Islamabad Day 3

Peter T on Prince

Today we had a leisurely breakfast and then headed off to the ground

All the horses were ready and tacked up, but Michael had a change of horse onto another speedy pony.

Adrian on "No Name"

Jacky on Funny Boy and Jerry on Cobra

I was also told to get of the lovely Grey Cloud and swap onto something quieter, actually this was a good think as due to his high head carriage you have to lean out to see the pegs!

Michael on "Young Boy"

Tina on "Pompidoo"

The competition began with individual lance, we were pegging on cardboard pegs and the first two rounds were on 6cm pegs, which were then turned sideways for the 3rd, 5th and 6th round.

I wasn't on top form and missed 2 of the 1" pegs, however the two Peters (Kramer and Turland) battled it out for silver and bronze. Michael on a mixture of two ponies snuck off with the gold! We didn't want to overrun the horses so after one equal run off, they decided the winner on the toss of the coin .... however neither has let on who won ... Turland did have quite a big grin though.... TBC

Half section lance followed, Jacky ran with Jerry, Tina ran with Adrian, Peter and Peter and Michael and myself. We swapped from cardboard to date palm pegs, which are much nicer to carry than cardboard.
All horses ran well, Pakistan clinched the gold, with England Eagles in Silver. The German Giants were on level pegging, so a coin was again used and Michael and myself lost the toss to the two Peters for Bronze.

Lunch was at the grounds and we had pizza or chicken and rice, toilet situation is a bit dicey for the ladies, gents appear to wander lake-wards....

So we did research on the horses names, Tina is riding Pompidoo

Peter Turland is on Prince

Adrian failed in his task so we have named his horse "No Name" - to be fair I have tried this horse at Kot Feth Khan and once again I did not have a good name for him!

Rings followed lunch, Cobra the young horse Jerry has been riding wouldn't run alone, so he was swapped onto a new horse and then made to run first! Obviously this worked and he had a full house.
We did one run, and then only the highest scorers ran again.

Jerry - Movember, with his mount Hefty Girl....

I managed a full house, and was on level pegging with Jerry, luck was with me and I managed the same again, the others did well, but I was unbeatable with two full houses.

After this we went to the Islamabad Club to visit the riding centre and inspect the horses and look at the grounds which included a massive outdoor arena. All the horses looked in fantastic condition and the surroundings were beautiful. We saw young children having lessons on horses, I haven't seen a pony in Pakistan, so I think they have to learn on horses.

Back to the hotel for a quick shower before heading out for dinner with our friend Omer Durrani

Dawn with one turtle dove

We had the most amazing dinner with the most wonderful food and also received amazing gifts from our Afghan friend friend Azam Effendi

Relaxing

I can honestly say team moral is very high and we are having the most amazing time !!