The British have landed

So travelling via PIA is always a bit of an experience, on the plus side they do great food, but on the negative side the in flight entertainment didn't work and a full flight means lots of disturbance.

The team all slept well bar myself, as I never sleep well on planes. The team missed the excitement of someone being caught smoking in the toilets and very agitated flight attendants, so I had a bit of a disturbed flight whilst everyone slept.

The landing was bit of a sideways skid in Lahore, but was then VIP'd through passport control and soon found our bags and were on the way to Faisalabad. I didn't see much of the countryside, as I cannot sleep on planes, but cars are no problem. 

We were meet on arrival at the University by Prince Malik and Dr Farooq and had a warm reunion with our friends. We are staying at the same guest house as last year, and we are in the same rooms. This is great as it means being in close proximity to the wifi router, so happy Jenna! 

Post arrival was chilling in the sunshine, which is bit of a novelty as we haven't seen it for so long in the UK!!

We are all looking very much a team with the matching gilets kindly provided by International Racehorse Transport (IRT) who are specialists in flying horses around the world.

Weather here is a bit chilly (all relative), hence the gilets,  but still a huge improvement on the weather back home.

After a leisurely lunch we headed to the ground, which is a bit further in than last year and the run is an excellent length and wide. Michael estimates the track is 300m+ in length.

We were able to ride some horses for a practice to try and get our eye in, which was a huge help as we haven't been able to train at speed due to ground conditions in the UK. 

I was on a little fiery chestnut, who was strong, but in a nice kind fulmer bit. He was very well behaved and we went straight into rings and peg and were able to take advantage of coaching by Norman Mostert from South Africa who was there to coach Pakistan. The coaching was really useful for me as Norman has an eagle eye for common faults! 

Everyone had good fast horses with the majority coming from the Army - Tina is in the lead on the numbers of horses ridden (2) so far, due to the first one having steering issues especially at the gallows. Michael was on a fast grey, Adrian on a lovely bay with lots of pompoms and bling tack, and Jacky on speedy chestnut.

On first lance run we were having issues as the pegs were brown on a brown track, so we were struggling to see the pegs. However the resourceful ground crew found crisp and sweet packets to put on the front of the date palm pegs to make them more visible in the absence of having any chalk to hand!!

As you can see our shirts were matching for practice with polo shirts kindly donated by McTimoney Chiropractic Association, which is Tina's professional governing body as she is a human and animal McTimoney Chiropractor (note to readers, this doesn't seem to include team massage.... hint hint Tina??)

The session was good and despite little sleep we are now all pumped with adrenaline!!