them earlier in the week. 

Stallions are well behaved and grooms tend to their feet! 

Jerry has a beautiful dapple grey, known as "Cobra", who is terribly sweet, but only started pegging this week! I choose Jerry as he is a lovely sympathetic rider and will hopefully give him lots of confidence.

A beautiful black horse turned up and was quite small, so looked ideal for Tina or Jacky, and Tina took him on. He turned out to be very swift and well behaved, Tina will find out his name later! 

Jacky was given Funny Boy, a bay who is straight forward and knows his job, she has been running as a pair with Cobra and Jerry to help them running on the track lined with advertising banners.

Adrian is on another bay of Prince Malik's, despite riding him I have yet to learn his name. He runs well, but can be tricky to mount, the grooms looked quite puzzled when I gave him a leg up! 

Michael got a bay horse, borrowed, so I couldn't help on his background, but he also proved speedy and a nice straight runner - name TBC!

Peter also got a borrowed horse, another bay - I asked Peter for details and the only this he said was "absolutely super", I am pretty sure this is not his name... again name TBC!

Pit (German Peter), was riding a bay of Prince Malik's, when I asked his name his name was "No idea". Today he swapped onto a pony, who was extremely vocal ! 

Dawn our coach / manager / mother / cat herder / judge is now completely official and has been presenting the prizes to the local teams, we hope to see her tomorrow in the newspaper. There is one newspaper called Dawn, so we will keep an eye out for Dawn in Dawn!!

There is one huge problem with being here, its the food, we get offered too much and it is too tasty, breeches are getting rather tight! 

Peter with "bodyguards"

On the first night we went out to see a friend we meet at West Tofts in the UK and hosted us. Unfortunately we had an eventful journey, with a sheared drive shaft on the Islamabad highway. Help was faster than the AA and we were soon transferred to new cars - we saw the truck already repaired today! 

The competition has been delayed by a day as a famous tentpegger unfortunately had a heart attack at the start of a team run at another event and the local teams wanted to attend the funeral, so we cleared the day to allow them to finish to both complete their competition and attend the funeral. 

So we have had a lazy day, watching good desi style in the morning and then having an amazing lunch at the Islamabad Club, home of the elite riding school, pool, golf course and squash courts. Once again I was caught out with eating far too much good food, as everything was delicious. 

Shopping was next on the agenda, we had previously sent Shadar Prince Malik's chauffeur out to change money so we were all ready to shop. Scarves were the main target and we went to a shop to try and haggle hard, I'm not entirely sure we all managed a good deal, but we certainly have some very nice purchases. 

Dinner tonight was "in town", although, this actually meant and a one hour drive to the top of a mountain, seriously the top of a mountain, tracks were very narrow and we had to pass camels, and jackals on hair pin bends.

The view however, was amazing, the whole of Islamabad spread out in front of us in a beautiful display of lights. Food once again was amazing with fresh roasted lamb, amazing salads, fish and rice. I am beginning to feel a bit sorry for my horse and clearly need to either eat less or do more exercise.

I am now in no.32 being talked into blogging by fellow tentpeggers wanting to know what is going on, so I will keep the blog up to date!!

Tomorrow is the first day of competition and I have sent the guys on a mission to find out their horses names!!